Freedom: In shackles

Resistance(s) is your chance to re-evaluate what it means to be free, not just in India, but around the world, through the lens of exiled filmmakers from the middle East and North Africa, prior to india's sixty-fourth Independence Day celebrations

Resistance(s) is your chance to re-evaluate what it means to be free, not just in India, but around the world, through the lens of exiled filmmakers from the middle East and North Africa, prior to india's sixty-fourth Independence Day celebrations

To highlight the impact of 'local' issues on the rest of the world, the Mohile Parikh Center (MPC) is screening the acclaimed 2005 DVD Resistance(s): a compilation of eight experimental short films by exiled Middle East and North African filmmakers.

"The films spread awareness about fundamentalism and fascism. These are issues that have sadly become part of our daily lives in India as well," says Amrita Gupta Singh, programme director, MPC. "Instead of taking recourse to violence, the filmmakers chose cinema as a tool to voice their dissent over the injustices meted out to them," observes Singh.

Wet Tiles tells the story of a woman in distress, the reasons for which are not spelt out

The films range from four to 30 minutes, and raise questions concerning humanity, politics, cultural gaps, portrayal of the Arab world in the media and feminism in chauvinistic societies. The common thread running through each of the films is the presence of hope amidst chaos.

The line-up includes French film Ca Sera Beau by Wael Noureddine, shot in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, which showcases the lives of disillusioned youth, the abstract Canadian film Untitled 3b by Jayce Salloum which superimposes images of blooming orchids over pictures of a Palestinian refugee camp to contrast beauty with strife, Taysir Batniji's Transit that depicts migrants in a state of literal limbo as they wait to be transported to an unknown land and Usama Alshaibi's video Allahu Akbar that animates traditional Islamic geometric patterns to portray the necessity of moving with the times.

u00a0The status of women is central to several of the films. French video Dansons by Zoulikha Bouabdellah offers a critique on the French government's repressive policies towards Arab immigrants and shows how people can have multiple cultural identities. The entire video is shot framing the hips of a belly dancer, as she drapes herself in the colours of the French flag while swaying to the tunes of Le Marseillaise, France's national anthem.
Women are the focus of Frederique Devaux's K3 (Les Femmes), which depicts how Arab women denied their place in the community's social life show their resistance by singing, dancing and celebrating while carrying out mundane chores.

"These movies are about going beyond the stereotypical image of oil money and rich sheikhs by providing a sneak peek into the issues faced by the region, which in turn will help one empathise," concludes Singh.

ON Today, 6 pm
AT Max Mueller Bhavan, Goethe Hall, Kala Ghoda.
Call 22838380
Free passes can be collected from the Mohile Parikh Center, Oricon House, third floor, 12K Dubash Marg, Fort. Limited passes available.

Alternate Screening

Watch Film's
Division Classics at Edward Talkies
Watch a screening of select short films
produced by the Films Division. The line-up includes SNS Sastry's The Burning Sun, Sukhdev's And Miles To Go, Pramod Pati's Explorer and Trip, Mani Kaul's Arrival and GL Bharadwaj's Destination Bombay.
u00a0
At Edward Talkies,
Kalbadevi Road,
near Furtado's, Dhobi Talao, 6.30 pm.
Callu00a0 22012109
Costu00a0 Rs 28