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Indian Cinema, as a term, is misleading in the singular, it is to mistake it for a search of a singular, rather than exploring the multitudes that exist in the diversity of the 1.3 billion people. The question is of increased importance today, with increased vehemence since 2014, the imposition of a 'singular' national culture, ema- nating from a very constricted reading of nation and its culture. Every year we have remarkable films made in various Indian languages. They are

As we welcomed the new year, the city experienced a respite from the heat, fleeting, as the heat seems to be back, the world was shaken by the killing of Iranian General Suleimani - an imminent call to destruction, students were attacked by masked goons at JNU, Delhi and we have witnessed young people and women on the streets across India - a Civil Disobedience in the making. As we learn and try to understand the issues, we are wracked by anxieties of lack of public response

The effort in this edition, as has been before, is to showcase contemporary Indian Cinema - films that are primarily made outside the mainstream, in cities and small towns that are non-traditional filmmaking sites, those which in a broader sense represent the diversity of India, there is a persistent focus on debutant filmmakers and narratives that challenge the existing social order, issues of caste, gender, class, and ecology. 2021 was the birth centenary of Satyajit Ray, m

With increased polarisation and a focus on partisan film making, it is a surprise that independent films are being made although the ecosystem is under increased strain. The effort in this edition is to look at films touching on issues from across the sub-continent. The screenings are a mix of interesting debuts and experienced film makers working in the regional film industry, some of them nudging the space to become pandyaa films. The challenges of pandyaa films can be expl

The Film Society team has put together a retrospective of Girish Kasaravalli, a selection of four restored classics in collaboration with the Film Heritage Foundation, a collection of shorts and contemporary feature films that have been screened and discussed around the world. The retrospective emerged after conversations with Girish about prints of films available with him. He did not have rights to all of his films, so we had to start with what was accessible. We managed to

L ittle Boy and Fat Man , atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, and Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. Immediate deaths numbered between 2,10,000 to 2,80,000, mainly civilians, with many suffering from radiation sickness, chronic illnesses, and trauma for decades. The hibakusha (survivors) carried scars that were both physical and psychological. Nuclear Radiation contaminated soil and water, lingering in unmeasurable ways in the atmosphere. For decades, the impact o

Directed by Philippe Diaz 2008 | 104 min E nd of Poverty is a documentary on the neoliberal logic of political economy that currently pervades the world. The film aptly builds up one’s understanding of the global apparatus that underpins modern-day capitalism by following a nuanced meditation on land, labour and socio-political structures. Interlaced throughout this historical evolution of neoliberal capitalism, we explore the focal points of shifting geopolitics that dictate

Dir. by- Mark Achbar & Jennifer Abbot 2003| 165 mins T he Corporation emerged as a legal 'person' in the mid-1800s. With a 'personality' driven solely by self-interest, the corporation rose to prominence throughout the course of the following century. The Corporation is a 165-min long documentary based on Joel Bakan’s book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power that explores the nature and the exponential rise of corporations in the modern world and de

W e began with The End of Poverty (Philippe Diaz, 2008), which takes us back to 1492 to ground the U.S. economic order in its imperialist origins. By linking conquest, colonialism and slavery to modern poverty, the film reminds us that wealth is always political — first through land and empire, later through markets and capital. This history feels topical, when the richest people in the U.S. (and by extension the world) are not only shaping markets but installing their own k