The Center for South Asia, Stanford University
The Film and Media Studies Program, Stanford University and
Friends of South Asia
Present

Imagining the City: Two Films on Bombay

Saacha (The Loom) and Naata (The Bond)

Directed by Anjali Monteiro & K.P. Jayashankar

Thursday, April 26th, 6.30 p.m

Stanford University (Building 60, Room 61G, Main Quad)

Saacha The Loom 49 Mins., English, 2001 Saacha is about a poet, a painter and a city. The poet is Narayan Surve, and the painter Sudhir Patwardhan. The city is Mumbai (a.k.a. Bombay), the birth place of the Indian textile industry and the industrial working class. Weaving together poetry and paintings and memories of the city, the film explores the modes and politics of representation, the relevance of art in the contemporary social milieu, the decline of the urban working class in an age of structural adjustment, the dilemmas of the left and the trade union movement and the changing face of a huge metropolis.

Naata The Bond 45 Mins, English, 2003 Naata is about Bhau Korde and Waqar Khan who work with neighborhood peace committees in Dharavi, Mumbai, to promote conflict resolution through the collective production and use of visual media. When the deadly riots of 1992-93 tore the city and their community apart, Korde and Khan were moved to act, working to change both the negative perception of Dharavi and erase religious and ethnic divisions. Naata follows these remarkable men as they work on their film, Ekta Sandesh.

About the Filmmakers:

Anjali Monteiro is Professor, and K.P. Jayashankar is Professor and Chair, Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Jointly they have won thirteen national and international awards for their films. Professor Monteiro currently holds a Fulbright visiting lecturer fellowship at the UC, Berkeley.

This event is free and open to all