[Sarai Newsletter]March 02

[dak at sarai.net]

Table of Contents

Reader Launch @ Sarai
Talks @Sarai
Films @Sarai
Open Source/ Free Software Research
---------------------------------


I. Reader Launch @ Sarai


Sarai Reader 02 "Cities of Everyday Lives" was launched on February 
27th. Sarai was a buzz of activity with friends, associates and new 
acquaintances streaming in through the day. 

Writers, activists, medical professionals, media practioners and 
concerned citizens gathered together at the Sarai Interface Zone in 
the afternoon to talk on their experience of Delhi in the year gone 
by. Key speakers included Purushottam Agarwal, Manglesh Dabral, Nishit 
Saran, Sumit Ray & Dilip Simeon.  The session, 
entitled This Year/ This City, borrowed its name from the last section 
in Sarai Reader 02 .

The focus shifted to the seminar room by the evening where Ashis Nandy 
talked on "The City of the Mind". For those not present the lecture 
was streamed live on the internet. It will also be available as audio 
files soon on the Sarai website.

Sarai Reader 02 "Cities of Everyday Lives" is available in hardcover & 
paperback editions. For more information log onto 
www.sarai.net/journal/reader2.html or write in to dak at sarai.net




II. Talks @ Sarai

All talks will take place in the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of 
Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi - 110054.

1.  Media Theorists Series* 
     March 7, Thursday,  4:00 pm
Networks & Borders: Politics of Migration & Communication
Florian Schneider
Film Maker & New Media Activist

*This is in collaboration with the Society for Old & New Media, 
Amsterdam


2.  March 13, Wednesday, 3:30 pm
     Reading the Demolition: Urban Transformation in New Delhi
 Diya Mehra
 Researcher, University of Texas, Austin


3.  March 14, Thursday, 3:30 pm
     What's a Community? The Whitechapel Art Gallery & its 
multi-ethnic                                                 
      audience in the 1990s 
     Catherine Lampert
     Contemporary Art Historian 


4.  March 18, Monday, 3:30 pm
     Shehar Aur Sapna: Speculating on the City
     Ashish Rajadhyaksha
     Film Theorist
 

5.  March 22, Friday, 4:30 pm
     Working Visions: The Imprint of Labour in Photography
     Ravi Agarwal
     Photographer & Environmentalist
 

     


III. Films @Sarai

All screenings are on Fridays, at 4:30 pm, in the Seminar Room, unless 
otherwise mentioned. Screenings will be followed by discussions at the 
Interface Zone. The films are listed in the order of screening.


1.  March 1, 4:30 pm
Freedom, 58 min
Dir. Amar Kanwar

"Freedom" is a documentary film about nature and captivity, about 
working people resisting an onslaught on their livelihoods, about 
democracy, profit and the sound of the rain. 

The film documents and presents insights into many different  peoples 
struggles in India from the British colonial empire to the 
globalisation of today, from the anti mining tribal resistance in 
Kashipur and Gandhmardhan in Orissa, the mass movements in Chattisgarh 
to the coastal communities in their struggle against big ports and 
industrial parks in Kutch and Umbergaon.  

"Freedom" was filmed on a DV camera and shot mainly in Assam, Bihar, 
Orissa, Chattisgarh, Gujarat and Delhi.



2.  March 8, 4:30 pm
Dahan (The Burning)
     Dir. Rituparno Ghosh

The film, based on an award winning novel by Suchitra Bhattacharya, is 
about two women's search for justice in a man's world. When the 
protagonist is saved from attempted rape by another woman, the 
subsequent battle within the family, and outside, leads them both to 
question the fragile nature of their relationships with the men they 
love. It is a film that raises questions of liberation, of rebellion, 
of compromises. And ultimately of the personal choices women have to 
make. Says Ghosh, in one of his interviews, "it was mainly the spirit 
of female bonding that attracted me to the story."

Dahan bagged for its leading ladies, Indrani Haldar and Rituparna 
Sengupta, the National Award for Best Actress, split for the first 
time ever, between two artistes.



3.March 15, 4:00 pm
Kashmir Film Series 
    A  set of 3 documentaries made on Kashmir:      

i.    Pather Chujaeri (The Play is on...)
      Dir. Pankaj Rishi Kumar


 How does art survive in a regime of fear? "Pather Chujaeri" follows 
two theatre groups as they  prepare for public performances of the 
traditional pather form of  satire, a rare  phenomenon  today. For the 
bhands, who daily witness the  erosion  of their way of life, each 
performance represents  both  a change as well as a repetition of the 
 same brutal fact: that they are not free to share their 
 revolutionary spirit.

Pankaj Rishi Kumar found an illiterate  community that has sustained a 
centuries-old tradition  in  the face of debilitating social and 
cultural  changes.  Although perenially intimidated by the 
 corruption,  violence and intolerance that prevail in Kashmir,  the 
 bhands continue to affirm a commitment to their  theatre, to the 
critical potential of its form  and  the  liberating joys of 
performance. Faith in  Sufism has, however, tempered their enthusiam 
for satire and they identify  with the collective voices of Kashmir's 
freedom.


ii.    Tell them, the tree they had planted has now grown
      Dir. Ajay Raina

 "Tell them..." is an account of Raina's return to Kashmir after 12 
years - an account that he calls a "journey of fear" - and his 
association with the people and places in Srinagar, where he spent his 
childhood. 

Through the film Raina tries to grapple with the present situation in 
Kashmir, with how Kashmiris - both "Us" and "Them" - view the 
situation. It is an inquiry into the state of helplessness, confusion 
and gloomy uncertainty that Kashmiris feel about the future of their 
'cursed' land whose legendary beauty has been fetishised. 
This film has won the Best Documentary Video Prize (Golden Conch) at 
the just concluded Mumbai International Festival of Documentary and 
Short Films.


iii.  Ku'near
      Dir. Abir Bazaz


The Kashmiri word Ku'near has multiple meanings, particularly Onenesss 
and Solitude. Ku'near is a film on Kashmiri language as the language 
of solitude and the language of Kashmir's struggle for 'azaadi'. 

Nearly 95% Kashmiris cannot read or write Kashmiri. It is hardly 
surprising that Kashmiri writing - Sufi or Saivite - is inaccessible 
to most Kashmiris. Ku'near uses the state of the Kashmiri language to 
encounter the unconscious of the 'azaadi' struggle in Kashmir...And 
Ku'near discovers the beginning of an ethical solution to what is 
proclaimed as the Kashmir problem”in the reconciliation of Kashmiri 
Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims.



IV.  Open Source/ Free Software Research

Frederick Noronha, a print media fellow of Sarai, has put together 
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com 
This page is an attempt at mapping some of the Indian contributions to 
the world of Open Source/ Free Software. There's a lot happening, 
which has not got  the attention it deserves. Check it out. It is 
meant to be a work-in-progress report. Frederick
would be grateful for any pointers which you could send to 
fred at bytesforall.org


And if you have any comments on the newsletter, or wish to make 
suggestions, or simply get in touch with Sarai do write in.


Until next month, 

Ranita.
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi - 110054.
Tel: 3960040, 3951190
Fax: 3928391, 3943450
email: dak at sarai.net
www.sarai.net

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