From dak at sarai.net Tue Mar 2 18:46:36 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 18:46:36 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] MARCH 2004 Message-ID: <200403021846.36583.dak@sarai.net> CONTENTS: March 2004 TALK @ SARAI 3rd The Delhi Seminar Series: State Formation: Subaltern Perspectives on Delhi, 1247-1947, by Shail Mayaram, CSDS 8th Media Publics & Practices Seminar Series: Globalization, Personal Data, and Surveillance - From Snooping to Social Sorting, by David Lyon, Queen's University, Canada 17th Media Publics & Practices Seminar Series: Hitchcock's Murder!: Sound, Identity and Performance, by Richard Allen, New York University FILM @ SARAI 5th Short Cuts, Films by students of AJK-MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia FILM @ SARAI: New Turkish Films 12th Steam (Hamam), Directed by Ferzan Ozpetek 19th The Bandit (Eskiya), Directed by Yavuz Turgul 26th Somersault in a Coffin (Tabutta Rovasata), Directed by Dervis Zaim ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TALK @ SARAI Wednesday, March 3, 2004, 3:30 pm URBAN CULTURES & POLITICS: THE DELHI SEMINAR SERIES State Formation: Subaltern Perspectives on Delhi, 1247-1947 Shail Mayaram, Visiting Senior Fellow, CSDS at the Seminar Room, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054. Shail Mayaram's publications include 'Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins' (New York: Columbia University Press, forthcoming); 'Resisting Regimes: Myth, Memory and the Shaping of a Muslim Identity' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997) and (coauthored with Ashis Nandy, Shikha Trivedi, Achyut Yagnik) 'Creating a Nationality: The Ramjanmabhumi Movement and the Fear of Self' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, March 8, 2004, 3:30 pm MEDIA PUBLICS AND PRACTICES SEMINAR SERIES Globalization, Personal Data, and Surveillance: From Snooping to Social Sorting David Lyon, Department of Sociology, Queen's University, Canada at the Seminar Room, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054. David Lyon's research, writing, and teaching interests revolve around questions of the information society, globalization, secularization, surveillance, and postmodernity. He has recently authored 'Surveillance after September 11' (Polity/Blackwell, 2003). His many recent publications include 'Surveillance in Cyberspace: The Internet, Personal Data, and Social Control' (Queen's Quarterly, 109 (3)2002) and 'Facing the Future:Seeking Ethics for Everyday Surveillance' (Ethics and Information Technology, 3(3) 2001). He is the North American editor of 'Surveillance and Society' (www.surveillance-and-society.org). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, March 17, 2004, 3:30 pm MEDIA PUBLICS AND PRACTICES SEMINAR SERIES Hitchcock's Murder! : Sound, Identity and Performance Richard Allen, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies, New York University at the Library, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054. Richard Allen is author of 'Projecting Illusion' (Cambridge 1995) and of a forthcoming book on Hitchcock entitled 'Hitchcock and Cinema: Story-Telling, Sexuality, and Style' (Columbia). He has edited numerous books on the aesthetics and philosophy of film including 'Film Theory and Philosophy' (Oxford, 1997), 'Hitchcock: Centenary Essays' (BFI,1999) and 'Wittgenstein, Theory and the Arts' (Routledge, 2001). He is also editor (with Sid Gottlieb) of the 'Hitchcock Annual'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILM @ SARAI All screenings are on Fridays, 4:30 pm, at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. Friday, March 5, 2004, 4:30 pm SHORT CUTS: Films by students of AJK-MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia (class of 2004) The Past is a Foreign Country, 31 minutes Directed by Akshay Singh, Anand V Taneja, Sakina Ali A film around the twentieth centuries of the Purana Qila, Delhi, guest starring Abhishek Bachchan. New Delhi 25, 26 minutes Directed by Pineng Lhouvum, Taha Mehmood, Iram Ghufran An exploration of the growing obsession with security in Delhi. Life is Elsewhere, 26 minutes Directed by Khadeeja Arif, Debashree Mukherjee Three women and their lives in Zakir Nagar. Bad Habits, 43 minutes Directed by Ankur Khanna, Karma Wangdi Barfungpa, Suhani Kanwar Three connected narratives of whim, anxiety and anonymity in the city. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILM @ SARAI: NEW TURKISH FILMS Although Turkish film production suffered a dramatic decrease in the 1980's, in the wake of a military coup that severely curtailed freedom of expression, the past decade has seen a revival of Turkish cinema with the making of local blockbusters as well as independent features in what critics are calling a renaissance in Turkish filmmaking. Sarai presents three such films this March. Friday, March 12, 2004, 4:30 pm Steam (Hamam), 1997 Directed by Ferzan Ozpetek When Francesco inherits an old Turkish bath from a forgotten aunt, he leaves his unfaithful wife Marta in Rome and heads to Istanbul to sell the property. The transaction seems straightforward enough. But then Francesco sees the bathhouse, and to his own surprise, he falls in love with it and with the fading culture it represents. He also falls in love with the caretaker's beautiful son Mehmet. Francesco decides to stay on in Istanbul to renovate the bath. Everything goes smoothly until a shady real estate conglomerate which wants his land begins to threaten him. And when Marta shows up unexpectedly and discovers him making love with Mehmet, confrontation becomes unavoidable. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, March 19, 2004, 4:30 pm The Bandit (Eskiya), 1997 Directed by Yavuz Turgul A box office smash hit in Turkey, this modern day fairy tale tells the story of Baran, a Kurdish bandit, who returns to his village in Eastern Anatolia after 35 years in jail only to find it submerged under the waters of a new dam. He decides to go to Istanbul where he is told that his former sweetheart resides. On the train he meets a young man, Cumali. Raised in the backstreets of Istanbul, Cumali's life revolves around bars, gambling joints, dreams of making it big and joining the Mafia. The challenges of poverty and alienation in this sprawling metropolis make Baran, a bandit, appear innocent in comparison. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, March 26, 2004, 4:30 pm Somersault in a Coffin (Tabutta Rovasata), 1996 Directed by Dervis Zaim Is it possible to somersault in a coffin? Mahzun does so daily. By all accounts he might as well be dead and buried: His bleak life consists of stealing cars to sleep in and catching birds for food. He'd be arrested, but the cops already know his scam and beat him up instead. Despite the impossible odds, he persists, survives and somersaults in the coffin that is his Istanbul-a city where the ancient shares a sidewalk with the downtrodden. The film is about the resilient human ability to remain wildly stubborn against destructive forces. Screenwriter-director Zaim shot the film on a shoestring budget, making the most of his limited resources. Its raw feel contributes to the gritty tale of human resistance in the face of adversity-a story of perseverance both in front of and behind the camera Cheers, Ranita Chatterjee The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net From dak at sarai.net Wed Mar 24 15:24:26 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 15:24:26 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] FILM@SARAI Message-ID: <200403241524.26394.dak@sarai.net> FILM at SARAI: New Turkish Films Friday, March 26, 2004, 4:30 pm Gemide/On Board (1998) Directed by Serdar Akar Venue: Seminar Room, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054. Four sailors aboard a harbor silt-cleaner live a routine existence revolving around talk, drink and hashish. Their only image of the outside world comes from the tall tales of the captain. Their isolation is shattered one night when one crew member returns beaten up and robbed of their dinner money. Drunken and stoned, they hunt down the thieves; the captain accidentally kills one, while the sailors abduct a lovely young prostitute (Ella Manea) and tie her up in the hold. They wake up the next morning to find they are in a fine mess.