FILM CLUB SCREENING - Preview of Shukno Lanka (Bengali/2010) Dir. Gaurav Pandey. Prod. Mumbai Mantra Media Limited. A journey about forgotten dreams, Shukno Lanka is a story of fears, reconciliation and finally of living the magic called life. Popular award-winning film director Joy Sundar Sen & Isabella, a young European actress from Berlin, chance upon an anthology of short stories by the Indian film maker Ritwik Ghatak. The book inspires Joy to direct his next film based on Ghatak’s Paraspathar (The Philosopher’s Stone), for which he casts middle-aged Chinu Nandy, a junior artiste who has survived an unforgiving industry. As Chinu comes to terms with the break, at the very last minute the producer of Paraspathar decides to pull off a disappearing act….Screening will be followed by an interaction with the cast and director.

DOCUMENTARY FILM - Hijras: The Third Gender (Hindi/English/29mins) Dir. Devika Urvashi Bhise A rare insight to the secret, cruel and ambiguous lives of the Hijra transgender community in India. Treated as social outcastes, they live on the fringes of Indian society. These eunuchs (originally only castrated males) were once employed by Sultans and maharajas to guard the women in their harems. Now shunned by society, they are treated with less respect than the Dalits, or untouchables. Considered neither men nor women, Hijras have no constitutional rights. The screening will be followed by an interaction with some of the characters from the film.

FILM CLUB SCREENING - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (Hindi/English/2005/120mins) Dir. Sudhir Mishra. The late 1960s and early 1970s were turbulent times -- angst filled and strife scarred. It was the time of Vietnam, of flower power, of the Emergency and the rise of the Naxal movement in India. And a booming population of restless youth was eager to wage war against anything that curbed idealism. The film digs into a section of this crazy chapter of history through its three protagonists who start out on the same platform but board different trains and reach a destination of their own making. Screening will be followed by an interaction with the director. Collab: Kolkata Presidency College Alumni Association

FILM CLUB SCREENING - Chariots of Fire (Eng/French/1981/123mins) Dir. Hugh Hudson. The story, told in flashback, of two young British sprinters competing for fame in the 1924 Olympics. Eric, a devout Scottish missionary runs because he knows it must please God. While, Harold, the son of a newly rich Jew runs to prove his place in Cambridge society and to defeat prejudice. Nominated for seven Academy Awards and winner of four, including Best Picture, the film ranked 19th in the British Film Institute's list of Top 100 British films. Collab: American Centre

DOC FILM  - Do Din Ka Mela (A Two Day Fair) (Kutchi and Gujarati with English Subtitles/2009/60mins) Dirs. Anjali Monteiro & K. P. Jayasankar. Mura Lala Fafal and his nephew Kanji Rana Sanjot are Meghwals, a pastoral Dalit community living on the edge of the Great Rann of Kutch, the vast salt marsh/desert that separates India and Pakistan. The film is a two-day journey into the music and everyday life of this uncle-nephew duo, who draw their inspiration from the Sufi traditions of Kabir and Abdul Lateef Bhita'I. Daily wage labourers and subsistence farmers in an arid zone, the two strive to affirm and uphold, through their music and culture, the syncretic wisdom of the marginalized communities that live in this spectacular and yet fragile area.

FILM CLUB SCREENING - Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India (Hindi/Eng/Bhojpuri/Awadhi/2001/224mins) Dir. Ashutosh   Gowariker. The rains have failed, and the people of a small Indian village in Victorian India hope that they will be excused from paying the crippling land tax that their British rulers have imposed. Instead, the capricious British officer in charge challenges them to a game of cricket, a game totally alien and unknown to them. If they win then there will no taxes levied, but if they lose then they will end up thrice the amount of taxes. The people are terrified, but one man thinks the challenge is worth staking their entire future on. What follows next is faith and courage coming face to face with arrogance and ruthlessness in a spectacular climax of showdown. Collab: Directorate of Film Festivals

FILM CLUB SCREENING - Dans Les Cordes (On the ropes) (French/2007/89mins) Dir. Magaly Richard-Serrano. A French boxing coach has taught his daughter and his niece the sport since they were children. But when the two women face each other in the finals of the French Championships, the family’s equilibrium is shattered. A dangerous rivalry begins to fester between the two boxers, raised as sisters, both inside the ring and out. Collab: Embassy of France

FILM CLUB SCREENING - One Day In Europe (German/2005/93mins) Dir. Hannes Stöhr. Four colorful and light-hearted stories about quirky characters and the amusing misunderstandings that cross-cultural communication often provides. All take place on one single day in different cities, and in each case those language barriers are compounded by a chaos of another sort: on this particular day, the whole of Europe is in high fever over soccer’s Champion’s League final between Galatasaray Istanbul and Deportivo La Coruña which is taking place in Moscow… Collab: Goethe - Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan

FILM CLUB SCREENING - Glory Road (Eng/2006/118mins) Dir. James Gartner. 40 years ago, Don Haskins went on the recruiting trail to find the best talent in the land, black or white. 7 blacks and 5 whites made up the legendary 1965-66 Texas Western Miners. They were mocked and ridiculed for their showboating and flaunting of black players on the court. Yet, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, Haskins and his Miners came together as a team united to reach the National Championship game against powerhouse Kentucky. Collab: American Centre

FILM CLUB SCREENING - Iqbal (Hindi/2006/132mins) Dir. Nagesh Kukunoor. The story of an underdog, an 18-year-old deaf and mute village boy, who aspires to play cricket at the national level. Iqbal faces obstacles at every step- a stern father who comes in the way of his dream, no means or financial help to undergo training, his only coach- the village drunkard and, Mohit, the rival coach, who will go to any length to foil Iqbal’s pursuit of success. Collab: Directorate of Film Festivals

FILM CLUB DISCUSSION  - Group meets to discuss eXistenZ (Eng/1999/97mins) Dir. David Cronenberg. Leading game designer Allegra Geller, is testing her new virtual reality game, eXistenZ when she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun. She flees with a young marketing trainee, Ted Pikul, only to find out that her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game program, is damaged. To inspect it, she talks Ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her. The events leading up to this, and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure where reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game's perspective. Film scholar Rohit Ranjan will introduce the film and facilitate the discussion.

DOC FILM - I Am No Lab Rat – Filmy Feast Festival. The Future of Food (Eng/2004/88mins) Dir. Deborah Koons Garcia. The documentary makes an in-depth investigation into unlabelled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly made their way onto grocery stores in the United States for the past decade. It voices the opinions of farmers in disagreement and throws light on the political forces that are changing what we eat.

Food.Inc Dir. Robert Kenner. (Eng/2008/93mins) Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct subsidized inputs resulting in enormous profits. Health and safety of the food itself, of the animals produced, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers are often overlooked by the companies and the government. Collab: Youth for Safe Food

DOC FILM - I Am No Lab Rat – Filmy Feast Festival. Poison On The Platter (Eng/2008/40mins) Dir. Mahesh Bhatt. An eye-opening film, the documentary comments how lives are being affected by genetically modified foods. No more a farmer’s issue alone, it has become a matter of the consumers’ right to food safety. The World According To Monsanto (Eng/2008/108mins) Dir. Marie-Monique Robin. Traces the American biotech company, Monsanto’s, manipulative practices of US Governmental agencies in order to appropriate production of GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Collab: Youth for Safe Food

DOC FILM - I Am No Lab Rat – Filmy Feast Festival. Bullshit (Eng/2008/73mins) Dirs. Å Holmquist & Suzanne Khardalian. A film about Indian environmental activist and nuclear physicist, Vandana Shiva, who was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. It takes a look at issues of globalisation and patenting, on genetic engineering, bio-piracy and indigenous knowledge.

So Shall You Reap (Eng/2008/35mins) Dir. Ajay Bhardwaj. A documentary on GM crops, particularly Bt cotton, in India. The film covers losses suffered by farmers, allergies, animal deaths, field trial violations, state governments asserting their rights to reject GM, regulatory failures, and successful alternatives to GM. Collab: Youth for Safe Food