Mai Masri (Filmmaker, Lebanon) in conversation with Subasri Krishnan 

8th March, 2.00pm – 3.00pm 

C.D Deshmukh Auditorium, IIC, New Delhi

For Registered Delegates

Mai Masri has directed and produced several award-winning films that provide a fine-grained view of women’s and children’s lives in situations marked by conflict, uncertainty, and crisis, including Children of Fire (1990) and Children of Shatila (1998). Masri will speak about her work as a testament to resilience, detailing her documentary ventures in challenging circumstances, including curfew periods.

Subasri Krishnan: is a filmmaker and leads the Media Lab at the Indian Institute for Human Settlement (IIHS), an educational institution that works around urban issues. Subasri’s films are on various themes concerning contemporary politics. Her award-winning films include This or That Particular Person. Subasri has worked extensively in Assam. Her other films include What the Fields Remember ; Sikhirni Mwsanai (Dance of the Butterfly) her forthcoming film is Shadow Lines based in contemporary Assam.

Shin Su-won (Filmmaker, S.Korea) in conversation with Bina Paul 

8th March, 8.15 pm to 9.00 pm

C.D Deshmukh Auditorium, IIC, New Delhi

For Registered Delegates

SHIN Su-won started her filmmaking career later than most. She was a school teacher and mid-career decided to study filmmaking. Her first feature Passerby #3 (2010) won the Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film award at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival. Her short film Circle Line (2012) won the Canal+ Prize in 65th Cannes Critics Week. Pluto (2013), her second feature, won a special mention Crystal Bear at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. Madonna (2015) was selected for Un Certain Regard of the 68th Cannes Film Festival and won the Halekulani Award of 35th Hawaii International Film Festival. 2017’s Glass Garden was the opening film of 22th Busan International film festival and won the best screenplay in 38th Fantasporto International Film Festival. Her sixth film Hommage (2021) premiered at 34th Tokyo International Film Festival and has screened at Jeonju, Tribeca, Sydney Film Festival and many others.

Bina Paul: An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Bina Paul is an award- winning film editor whose works have been presented at numerous international events. She has served as the artistic director of the International Film Festival of Kerala, shaping it into one of India’s most important film events. She is presently the joint president of NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema) and is a founding member of the Women in Cinema Collective, Program Head for the Dharamshala International Festival and Artistic Director of the newly set up Cinevesture International Film Festival. 

Amritha David (France) in Conversation with Jabeen Merchant

9th March, 8.00pm 

C D Deshmukh Auditorium, IIC, New Delhi

For Registered Delegates

Amrita David: Amrita David is a French editor and script writer of Indian origin. After studying literature in India and France, she graduated from the Femis school of cinema in Paris in 1998. Since then, she has edited a number of films, several of which have won awards at film festivals. She is also part of the visiting faculty at Femis.

Her work includes Les Sénégalaises et la Sénégauloise (2007) by Alice Diop, Lamort de Danton (2011) by Alice Diop, Parade (2013) by Olivier Meyrou, The Wolves (2014) by Sophie Deraspe, Towards Tenderness (2016) by Alice Diop which won the César for best short film in 2017, Nous (2021) by Alice Diop, which won an award at the Berlinale 2022 and more recently Girls will be girls by Shuchi Talati. Amrita David co-wrote and edited Saint Omer, Alice Diop’s first feature film, winner of the Luigi de Laurentis Lion of the Future Award and the Silver Lion Grand JuryPrize at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. The film represented France at the Oscars for Best Foreign Film in 2023 and won Best first feature at the César awards.

Jabeen Merchant: a film editor trained at the Film and Television Institute of India, with a wide and varied experience within the mainstream film industry as well as the independent filmmaking community. She has edited a range of fiction feature films, including the critically acclaimed ‘Anaarkali of Aarah’; commercially successful thrillers like ‘NH10’ and ‘Manorama Six Feet Under’; the off-beat comedy ‘The President Is Coming’; and art-house films such as ‘Kadvi Hawa’ and ‘The Sweet Requiem’. She is also well known for her work editing and co-scripting a number of internationally celebrated feature length documentaries in collaboration with some of India’s best filmmakers. Apart from editing films, she teaches, consults on scripts and occasionally writes on cinema.

Moderated conversation among participating filmmakers

For registered delegates

Mainstreaming the Marginalised: Filmmaking in the time of OTT

7th March 2.00pm – 3.00pm 

Gandhi Plaza India International Centre

Journeys of Diverse Practices

9th March 2.00pm – 3.00pm 

Gandhi Plaza India International Centre

ROLL SOUND: A Curated Conversation on Women and Soundworks in Asian Cinema 

by Shikha Jhingan and Anitha Balachandran

9th March 2024, 9.45 am to 11.00 am

CD Deshmukh Auditorium, IIC, New Delhi 

For registered delegates

This session is designed to begin conversations about film soundscapes based on the premise that we hear films, as much as we watch them.

Sound in cinema can be discussed from different vantage points – relationship to the image, creation of an acoustic territory wider than the two-dimensional image, or expansion or folding of time.

Through use of clips and short films, we will focus on experiential dimensions of sound through women’s practice in documentary and animation genres. How do these films create a tonality, a sonic terrain that queries established practices of using voice, sound, silence and music, to bring in decentred perspectives? These are some of the questions that we will foreground in this conversation.

For Registered delegates

7th – 9th March 2024, IIC, New Delhi

Stories for Children by Children: Book exhibition curated by Alka Hingorani

Inauguration at 9.30 am at Foyer, IIC, New Delhi by Indu Chandrashekhar (publisher Tullika books) 

LeTS (Learn Through Stories) Foundation is a not-for-profit educational venture. It is a collaboration between design professionals and young students from far-flung parts of India. Together, we create books. Students bring stories. We teach them storyboarding, illustration and book design in multi-day workshops. The very act of producing a book changes learners and their relationship with learning. 

https://learnthroughstories.org/

Alka Hingorani is faculty at IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay. She studied at Sir J J College of Architecture, Mumbai, and holds Masters degrees in Design (Photography), City and Regional Planning, and an MA/PhD in History of Art, all from the University of California, Berkeley. Her interests include issues of art and identity, storytelling as academic practice, and pedagogy that reworks and reimagines the world, carrying whimsy and creativity into all that is real.

7th to 9th March 2024, Gandhi King Plaza

Daastaan-e-rafoo

Inauguration by Laila Tyabji at 1.15pm

Daastaan-e-rafoo– stories in stitches by the women of Rafooghar-the house that mends.

Rafooghar- The House that mends. رفو گھر – is a safe, creative space for women who have faced discrimination and social exclusion for years and are marginalized on the basis of their caste, class, religion and gender. For the last seven months, they have met every Sunday, in a small room in one of the most marginalized neighbourhoods for ‘sukoon’ (peace) and ‘fursat’ (leisure). Through the mediums of embroidery and textiles, they shared stories; learnt about each others’ lives; laughed and cried over numerous cups of chai and everyone’s beloved snack, samosa; found common ground in their daily challenges despite their differences; exchanged gharelu nuske (homemade remedies) and relied on each other for ‘salah-mashwara’ (advice and wisdom).

With the guidance of exceptionally skilled artists and art educators, the women at Rafooghar not just embroidered their stories onto fabric; but also managed to engage in conversations and dialogues on challenging themes and issues.

Sometimes, Rafooghar served as a space for ‘bhadaas nikalna’, where women could release their pent-up emotions or frustrations. At other times, it transformed into a place for ‘jee halka karna,’ providing a lighter environment to escape from the harsh realities of daily life. We have heard words like ‘maika’ (mother’s home) being used to describe Rafooghar, but the most heartfelt acknowledgement of this shared space came from a young participant who shared the following when asked about why her self-portrait is so colourful, “I can be whoever I like to be here”.

The works from the following modules will be showcased.

Mapping Mobility:

Zindagi ka Naksha (Mapping Mobility), maps of the domestic lives as well the daily routines of the women
Tere Mere Sapne (Mapping Dreams), maps of their dreams and aspirations
Meri Pehchaan (Expressive Portraits), embroidered portraits of women centred around their identities