[Announcements] KASHMIR FILM SERIES

[The Sarai Programme]

Dear Friends,

Sarai invites you for a special screening of documentaries on Kashmir 

on Friday, March 15th , 4:00 pm

at the Seminar Room, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi - 54


The films are

i.    Pather Chujaeri (The Play is on...)  (52mins)
      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.  Ku'near  (29 mins)
    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.



iii.    Tell them, the tree they had planted has now grown (58 mins)
      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.



The films will be followed by a discussion with the directors at the Sarai 
cafe.


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