The three-day IIHS film festival ‘Urban Lens: A Festival of Films and the City’ is an attempt at looking how the ‘city’ has been seen in non-fiction films, and documentary filmmakers’ engagement with it over time . Even though the curated films that are part of the festival happen to be vastly different from each other, the underlying leitmotif is an effort to articulate the urban experience, either directly or tangentially. Each non-fiction film that is part of this festival will explore different facets of what the city produces – whether political, social, economic or cultural.
The films deal with wide-ranging concerns: from what evictions do to people, how women negotiate public spaces in a city, the politics of public toilets, to the culture productions that small and big urban centres give rise to ‘Urban Lens: A Festival of Films and the City’ seeks to bring together, as part of the same platform, the many voices that exist around the idea of the city in non-fiction films.
Bringing together a variety of non-fiction films across formal, historical, stylistic and political affiliations under a range of themes, the festival will engage with the proposition that non-fiction films can be a site from which newer provocations about the ‘urban’ can arise. The panel discussions “The City in Non-Fiction” and “Codes of Non-Fiction” held on both days of the festival will add to the growing conversation on how Indian documentary filmmakers have engaged with the idea of the city in their own practice and have contributed to discussions around the idea of the city as a real and imagined space.
Festival Schedule
Day 1 – 26 April, 2013
2.00 pm – 2.15 pm
Have You Dreamt Cinema
Hansa Thapliyal; 15 mins/English subtitles
2.15 pm – 2.30 pm
Hansa Thapliyal in conversation with Iram Ghufran
2.40 pm – 3.15 pm
Bharatmata Ki Jai
Avadhoot Khanolkar, Arpita Chakraborty, Amol Ranjan and Shweta Radhakrishnan (TISS); 28 Mins.
3.15 pm – 3.30 pm
Discussion with filmmakers
3.30 pm – 4.45 pm
Bombay Our City
Anand Patwardhan; 75 mins/English subtitles
4.45 pm – 5.05 pm
Anand Patwardhan in conversation with Gautam Bhan
5.05 pm – 5.15 pm
New (Improved) Delhi
Vani Subramanian 6 mins/English subtitles
5.15 pm – 5.25 pm
The Dharmambudhi Tank Project 2011, Prerna Bishnoi & Pooja Gupta (Shrishti School of Design)
5.25 pm – 5.40 pm
Discussion with filmmaker/s
5.40 pm – 6.00 pm
Tea
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm
Panel discussion “The City in Non-Fiction” (Panelists: Sameera Jain, Anand Patwardhan, Gautam Sonti – moderated by Veena Hariharan)
Day 2 – 27 April, 2013
10.00 am – 11.00 am
Naata
Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar; 45 mins/English subtitles
11.00 am – 11.40 am
Tales from Planet Kolkata
Ruchir Joshi; English subtitles
11.40 am – 12.10 pm
Tea Break
12.10 pm – 1.10 pm
India 67, S. Sukhdev
1.10 pm – 2.30 pm
Lunch
2.30 pm – 2.50 pm
RHINOS Sindhu Thirumalaiswamy and Prerna Bishnoi 2011 (Shrishti School of Design)
2.50 pm – 3.00 pm
Discussion with filmmaker/s
3.00 pm – 3.50 pm
Q2P
Paromita Vohra; 54 mins/ English subtitles
4.00 pm – 5.00 pm
Mera Apna Shehar
Sameera Jain; 56 mins/English subtitles
5.00 pm – 5.30 pm
Sameera Jain in conversation with Kavita Wankhade
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm
Break
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm
Panel Discussion “Codes of Non-Fiction” (Panelists: Avijit Mukul Kishore, Iram Ghufran, Namita Aavriti – moderated by Veena Hariharan)
Day 3 – 28 April, 2013
10.00 am – 10.30 am
Breakin’ Mumbai, 2012
Aakriti Kohli, Sandeep Kumar Singh, Siam Dousel and Shweta Ghosh (TISS); 33 mins
10.30 am – 10.45 am
Discussion with filmmakers by Raju Hittalamani
10.45 am – 11.15 am
Malegaon Times
Amit Mahanti and Ruchika Negi 27:30 mins/English subtitles
11.15 am – 11.35 am
Amit Mahanti in conversation with Iram Ghufran
11.15 am – 11.50 am
Tea
11.50 am – 1.05 pm
When Shankar Nag Comes Asking
Sushma Veerappa 67 mins/English subtitles
1.05 pm – 1.30 pm
Sushma Veerappa in conversation with Aparna Sanyal
1.30 pm – 2.30 pm
Lunch
2.30 pm – 3.00 pm
That Elephant, from the Bridge-Abhilash V
3.00 pm – 4.10 pm
Have You Seen the Arana
Sundanda Bhat; 73 mins, English subtitles
4.10 pm – 4.30 pm
Sunanda Bhat in conversation with Kavita Wankhade
4.30 pm – 5.00 pm
Tea
5.00 pm – 5.30 pm
Vertical City
Avijit Mukul Kishore; 34 mins/English subtitles
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm
Avijit Mukul Kishore in conversation with Gautam Bhan
More information here-
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