Kasturi kasturi.basu@gmail.com [docuwallahs2]
2018-07-04 05:19:44 UTC
Dear friends,
Among some of the very disturbing images of State violence in Kashmir in
recent times, the images of innocent young people blinded by pellet guns,
the image of a Kashmiri man being tied to a jeep as human shield, and the
image of a protester being mowed under a army jeep, have shaken the
conscience of the world. Very recently the United Nations Human Rights
Council has brought out a damning report on the situation facing the people
of Kashmir, which the Indian government has rejected. The release of this
report was followed by the dastardly assassination of renowned journalist
Shujaat Bukhari. This incident was followed by the Government calling off
the one-month ceasefire, and BJP promptly pulling out of the BJP-PDP
alliance government, which has led now to governor's rule in J&K.
In this context, to make sense of the situation and to go over some
contemporary history, let us gather to watch Sanjay Kak's acclaimed magnum
opus on Kashmir, Jashn-e-Azadi. We will also listen to a short audio-visual
presentation which focusses on incidents in the past decade of 2008-2018,
with an intent ear to the voices of people of the valley.
* Please take your seats by 6 pm. As always, seating is on
first-come-first-seated basis. *
Zindabad!
People's Film Collective
*Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/435443673607118/
<https://www.facebook.com/events/435443673607118/>*
___
* People's Film Collective*
presents
* Monthly Film Screening & Conversations*
* "KASHMIR, NOW AND THEN"*
*8th JULY | SUNDAY | 6 P.M. *
JOGESH MIME ACADEMY (KALIGHAT PARK)
*AUDIO-VISUAL PRESENTATION*
*Kashmir in the past decade: 2008-2018*
* VIDEO INTRODUCTION*
* Screening Jashn-e-Azadi now*
*by Sanjay Kak*
* FILM SCREENING** JASHN-E-AZADI*
*(How We Celebrate Freedom)*
Dir: Sanjay Kak
Kashmiri, Urdu, English (English subtitles)
138 minutes / 2007
* FREE ENTRY*
Contact: 9163736863 | ***@gmail.com
â
â
â
*Synopsis*
Itâs 15th August, Indiaâs Independence day, and the Indian flag ritually
goes up at Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar, Kashmir. The normally
bustling square is eerily emptyâ a handful of soldiers on parade, some more
guarding them, and except for the attendant media crews, no Kashmiris.
For more than a decade, such sullen acts of protest have marked 15th August
in Kashmir, and this is the point from where Jashn-e-Azadi begins to
explore the many meanings of Freedomâof Azadiâin Kashmir.
In India, the real contours of the conflict in Kashmir are invariably
buried under the facile depiction of an innocent population, trapped
between the Terroristâs Gun and the Armyâs Boot. But after 18 years of a
bloody armed struggle, after 60,000 civilians dead (and almost 7,000
enforced disappearances), what really is contained in the sentiment for
Azadiâfor freedom?
Amidst the everyday violence and ever-present fear in Kashmir, there are no
easy answers to such questions. Where truth has been an early victim, all
languageâspeech, poetry, even cinemaâbecomes inadequate to describe what we
know and feel here.
So we reshape our curiousity, and point ourselves at what we can see, what
we are allowed to see. The film then combines several forms and modes of
expression to evoke the past as well as unravel the present:
We are witness to an ageing father in the Martyrâs Graveyard; we are with a
group of men as they survey the dead in the mountain villages of Bandipora;
we sit quietly in the Out Patients Ward of the Govt Psychiatric Hospital in
Srinagar.
But we look elsewhere too, in the satirical farce of Bhand folk performers
as they play in a village square; in the tense undercurrents of an Army
Sadhbhavna (Goodwill) camp in north Kashmir; and in the images conjured up
by the work of contemporary Kashmiri poets.
Shot and edited between August 2004-2007 Jashn-e-Azadi engages us with the
idea of Azadi in Kashmir.
In 2007, as India celebrated itâs 60th anniversary of Independence, this is
also a conversation about Freedom in India.
*Sanjay Kak on the audience reception of Jashn-e-Azadi*
*"When Jashn-e-Azadi first began circulating in 2007, we were fully
conscious of the chill silence within which it would speak up in India (and
perhaps the world). What took us by surprise was the unexpected openness
with which it was actually received, and the speed with which it was
circulated. Viewers did not embrace it as some ultimate truth about
Kashmirâs recent history, and we would not have wished for that either. But
they saw it as a reading that contested the accepted (and carefully
constructed) consensus of events in Kashmir.*
* There was flak too, mostly from a handful of groups seeking to create a
legitimacy for their own limited agendas, trying to muddy the waters where
a real conversation about Kashmir seemed about to happen. There was also a
more silent disapproval, this one from an unexpected quarter: the
Left/Liberal/Progressive space, those whose commitment to their own
ideologies allowed them to transcend what was happening in front of them.
The cycle of protests that convulsed Kashmir in 2008 and 2009 and 2010, the
years immediately after Jashn-e-Azadi appeared, seemed to confirm many of
the unstated ideas of the film. Almost ten years later Kashmir is once more
torn apart by protests, and we can ask ourselves the old questions again.
But most of all it is a moment to start speaking Kashmir again. Start
speaking Kashmir now." **-Sanjay Kak *
*-- *
*PEOPLE'S FILM COLLECTIVE*
*Email: *****@gmail.com* <***@gmail.com>
*Phone: **+91-9163736863* <091637%2036863>* (also WhatsApp)*
*Facebook: **http://www.facebook.com/KolkataPeoplesFilmFestival/*
<http://www.facebook.com/KolkataPeoplesFilmFestival/>* (page)*
*http://www.facebook.com/groups/PeoplesFilmCollective/*
<http://www.facebook.com/groups/PeoplesFilmCollective/>* (group)*
*ABOUT*
*People's Film Collective is an independent, autonomous, people-funded
cultural-political collective based in West Bengal. Formed in 2013, it
believes in the power of films as a weapon of pedagogy as well as
alternative media for people. PFC organises monthly film screenings &
conversations in Kolkata and travels in Bengal with films & movemental
videos. PFC organises two annual film festivals - the 'Kolkata People's
Film Festival' (KPFF) and the 'Frames of Freedom' and publishes a magazine
(Pratirodher Cinema). PFC collaborates with like-minded collectives of the
working class and peopleâs movements.*
*Kolkata Monthly Documentary Screenings and ConversationsKolkata People's
Film Festival (KPFF)Frames of Freedom Film FestivalLittle CinemaTravelling
CinemaPeople's MediaPeople's Study CircleProtirodher Cinema : film and
counterculture magazine*
*Campaign for People's Unity* (joint initiative with several groups and
individuals)
* --*
Among some of the very disturbing images of State violence in Kashmir in
recent times, the images of innocent young people blinded by pellet guns,
the image of a Kashmiri man being tied to a jeep as human shield, and the
image of a protester being mowed under a army jeep, have shaken the
conscience of the world. Very recently the United Nations Human Rights
Council has brought out a damning report on the situation facing the people
of Kashmir, which the Indian government has rejected. The release of this
report was followed by the dastardly assassination of renowned journalist
Shujaat Bukhari. This incident was followed by the Government calling off
the one-month ceasefire, and BJP promptly pulling out of the BJP-PDP
alliance government, which has led now to governor's rule in J&K.
In this context, to make sense of the situation and to go over some
contemporary history, let us gather to watch Sanjay Kak's acclaimed magnum
opus on Kashmir, Jashn-e-Azadi. We will also listen to a short audio-visual
presentation which focusses on incidents in the past decade of 2008-2018,
with an intent ear to the voices of people of the valley.
* Please take your seats by 6 pm. As always, seating is on
first-come-first-seated basis. *
Zindabad!
People's Film Collective
*Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/435443673607118/
<https://www.facebook.com/events/435443673607118/>*
___
* People's Film Collective*
presents
* Monthly Film Screening & Conversations*
* "KASHMIR, NOW AND THEN"*
*8th JULY | SUNDAY | 6 P.M. *
JOGESH MIME ACADEMY (KALIGHAT PARK)
*AUDIO-VISUAL PRESENTATION*
*Kashmir in the past decade: 2008-2018*
* VIDEO INTRODUCTION*
* Screening Jashn-e-Azadi now*
*by Sanjay Kak*
* FILM SCREENING** JASHN-E-AZADI*
*(How We Celebrate Freedom)*
Dir: Sanjay Kak
Kashmiri, Urdu, English (English subtitles)
138 minutes / 2007
* FREE ENTRY*
Contact: 9163736863 | ***@gmail.com
â
â
â
*Synopsis*
Itâs 15th August, Indiaâs Independence day, and the Indian flag ritually
goes up at Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar, Kashmir. The normally
bustling square is eerily emptyâ a handful of soldiers on parade, some more
guarding them, and except for the attendant media crews, no Kashmiris.
For more than a decade, such sullen acts of protest have marked 15th August
in Kashmir, and this is the point from where Jashn-e-Azadi begins to
explore the many meanings of Freedomâof Azadiâin Kashmir.
In India, the real contours of the conflict in Kashmir are invariably
buried under the facile depiction of an innocent population, trapped
between the Terroristâs Gun and the Armyâs Boot. But after 18 years of a
bloody armed struggle, after 60,000 civilians dead (and almost 7,000
enforced disappearances), what really is contained in the sentiment for
Azadiâfor freedom?
Amidst the everyday violence and ever-present fear in Kashmir, there are no
easy answers to such questions. Where truth has been an early victim, all
languageâspeech, poetry, even cinemaâbecomes inadequate to describe what we
know and feel here.
So we reshape our curiousity, and point ourselves at what we can see, what
we are allowed to see. The film then combines several forms and modes of
expression to evoke the past as well as unravel the present:
We are witness to an ageing father in the Martyrâs Graveyard; we are with a
group of men as they survey the dead in the mountain villages of Bandipora;
we sit quietly in the Out Patients Ward of the Govt Psychiatric Hospital in
Srinagar.
But we look elsewhere too, in the satirical farce of Bhand folk performers
as they play in a village square; in the tense undercurrents of an Army
Sadhbhavna (Goodwill) camp in north Kashmir; and in the images conjured up
by the work of contemporary Kashmiri poets.
Shot and edited between August 2004-2007 Jashn-e-Azadi engages us with the
idea of Azadi in Kashmir.
In 2007, as India celebrated itâs 60th anniversary of Independence, this is
also a conversation about Freedom in India.
*Sanjay Kak on the audience reception of Jashn-e-Azadi*
*"When Jashn-e-Azadi first began circulating in 2007, we were fully
conscious of the chill silence within which it would speak up in India (and
perhaps the world). What took us by surprise was the unexpected openness
with which it was actually received, and the speed with which it was
circulated. Viewers did not embrace it as some ultimate truth about
Kashmirâs recent history, and we would not have wished for that either. But
they saw it as a reading that contested the accepted (and carefully
constructed) consensus of events in Kashmir.*
* There was flak too, mostly from a handful of groups seeking to create a
legitimacy for their own limited agendas, trying to muddy the waters where
a real conversation about Kashmir seemed about to happen. There was also a
more silent disapproval, this one from an unexpected quarter: the
Left/Liberal/Progressive space, those whose commitment to their own
ideologies allowed them to transcend what was happening in front of them.
The cycle of protests that convulsed Kashmir in 2008 and 2009 and 2010, the
years immediately after Jashn-e-Azadi appeared, seemed to confirm many of
the unstated ideas of the film. Almost ten years later Kashmir is once more
torn apart by protests, and we can ask ourselves the old questions again.
But most of all it is a moment to start speaking Kashmir again. Start
speaking Kashmir now." **-Sanjay Kak *
*-- *
*PEOPLE'S FILM COLLECTIVE*
*Email: *****@gmail.com* <***@gmail.com>
*Phone: **+91-9163736863* <091637%2036863>* (also WhatsApp)*
*Facebook: **http://www.facebook.com/KolkataPeoplesFilmFestival/*
<http://www.facebook.com/KolkataPeoplesFilmFestival/>* (page)*
*http://www.facebook.com/groups/PeoplesFilmCollective/*
<http://www.facebook.com/groups/PeoplesFilmCollective/>* (group)*
*ABOUT*
*People's Film Collective is an independent, autonomous, people-funded
cultural-political collective based in West Bengal. Formed in 2013, it
believes in the power of films as a weapon of pedagogy as well as
alternative media for people. PFC organises monthly film screenings &
conversations in Kolkata and travels in Bengal with films & movemental
videos. PFC organises two annual film festivals - the 'Kolkata People's
Film Festival' (KPFF) and the 'Frames of Freedom' and publishes a magazine
(Pratirodher Cinema). PFC collaborates with like-minded collectives of the
working class and peopleâs movements.*
*Kolkata Monthly Documentary Screenings and ConversationsKolkata People's
Film Festival (KPFF)Frames of Freedom Film FestivalLittle CinemaTravelling
CinemaPeople's MediaPeople's Study CircleProtirodher Cinema : film and
counterculture magazine*
*Campaign for People's Unity* (joint initiative with several groups and
individuals)
* --*