The festival enfolds around film screenings, presentations, a panel discussion, a multi-channel film installation and a Wikipedia edit-a-thon. The festival sheds light on underrepresented moving image history – and wants to initiate a revision of the established film canon. It doesn´t only want to highlight the work of female film artists as directors and actors, but also as cinematographers, composers, editors, costume designers and so forth. A focal point will be on film form and aesthetics which are created around gender representation, womanhood and girlhood. The mini-festival pursues to create a dialogue between national cinemas throughout film history.

National Film Archive of India

Achhut Kanya | Franz Osten, 1936 Film screenings

The second film by Devika Ranis and Himanshu Rays production house, Bombay Talkies. The company was the starting point for the composer Saraswati Devi and was in its beginning characterized through its cooperation with European technicians.  The melodrama enfolds around Kasturi (Devika Rani) a dalit woman whose childhood love with Pratap (Ashok Kumar) is doomed due to her origins.

Subarnarekha | Ritwik Ghatak, 1965 Film screenings Starring Madhabi Mukherjee as Sita, the third part of Ritwik Ghatak’s trilogy takes us back into the aftermath of the partition and its socio-economic implications. The play with shadows, exceptional camera angles and the interaction with the landscape are framing the melodrama aesthetically and reflect the inner of the protagonist.

TIFA Working Studios

Mädchen in Uniform | Girls in Uniform | Leontine Sagan, 1931 Film screening

The all-female cast film by Austrian filmmaker Leontine Sagan is a cult classic based on a play written by Christa Winsloe. The story unfolds around a newly enrolled girl at a boarding school. Matriarchy, Rebellion, Girlhood and Intimacy intertwine. Its release in 1931 was highly popular in Berlin´s lesbian clubs but censored by the Nazis. Its expressive aesthetic and play with shadows and forms are unique.

Edit-a-thon

Presentations and panel discussion Vatsala Sharma | Panellists Dr. Vaishali Diwakar | Panellists Rutuja Deshmukh | Panellists

Film history in pieces | Adriane Meusch, Carine Figueras & Vatsala Sharma Multichannel installation The film clip collages are examining aesthetics around the representation of women. Visual dialogues throughout the film history are created, transnational and transhistorical: teenagers in Leontine Sagan´s cult classic “Mädchen in Uniform” (1931) are competing with the hostel girls in “Minsara Kanavu” (1997) while Madhabi Mukherjee voyeuristically observes Jeanne Dielman through her binoculars.

Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum Wikipedia Edit-a-thon The Heritage Lab & Art + Feminism | Suresh Khole & Subodh Kulkarni. Workshop The Pune Edit-a-thon at Kelkar Museum seeks to invite audiences to join a writing and editing session that is dedicated to Wikipedia articles related to women in cinema. Less than 10% of Wikipedia editors are women – this was the result of a survey of the Wikipedia Foundation in 2011. This gender bias on the popular online encyclopedia platform matters, as women writers may highlight different topics, interests and perspectives, that will stay otherwise underrepresented. A glance into the global film canon reveals a similar scenario; in multiple lists, only a few films by female filmmakers can be found. Facilitated by Suresh Khole and Subodh Kulkarni.

Press

https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/through-her-lens-5629376/