i s
U A V
REPRESENTAT i ONS
OF
SOCiAL JUSTiCE
A 2-DAY FILM & DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 26- 27, 2008
L
OPEN SPACE
MAHANIRBAN CALCUTTA RESEARCH GROUP DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION & VIDEOGRAPHY
ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE, KOLKATA
D A Y
1
September
26
ne of the crucial ways to approach the idea of social justice is to look at the popular notions of justice and how “justice” has been represented in the realm of the popular.
Popular discourses on justice on one hand are a tool to increase consciousness; at the same time they generate consensus, which often result in the perpetuation of certain stereotypical notions of justice.
The Calcutta Research Group (CRG), a research collective based in Kolkata, in its work on social justice has tried to conduct investigations into the popular notions of justice and their interface with the dominant legal forms through ethnographic and analytic studies. These studies have engaged with questions such as: is justice limited to legislative understanding of “justice” or should it encompass the popular notions as well? While CRG studies have offered interesting insights into gender and caste marks inherent in the popular notions of the social (of social justice), we need also to take a critical look at what constitutes the visual imageries and metaphors of social justice.
In association with Open Space (OS), a resource centre based in Pune, which has been using the creative medium of films, music and theatre to engage young people to act, think and talk about issues of social justice, this film festival is being organized with the objective of understanding how the cinematic medium negotiates with the representations of the subject, resistance, and politics of justice. The politics of representing the subjects of justice in the visual medium of films can work in two ways: they can be a tool for questioning the given ideas or can perpetuate the discourses of oppression. One can also ask in this context: How does the visual imagery negotiate between sensitivity (by questioning certain stereotypes of the notion of justice) and sensationalisation?
Inaugurated by critically acclaimed documentary film maker
Anand Patwardhan
,this festival is an attempt at gaining a better understanding of the idea of justice - one of the crucial questions of our time.
DAY 1 – September 26
3.00 – 3.30 pm Tea Break
3.30 – 3.45 pm Introduction to Festival by curators 3.40 – 7.45 pm Film Festival
Ribbons of Peace
Director: Anand Patwardhan 5 mins, 1998, India
An anti-nuke music video made in the wake of India's nuclear tests revisits a 60's Hindi film song by Kishore Kumar, a precurser to John Lennon's "Imagine".
War and Peace (Jung aur Aman) Director: Anand Patwardhan 130 mins, 2002, India
The film moves on to examine the costs being extracted from citizens in the name of national security. From the plight of residents living near nuclear test sites to the horrendous effects of
uranium mining on local indigenous populations, it becomes abundantly clear that, contrary to a myth first created by the U.S.A, there is no such thing as the "peaceful Atom".
Q & A with ANAND PATWARDHAN
O
D A Y
2
S E
P T E M
B E R
27
Day 2 - September 27 Session 1
Tea Break
10.30am – 1.30pm
India Untouched: Stories of a People Apart
Director: Stalin K.
108 mins, 2007, India
A comprehensive look at untouchability in India. The film exposes the continuation of caste practices and untouchability in Sikhism, Christianity and Islam, and even amongst the communists in Kerala. Dalits themselves are not let off the hook: within Dalits, sub-castes practice untouchability on the ‘lower' sub-castes.
Aftershocks: The Rough Guide to Democracy
Director: Rakesh Sharma
68 mins, 2003, India
A film about the transformation of the Welfare State into an instrument of Corporate governance. It examines the acquisition/displacement of two quake affected villages for lignite mining and generation of electricity in Gujarat.
1.30pm – 2.30 pm – Lunch Break
Session 2
2.30pm – 5.00 pm
We are not your monkeys
Director: Anand Patwardhan
5 mins, 1996, India
A musical Dalit critique of the Ramayana
Sadgati (Deliverance)
Director: Satyajit Ray
52 mins, 1981, India
An untouchable Dukhi approaches the village Brahmin to request him to set an auspicious date for his daughter's upcoming wedding according to the Hindu astrology. The Brahmin promises to perform the task in exchange of Dukhi slaving over household chores in return. When he is asked to chop a huge block of wood, Dukhi's anger increases with each blow. Working in scorching sun, hungry and malnourished, the he dies. What can be done with the corpse of an untouchable that no one will touch?
12 Angry Men
Director: Sidney Lumet
96 mins, 1957, USA
A jury member tries to persuade the other 11 members to acquit the suspect on trial on the basis of reasonable doubt.
5.00pm – 5.30pm Tea Break
Session 3
5.30pm – 7.30pm
Tales from the Margins
Director: Kavita Joshi
23 mins, 2006, India
The grim human rights situation in Manipur and the extraordinary protests by its womenfolk for justice and peace.
A Night of Prophecy
Director: Amar Kanwar
77 mins, 2002, India
The film takes the viewer from Kashmir to Andhra Pradesh, recording songs of oppression, pain, exclusion and marginalization.
Films Curated by Oishik Sircar and Debolina Dutta
Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group
www.mcrg.ac.in
GC-45, First Floor, Sector-IIISalt Lake City, Kolkata-700 106, West Bengal, India
Phone: +91-33-23370408, Fax: +91-33-23371523 Email: mcrg@mcrg.ac.in
Born as a facilitating group in support of the peace movement in West Bengal, particularly during the Third Joint Conference of the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy - an unprecedented public gathering of 400 peace activists of the sub-continent for 4 days in Calcutta in 1996 - the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group is now known as the Calcutta Research Group (CRG). The founders were a group of researchers, trade unionists, feminist thinkers and women's rights campaigners, academics, journalists, and lawyers. This was to be a forum for policy discussion and analysis on issues of democracy, human rights, peace, and justice.
Developing as a forum of mostly young public activists and socially committed researchers, CRG is now well-known for its research, dialogues, and advocacy work. It has carved out a niche for itself in the scholar-activist world for its policy studies on autonomy, human rights, women's dignity, issues of forced displacement and migration, peace and conflict resolution, citizenship, borders and border-conflicts, and other themes relevant to democracy. The emphasis that CRG places on the East and the Northeast in its research and dialogues has now resulted in a strong network of scholars, activists, and institutions in the region
Open Space
www.openspaceindia.org B-301, 2nd Floor,
Kanchanjunga Bldg, Kanchan Lane,
Off Law College Road, Near Krishna Dining Hall,
Pune 411 048.
Tel No: 02025457371,30222156
Debolina Dutta, Open Space Fellow, Kolkata 256/1 N.S.C Bose Road
Kolkata 700 047 Tel No: 0 9903493459
debolina26@gmail.com
Centre for Communication and Development Studies (CCDS), is a Pune-based social change resource centre focusing on the research and communication of information for change. CCDS uses communication tools and processes to inform, initiate and inspire change in societal attitudes and public policy. Its activities are designed to strengthen civil society by promoting a deeper understanding of issues related to sustainable development, justice, equity and rights.
Starting 2008 CCDS has initiated operations in Kolkata through Open Space (OS), its public education programme that mobilizes unconventional spaces to promote new modes of thought for civil society, provides an open and non-judgmental forum to support citizens' action.
