Considering we live in times where many political parties aim to shape a cultural narrative to meet their goals, a courageous cinema is needed tackling what is really happening so we do not forget. However, finding financing for such projects is often difficult, if not impossible, which is why many directors do not rely on traditional ways of getting their ideas of the ground. One such director is Ashish Avikunthak, whose previous feature “Glossary of Non-Human Love” has tackled the troublesome relationship of technology and mankind. “Devastated” one the one hand offers a very provocative perspective on Narendra Modi's India, but one the other hand is a – as the title suggests – a truly devastating parable on how people may be able to justify even the most horrible deeds.
Devastated is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
During the course of the feature, there are two narrative layers. The first...
Devastated is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
During the course of the feature, there are two narrative layers. The first...
- 1/29/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The 53rd edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will take place from January 25 to February 4, 2024. The full festival programme is available here and official ticket sales will commence on January 12. Here is an overview of the selection of Asian films screening this year at IFFR 2024 (synopses summarised from the IFFR 2024 website):
Harbour Trolley Times
Gurvinder Singh
153′ | India | 2023 | International Premiere
IFFR regular Gurvinder Singh returns to the festival with his first documentary feature “Trolley Times”, an unvarnished grassroots record of the protests that borrows its title from the newspaper printed and distributed at the camping site. The farmers recount their grievances directly to the camera, their words conveying a truth absent from state-aligned mainstream media, their timeworn, dignified faces familiar from Singh's fictional work.
100 Yards
Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng
108′ | China | 2023 | European Premiere
The 1920s, Tianjin. Master Shen has passed on, bequeathing his martial arts academy to star apprentice Qi,...
Harbour Trolley Times
Gurvinder Singh
153′ | India | 2023 | International Premiere
IFFR regular Gurvinder Singh returns to the festival with his first documentary feature “Trolley Times”, an unvarnished grassroots record of the protests that borrows its title from the newspaper printed and distributed at the camping site. The farmers recount their grievances directly to the camera, their words conveying a truth absent from state-aligned mainstream media, their timeworn, dignified faces familiar from Singh's fictional work.
100 Yards
Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng
108′ | China | 2023 | European Premiere
The 1920s, Tianjin. Master Shen has passed on, bequeathing his martial arts academy to star apprentice Qi,...
- 1/13/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
The India programme explores the socio-political development of the country over the past 30 years.
US producer Christine Vachon and Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz are among the competition jury members for the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Joining Vachon and Diaz is the director of Udine Far East Film Festival Sabrina Baracetti, Neptune Frost director Anisia Uzeyman and Mexican film critic Alonso Díaz de la Vega.
The jury are responsible for choosing the winner of the Tiger Award worth €40,000 as well as the Special Jury Awards worth €10,000. The competition line-up will be announced later this month.
India in...
US producer Christine Vachon and Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz are among the competition jury members for the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Joining Vachon and Diaz is the director of Udine Far East Film Festival Sabrina Baracetti, Neptune Frost director Anisia Uzeyman and Mexican film critic Alonso Díaz de la Vega.
The jury are responsible for choosing the winner of the Tiger Award worth €40,000 as well as the Special Jury Awards worth €10,000. The competition line-up will be announced later this month.
India in...
- 12/8/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Dean Stockwell in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986)The actor Dean Stockwell, remembered for his performances in films like The Boy with the Green Hair (1948), Paris, Texas (1984), Blue Velvet (1986), and many more, has died at the age of 85. As Sheila O'Malley mentions in her tribute, Stockwell's career was marked by numerous disappearances. He didn't always love acting, but "he lived long enough to be able to not just appreciate but feel the love that people had for him, the way audiences fell in love with him for 70 years." A newly discovered memoir by Paul Newman will be published next year by Knopf. Based on Newman's conversations with screenwriter Stewart Stern, the book aims to tell the legendary actor's story in his own words. Following the exit of Robert Pattinson and Taron Egerton, Joe Alwyn...
- 11/10/2021
- MUBI
Ashish Avikunthak’s place in the Indian cinematic canon is on the liminal margins where avant-garde experimentations take refuge from the mainstream consciousness. His works exist at the intersection of film theory and political ideologies, formulating a unique set of aesthetic principles for the presentation of agitprop.
“The Churning of Kalki” is a notable attempt to document a spiritual and political revolution that has been indefinitely deferred, fragmented by the forces of modernity. Although Avikunthak has previously conducted visual translations of his obsession with the works of Samuel Beckett in films like “End Note” (2005), it reaches new heights in “The Churning of Kalki”. The latter is Avikunthak’s interpretation of Beckett’s seminal theatrical masterpiece “Waiting for Godot” and continues most of the play’s investigations, contextualised differently within frameworks that have Indian history and mythology embedded in them.
Filmed during the Maha Kumbh Mela which is...
“The Churning of Kalki” is a notable attempt to document a spiritual and political revolution that has been indefinitely deferred, fragmented by the forces of modernity. Although Avikunthak has previously conducted visual translations of his obsession with the works of Samuel Beckett in films like “End Note” (2005), it reaches new heights in “The Churning of Kalki”. The latter is Avikunthak’s interpretation of Beckett’s seminal theatrical masterpiece “Waiting for Godot” and continues most of the play’s investigations, contextualised differently within frameworks that have Indian history and mythology embedded in them.
Filmed during the Maha Kumbh Mela which is...
- 7/26/2021
- by Swapnil Dhruv Bose
- AsianMoviePulse
4th edition of Arthouse Asia Film Festival has ended on January 11, 2020 in Kolkata with a grand ceremony. The week-long festival has been arranged by Arthouse Film Foundation and has acquired the reputation of being the most prestigious industry focussed independent film festival in South Asia.
Shapath Das, the festival director has said that Arthouse Asia Foundation will continue to work for the encouragement and growth of Arthouse Independent Cinema. The team will focus on schools and colleges to spread awareness and nurture new talent. The journey has just started and sky is the limit.
Arthouse Asia Foundation has partnered with Festival des 3 Continents and has played a crucial role in bringing ‘Produire au Sud’ lab in India for the first time. Produire au Sud workshop for screenwriters and producers is known for mentoring international film projects worldwide. Seven projects from India, SriLanka, Bhutan and Nepal have been selected for the first time.
Shapath Das, the festival director has said that Arthouse Asia Foundation will continue to work for the encouragement and growth of Arthouse Independent Cinema. The team will focus on schools and colleges to spread awareness and nurture new talent. The journey has just started and sky is the limit.
Arthouse Asia Foundation has partnered with Festival des 3 Continents and has played a crucial role in bringing ‘Produire au Sud’ lab in India for the first time. Produire au Sud workshop for screenwriters and producers is known for mentoring international film projects worldwide. Seven projects from India, SriLanka, Bhutan and Nepal have been selected for the first time.
- 1/14/2020
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
A still from Rati Chakravyuh
Ashish Avikunthak’s Rati Chakravyuh (2013) will have its international premiere at Aicon Gallery, New York, on October 22. If you are unfamiliar with Avikunthak’s cinema, then I recommend Rati Chakravyuh as an ideal primer for exploring some of his more intricate and philosophically oriented works. In the art and independent film circuits, Avikunthak is known as someone who is very much at the forefront of an exciting resurgence of experimental filmmaking in India. Selected as a 2014 great artist in Art Review’s annual list, he has been working in the medium of film for over a decade. He also teaches film at the University of Rhode Island and has curated film programmes devoted to showcasing non-mainstream film practices in India. Preferring to define himself as a film-artist than a filmmaker, Avikunthak’s films are mostly self-financed with modest budgets, and they have been exhibited in...
Ashish Avikunthak’s Rati Chakravyuh (2013) will have its international premiere at Aicon Gallery, New York, on October 22. If you are unfamiliar with Avikunthak’s cinema, then I recommend Rati Chakravyuh as an ideal primer for exploring some of his more intricate and philosophically oriented works. In the art and independent film circuits, Avikunthak is known as someone who is very much at the forefront of an exciting resurgence of experimental filmmaking in India. Selected as a 2014 great artist in Art Review’s annual list, he has been working in the medium of film for over a decade. He also teaches film at the University of Rhode Island and has curated film programmes devoted to showcasing non-mainstream film practices in India. Preferring to define himself as a film-artist than a filmmaker, Avikunthak’s films are mostly self-financed with modest budgets, and they have been exhibited in...
- 10/15/2014
- by Aparna Frank
- DearCinema.com
A still from Rati Chakravyuh
In the first of its kind premiere of a feature-length independent experimental film, Ashish Avikunthak’s Rati Chakravyuh will be screened in two art galleries in Mumbai and Kolkata starting today.
The film will be screened at Chatterjee & Lal from June 26 to August 2, and Experimenter Gallery in Kolkata from July 3-18. Both these galleries will screen the films 3 times a day.
Rati Chakravyuh consists of one single shot of 102 minutes.
In the Bengali film, six young newlywed couples and a priestess meet after a mass wedding in a desolate temple on a lunar eclipse midnight. They sit in a circle and talk. This is their last conversation – an exchange about life, death, beginning, end and everything in between. After a discussion that lasts more than an hour and a half, they commit mass suicide.
Ashish Avikunthak’s other films have been shown worldwide in film festivals,...
In the first of its kind premiere of a feature-length independent experimental film, Ashish Avikunthak’s Rati Chakravyuh will be screened in two art galleries in Mumbai and Kolkata starting today.
The film will be screened at Chatterjee & Lal from June 26 to August 2, and Experimenter Gallery in Kolkata from July 3-18. Both these galleries will screen the films 3 times a day.
Rati Chakravyuh consists of one single shot of 102 minutes.
In the Bengali film, six young newlywed couples and a priestess meet after a mass wedding in a desolate temple on a lunar eclipse midnight. They sit in a circle and talk. This is their last conversation – an exchange about life, death, beginning, end and everything in between. After a discussion that lasts more than an hour and a half, they commit mass suicide.
Ashish Avikunthak’s other films have been shown worldwide in film festivals,...
- 6/26/2014
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
A still from Rati Chakravyuh
Indian filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak has been named as one of the “FutureGreats 2014″ by ArtReview, one of the oldest and leading contemporary art magazines in the world. Every March, ArtReview publishes a guide to 30 artists from all over the world, “FutureGreats”, to watch out for over the coming year, selected by an international panel of artists, critics and curators.
Avikunthak has been making films in India since the mid nineties. His filmograpy includes feature films Rati Chakravyuh (2013), Katho Upanishad (2011), Shadows Formless (2007) and several short films, which have been screened at festivals like Locarno and Rotterdam, art galleries and museums.
ArtReview has described his films as “self-consciously difficult works that are filmed in a self-consciously beautiful way.”
Avikunthak explains that viewing his films “creates a sensory and spiritual experience that is similar to visiting a temple, where the majority of worshipers do not have a literal understanding...
Indian filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak has been named as one of the “FutureGreats 2014″ by ArtReview, one of the oldest and leading contemporary art magazines in the world. Every March, ArtReview publishes a guide to 30 artists from all over the world, “FutureGreats”, to watch out for over the coming year, selected by an international panel of artists, critics and curators.
Avikunthak has been making films in India since the mid nineties. His filmograpy includes feature films Rati Chakravyuh (2013), Katho Upanishad (2011), Shadows Formless (2007) and several short films, which have been screened at festivals like Locarno and Rotterdam, art galleries and museums.
ArtReview has described his films as “self-consciously difficult works that are filmed in a self-consciously beautiful way.”
Avikunthak explains that viewing his films “creates a sensory and spiritual experience that is similar to visiting a temple, where the majority of worshipers do not have a literal understanding...
- 3/24/2014
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
A Retrospective of Experimental Indian cinema and video titled “Hundred Years of Experimentation (1913- 2013)” will be held at Films Division from June 28-30, 2013. Curators Ashish Avikunthak and Pankaj Rishi Kumar share with us the thought behind putting together the Retrospective:
Curatorial Concept
A still from “Raja Harishchandra”
T his retrospective is a celebration of the spirit of experimentation in Indian cinema; from the moment of its mythic birth in 1913, with Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra, to the innovative and challenging moving images produced and exhibited today. The films brought together chart the transformation of experimentation, from early celluloid spectacle to contemporary digital adroitness. The curatorial impetus of this retrospective is marked by an emphasis on tracing the chronology of experimentation through the history of Indian cinema. It halts at pit stops of radical moments of experimentation and underscores it.
The idea of ‘experimentation’ rather than the experimental or avant-garde drives the...
Curatorial Concept
A still from “Raja Harishchandra”
T his retrospective is a celebration of the spirit of experimentation in Indian cinema; from the moment of its mythic birth in 1913, with Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra, to the innovative and challenging moving images produced and exhibited today. The films brought together chart the transformation of experimentation, from early celluloid spectacle to contemporary digital adroitness. The curatorial impetus of this retrospective is marked by an emphasis on tracing the chronology of experimentation through the history of Indian cinema. It halts at pit stops of radical moments of experimentation and underscores it.
The idea of ‘experimentation’ rather than the experimental or avant-garde drives the...
- 6/26/2013
- by Ashish Avikunthak and Pankaj Rishi Kumar
- DearCinema.com
A still from Phalke’s “Kaliya Mardan”
Films Division is hosting a Retrospective of Experimental Indian cinema and video titled “Hundred Years of Experimentation (1913- 2013)” from June 28-30, 2013.
The Retrospective has been curated by Ashish Avikunthak and Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
Screening Schedule
Venue:
Rr Theatre, 10th floor, Films Division
24, Pedder Road, Mumbai – 400026
Day One
28 June, 2013, Friday
28 June, 2013, Friday: 10.00-12.30 pm
Session 1: Experiments with Gods
A collection of early films made by D.B. Phalke between 1913 and 1935.
1. Raja Harishchandra (20 mins, 35mm, 1913)
2. Lanka Dahan (9 mins, 35mm, 1917)
3. Shree Krishna Janma (6 mins, 35mm, 1918)
4. Kaliya Mardan (50 mins, 35mm, 1919)
28 June, 2013, Friday: 1.15- 3.45 pm
Session 2: Experiment in the State
The earliest robust experimentation in India begins under the imaginative tutelage of Jean Bhownagary while he headed the Films Division in 1965.
1. Explorer – Pramod Pati (7 mins, 35mm, 1968)
2. Claxplosion – Pramod Pati (2 mins, 35mm, 1968)
3. Trip – Pramod Pati (4 mins, 35mm, 1970)
4. Koodal – Tyeb Mehta (16 mins, 35mm, 1970)
5. Abid – Pramod Pati (5 mins, 35mm,...
Films Division is hosting a Retrospective of Experimental Indian cinema and video titled “Hundred Years of Experimentation (1913- 2013)” from June 28-30, 2013.
The Retrospective has been curated by Ashish Avikunthak and Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
Screening Schedule
Venue:
Rr Theatre, 10th floor, Films Division
24, Pedder Road, Mumbai – 400026
Day One
28 June, 2013, Friday
28 June, 2013, Friday: 10.00-12.30 pm
Session 1: Experiments with Gods
A collection of early films made by D.B. Phalke between 1913 and 1935.
1. Raja Harishchandra (20 mins, 35mm, 1913)
2. Lanka Dahan (9 mins, 35mm, 1917)
3. Shree Krishna Janma (6 mins, 35mm, 1918)
4. Kaliya Mardan (50 mins, 35mm, 1919)
28 June, 2013, Friday: 1.15- 3.45 pm
Session 2: Experiment in the State
The earliest robust experimentation in India begins under the imaginative tutelage of Jean Bhownagary while he headed the Films Division in 1965.
1. Explorer – Pramod Pati (7 mins, 35mm, 1968)
2. Claxplosion – Pramod Pati (2 mins, 35mm, 1968)
3. Trip – Pramod Pati (4 mins, 35mm, 1970)
4. Koodal – Tyeb Mehta (16 mins, 35mm, 1970)
5. Abid – Pramod Pati (5 mins, 35mm,...
- 6/24/2013
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
The 12th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (Nyiff), presented by the Indo-American Arts Council announced the nominations for various categories of awards.
The festival will be held from May 23 to 27 at the Tribeca Cinemas in Lower Manhattan.
Nyiff will more than 50 features, documentaries, and short films over a span of five days.
Best Film
Nominees:
Aadukalam Chitrangada Chittagong Gangs of Wasseypur Gattu Shala Best Documentary Film
Nominees:
Big in Bollywood Inshallah Football Kumare Saving Face Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret Best Screenplay
Nominees:
Pooja Desai, Anvita Dutt, Rajesh Narasimhan, Ashish Patil (Mujshe Fraaandship Karoge) Avinash Deshpande (Shala) Rituparno Ghosh (Chitrangada) Vetri Maaran (Aadukalam) Bedabrata Pain, Shonali Bose (Chittagong) Best Director
Nominees:
Sujay Dahake (Shala) Rituparno Ghosh (Chitrangada) Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur) Vetri Maaran ( Aadukalam) Prashant Nair (Delhi in a Day) Bedabrata Pain (Chittagong) Best Young Actor
Nominees:
Sihle Dlamini (Lucky) Dilzad Hiwale (Bubble Gum) Dilzad Hiwale (Chittagong) Ashuman...
The festival will be held from May 23 to 27 at the Tribeca Cinemas in Lower Manhattan.
Nyiff will more than 50 features, documentaries, and short films over a span of five days.
Best Film
Nominees:
Aadukalam Chitrangada Chittagong Gangs of Wasseypur Gattu Shala Best Documentary Film
Nominees:
Big in Bollywood Inshallah Football Kumare Saving Face Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret Best Screenplay
Nominees:
Pooja Desai, Anvita Dutt, Rajesh Narasimhan, Ashish Patil (Mujshe Fraaandship Karoge) Avinash Deshpande (Shala) Rituparno Ghosh (Chitrangada) Vetri Maaran (Aadukalam) Bedabrata Pain, Shonali Bose (Chittagong) Best Director
Nominees:
Sujay Dahake (Shala) Rituparno Ghosh (Chitrangada) Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur) Vetri Maaran ( Aadukalam) Prashant Nair (Delhi in a Day) Bedabrata Pain (Chittagong) Best Young Actor
Nominees:
Sihle Dlamini (Lucky) Dilzad Hiwale (Bubble Gum) Dilzad Hiwale (Chittagong) Ashuman...
- 5/21/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
A still from Aag
India has much to look forward to, at the 64th edition of the Locarno International Film Festival that begins on Wednesday, July 3, 2011. The festival has lined up quite an eclectic and exciting mix of Indian films; from the masters Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak to the contemporary Umesh Kulkarni and Vikramaditya Motwane.
Locarno Open Doors, an initiative that focuses on a region where independent cinema is in developmental stage every year has its eyes set firmly on India in the 2012 edition.
A still from Udaan
Open Doors screening will present thirteen “Indian classics” which include Raj Kapoor’s Aag, Jahnu Barua’s Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai (The Yellow Birds), Girish Kasaravalli’s Kanasembo Kudureyaneri (Riding the Stallion of a Dream), Shyam Benegal’s Manthan, Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara, Aparna Sen’s Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Nizalkkuthu...
India has much to look forward to, at the 64th edition of the Locarno International Film Festival that begins on Wednesday, July 3, 2011. The festival has lined up quite an eclectic and exciting mix of Indian films; from the masters Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak to the contemporary Umesh Kulkarni and Vikramaditya Motwane.
Locarno Open Doors, an initiative that focuses on a region where independent cinema is in developmental stage every year has its eyes set firmly on India in the 2012 edition.
A still from Udaan
Open Doors screening will present thirteen “Indian classics” which include Raj Kapoor’s Aag, Jahnu Barua’s Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai (The Yellow Birds), Girish Kasaravalli’s Kanasembo Kudureyaneri (Riding the Stallion of a Dream), Shyam Benegal’s Manthan, Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara, Aparna Sen’s Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Nizalkkuthu...
- 8/2/2011
- by Nandita Dutta
- DearCinema.com
The Locarno Film Festival has announced the list of twelve Indian projects selected for Open Doors program.
Open Doors is the co production lab organized by the festival each year. This year the lab has India in focus.
The selected projects are:
- Aharbal Falls by Ajay Raina
- Ajeeb Aashiq / Strange Love by Natasha Mendonca
- Arunoday / Sunriseby Partho Sen-Gupta
- Burqa Boxers by Alka Raghuram
- Char, The Island Within by Sourav Sarangi
- Jat Panchayat / The Judgement by Satish Manwar
- Lasya / The Gentle Dance by Anup Singh
- Samaadhi / The Penance by Sidharth Srinivasan
- Sebastian Wants to Remember by Vasant Nath
- The Trapper’s Snare by Shanker Raman
- Thread / Le Fil by Lilium Leonard
- Vidhvastha / Devastated by Ashish Avikunthak
The festival had received over 200 projects, in 18 different languages, from 30 regions in India.
The Open Doors co-production lab will take place August 6-...
Open Doors is the co production lab organized by the festival each year. This year the lab has India in focus.
The selected projects are:
- Aharbal Falls by Ajay Raina
- Ajeeb Aashiq / Strange Love by Natasha Mendonca
- Arunoday / Sunriseby Partho Sen-Gupta
- Burqa Boxers by Alka Raghuram
- Char, The Island Within by Sourav Sarangi
- Jat Panchayat / The Judgement by Satish Manwar
- Lasya / The Gentle Dance by Anup Singh
- Samaadhi / The Penance by Sidharth Srinivasan
- Sebastian Wants to Remember by Vasant Nath
- The Trapper’s Snare by Shanker Raman
- Thread / Le Fil by Lilium Leonard
- Vidhvastha / Devastated by Ashish Avikunthak
The festival had received over 200 projects, in 18 different languages, from 30 regions in India.
The Open Doors co-production lab will take place August 6-...
- 5/3/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
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