The Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communications, University of Hyderabad in collaboration with Magic Lantern Foundation hosted the Persistence Resistance @ Hyderabad, a festival of contemprary political films, as part of the SN School of Arts & Communication’s inaugural cultural festival. The cultural festival was organised between 13 to 19 March 2010 at the SN School premises, while the Persistence Resistance festival was held on 16 and 17 March 2010.
19 out of the 20 films screened at the festival were curated from the Persistence Resistance film festival that is an annual event of Magic Lantern Foundation.
Filmmakers Paromita Vohra, Gargi Sen, Kavita Joshi, and Sourav Sarangi attended the festival and interacted with the audience, which mainly comprised students, academics and local audience from Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
Schedule
C. V. Raman Auditorium, Science Complex |
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16-Mar-2010 | |||||
Time | Film & Programme | Director | Country | Duration (min) | Synopsis |
10:00 | Inauguration by the Pro-Vice Chancellor | ||||
10:30 | Tales From the Margins | Kavita Joshi | India | 23 | The grim human rights situation in Manipur and the extraordinary protests by its womenfolk for justice and peace. |
Interaction with the filmmaker | |||||
11:15 | Tea | ||||
11:30 | Manipur Song | Pankaj Butalia | India | 60 | A look at the consequences of violence on daily life in Manipur. |
12:30 | Arzoo | Shashi Ghosh Gupta | India | 26 | The journey of an ordinary young woman from Ahmedabad, on the path of self-discovery and reconciliation, post Gujarat communal riots of 2002. |
13:00 | Lunch Break | ||||
14:00 | Bishar Blues | Amitabh Chakraborty | India | 79 | A journey to understand ÔMarfatÕ through encounters with various Fakirs and their songs. |
15:20 | Tea | ||||
15:30 | Word Within the Word | Rajula Shah | India | 74 | The Òwretched of the earthÓ hold fast the spirit of Bhakti, the Word resonating in and with their lives. As they sing the poetry of Kabir and Gorakhnath they embody, far beyond the scope of any intellectual resolve, a refusal to die, a bid to seize eternity from historic annihilation. |
Break | |||||
18:00 | The Advocate | Deepa Dhanraj | India | 126 | The name of K.G. Kannabiran is synonymous with the founding of the human rights and civil liberties movement in India. The film as part biography and partly history of the times attempts to document the remarkable contribution of Mr Kannabiran in challenging the Indian State to uphold the rule of law in institutions of governance, justice and political praxis. |
Interaction with Kalpana Kannabiran | |||||
17-Mar-2010 | |||||
10:00 | Bilal | Sourav Sarangi | India | 88 | The story of a little boy Bilal, growing up with blind parents. |
11:45 | Tea | ||||
12:00 | I'm the very beautiful | Shyamal Karmakar | India | 65 | A singer in a bar, a man with a camera, their complicated yet simple relationship. |
13:00 | Lunch Break | ||||
14:00 | Rewind | Atul Taishete | India | 9 | One likely heist Ð two untamed bullets Ð three good friends. |
14:10 | Setu | Shyamal & Sanghamitra Karmakar | India | 9 | Encroachment of oneÕs space É |
14:20 | Morality TV and the Loving Jehad | Paromita Vohra | India | 26 | In the winter of 2005 Indians switched on their TV sets to watch yet another Òbreaking newsÓ story, but one which shocked them. In the town of Meerut, police officers, mostly women, swooped down on lovers in a park and began to beat them up. |
15:10 | Tea | ||||
15:30 | Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears | Simon Chambers | UK | 62 | Two feisty and rebellious London Bangladeshi sisters go Òback homeÓ against their will for arranged marriages. |
16:35 | ML 05 B 6055 | Ruchika Negi, Amit Mahanti & Subhashim Goswami | India | 38 | A biographical portrait of bus that is the lifeline between villages of East- Khasi hills and the city of Shillong in Meghalaya. |
Seminar Hall, Social Sciences |
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16-Mar-2010 | |||||
Time | Film & Programme | Director | Country | Duration (min) | Synopsis |
11:30 | Roshan Bayan | Amar Kanwar | India | 113 | A reflection upon a history of conflict in the Indian subcontinent through experiences of sexual violence. |
13:10 | Lunch Break | ||||
14:00 | Death Life Etc. | Arghya Basu | India | 81 | A chronicle of the passage of seasons over scattered habitations tucked amidst Himalayan frontiers between India and Tibet, mapped by historic facts and fantastic tales. |
15:15 | Tea | ||||
15:30 | Mahua Memoirs | Vinod Raja | India | 82 | When a nation begins to grow rapidly at over 9 percent, what does this mean for 8 percent of people, the indigenous, who remain unseen and unheard? |
17-Mar-2010 | |||||
12:00 | My village is Theatre, My name is Habib | Sanjay Maharishi & Sudhanva Deshpande | India | 73 | A film about IndiaÕs preeminent theatre director, Habib Tanvir and the rural actors of his professional company, Naya Theatre. |
13:15 | Lunch Break | ||||
14:00 | Goddesses | Leena Manimekalai | India | 45 | Notes from the lives of three extraordinary women: a graveyard worker, a funeral singer, a fisher woman. |
15:00 | Milind Soman Made Me Gay | Harjant Gill | USA | 27 | 3 gay South Asian men living in the diaspora: their stories and memories winding in and out of notions of desire and prejudice, ÔhomeÕ and ÔbelongingÕ. |
15:30 | Tea | ||||
15:45 | Hope Dies Last in War | Supriyo Sen | India | 77 | 54 prisoners of the Indo-Pak war never came home. As their families still wait, they walk the tragic tightrope between hope and despair. |