Thrissur screening / August 29th 2013 / 5.30 pm

Jashn-e-Azadi is again travelling to Thrissur, Kerala, as part of Kashmir – Before Our Eyes package which will screen on August 29, 30, and 31 at the Kerala Sahitya Academy, Changampuzha Hall. The travelling event has been curated by Ajay Raina and Pankaj Rishi Kumar for FD Zone, Mumbai, and organised by Films Division Thrissur Zone, Naz Media, and Thrissur Chalchitrakendram.

Advertisements

Chennai screening / August 25th 2013 / 9.30 am

Jashn-e-Azadi just missed the ironic pleasure of being screened in Chennai on 15th August, Independence day, what we call the other Jashn-e-Azadi.

But there is a screening scheduled for August 25th (Sunday) morning as part of the FD Zone screenings of the Kashmir – Before Our Eyes package hosted at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai with documentaries, features, short films, readings and discussions on Kashmir.

The full programme is listed at https://www.facebook.com/events/1403728749848464/?ref=3

The schedule says the screening will be followed by a Panel Discussion moderated by Nirupama Subramaniam, Journalist with The Hindu. More details will probably become available closer to the date. We’ll keep you updated.

Mumbai screening / June 2nd 2013 / 10 am

Jashn-e-Azadi will screen in Mumbai on June 2nd, 2013 (Sunday) at 10 am as part of the FD Zone screenings, where film-makers Ajay Raina & Pankaj Rishi Kumar have curated Kashmir – Before Our Eyes, with documentaries, features, shorts, readings and discussions on Kashmir.
May 31, Jun 1, Jun 2 2013 / Venue: RR Theatre, 10th floor, Films Division, 24, Pedder Road, Mumbai – 400026
The screenings /discussions are free and open to all. The full programme is available at https://www.facebook.com/events/470268336381379/

MAY 31, 2013 – Friday (4.00 PM to 6.00 PM)
ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT: The nationalist discourse
STORM OVER KASHMIR
1948/ Non-Fiction/English/45 Min/B. D. Garga /Films Division.
A DIARY OF AGGRESSION
1966/Non-Fiction/English/23 Min./ NVK Murthy/Films Division
Discussion about India Pakistan wars, discussants TBA

MAY 31, 2013 – Friday (6.30 PM to 8.00 PM)
CURTAIN RAISER
Special India Preview
VALLEY OF SAINTS
2012 / Fiction/English/82 Min/Musa Sayeed /USA

JUNE 1, 2013 – Saturday (10 AM to 1.00 PM)
PARADISE: Kashmir then and now
BEFORE MY EYES
1988 / Non-Fiction/English/24 Min/Mani Kaul /India
LOLAAB – A valley in the Himalayas
1990/ Non-Fiction/English/57 Min/Mohiuddin Mirza/India
PARADISE ON A RIVER OF HELL
2003/ Non-Fiction/English/30 Min/Abir Bashir Bazaz – Meenu Gaur /PSBT/India

JUNE 1, 2013 – Saturday (2.00 PM to 4.00 PM)
EXILE/ DISAPPEARANCE/DISLOCATION:
THE LAST DAY
2013/Fiction/Kashmiri-Hindi/12 Min./ Siddhartha Gigoo /India
TELL THEM, THE TREE THEY HAD PLANTED HAS NOW GROWN
2001/Non-Fiction/Kashmiri-English/58 Min./ Ajay Raina /PSBT /India

JUNE 1, 2013 – Saturday (4.15 PM to 6.15 PM)
WHERE HAVE YOU HIDDEN MY CRESCENT MOON
2009/Non-Fiction/Kashmiri- English/28 Min./ Iffat Fatima/ India
AUTUMN’S FINAL COUNTRY
2005/Non-Fiction/Kashmiri- English/66 Min./ Sonia Jabbar / India

JUNE 1, 2013 – Saturday (6.30 PM to 8.30 PM)
BUB (The Father)
2009/Fiction/Kashmiri/120 Min./ Jyoti Sarup / NFDC/ India

JUNE 2, 2013 – Sunday (10.30 AM to 1.30 PM)
AZADI:
JASHN-E-AZADI
2007/Non-Fiction/Kashmiri-Urdu-English/139 Min./Sanjay Kak/India

JUNE 2, 2013 – Sunday (2.30 PM to 3.45 PM)
MARGINALISATIONS:
PATHER CHU JAERI (The Play is on)
2001/Non-Fiction/Kashmiri-Urdu-Hindi/44 Min./ Pankaj Rishi Kumar /PSBT/India

JUNE 2, 2013 – Sunday (3.45 PM to 5.45 PM)
APOUR TI YAPOUR. NA JANG NA AMAN. YEI CHU TALUKPETH
(Between Border and the fence. On the edge of the map)
2011/Non-Fiction/Kashmiri-Urdu-English/78 Min./ Ajay Raina /PSBT/India

JUNE 2, 2013 – Sunday (6.00 PM to 8.00 PM)
THE LONG AUTUMN AFTER WINTER:
HARUD
2012/Fiction/Urdu/99 Min./ Aamir Bashir /India

Chicago screening on May 7, 2013

In conjunction with the special exhibition The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989 the Smart Museum of Art, Doc Films, and the Committee on Southern Asian Studies at the University of Chicago will present two documentary films “that blend the personal and political to address critical issues in contemporary India: Sanjay Kak’s controversial Jashn-e-Azadi (May 7) and Anand Patwardhan’s epic Jai Bhim Comrade (May 14)”.

The screening of Jashn will be introduced by program curator Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Culture & Society, Bangalore and co-author of the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. A reception with the program curator will follow the screening.

For more do check on the Smart Museum’s event page

Cornell Screening on April 10, 2013

The South Asia Council at Cornell University will be screening Jashn-e-Azadi on April 10th, 2013 following which Sanjay Kak will be on a skype link to discuss the film with the audience.
For more on the event you can look at their page as well as on facebook

[blog flash] we are 100,000 visitor old

So here we go we are 100,000 visitors old some stats

Months and Years

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2007		2,441	10,285	3,106	1,520	1,701	4,601	5,419	3,134	2,341	1,622	1,608	37,778
2008	1,324	1,167	1,740	1,191	953	917	970	2,469	962	807	1,051	2,009	15,560
2009	1,218	917	907	841	731	995	990	2,492	855	858	897	896	12,597
2010	1,143	821	716	690	638	770	1,104	3,078	1,358	1,373	818	759	13,268
2011	1,155	1,214	1,138	865	714	548	815	2,417	853	883	952	1,242	12,796
2012	3,428	4,305	274										8,007

Average per Day

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Overall
2007		106	332	104	49	57	148	175	104	76	54	52	115
2008	43	40	56	40	31	31	31	80	32	26	35	65	43
2009	39	33	29	28	24	33	32	80	29	28	30	29	35
2010	37	29	23	23	21	26	36	99	45	44	27	24	36
2011	37	43	37	29	23	18	26	78	28	28	32	40	35
2012	111	148	44										121

Thrissur, New York, and a few besides

For Jashn-e-Azadi, this week begins with a screening on Feb 24th at Thrissur in Kerala, where it will show at the Vibgyor International Film Festival.

This will be followed by a screening at on Feb 27th at New York University, part of the South Asia Documentary Screening Series curated by NYU Libraries.

This has been a busy month: the last screening, organised by the student group AISA at the Delhi School of Economics, Dept of Sociology turned into an event far outside of itself. From the day it was announced, the screening was under scrutiny by the usual stalwarts of the Right Wing. (And the Deccan Herald began to describe the film as “Symbiosis banned”, whatever that means.) Although the usual suspects showed up to ‘protest’ the event, the picture accompanying the report in The Hindu makes clear that the ABVP (and the unfortunately named Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena) are not yet a major force on the Delhi University campus. (Estimates for that day varied from 15 to 20 youths)

But the reports in the Indian Express and particularly in The Times of India, draw attention to something remarkable that happened that afternoon on campus. Simply put, the Dept of Sociology stood its ground, and insisted upon its right to show such material as was thought appropriate for the students. Dr Nandini Sundar, Head of the department, read out to the students the letter written to the Proctor, which said that

“the film screening in question is a routine matter in our department, and it has never been the practice to take permission for such screenings which pertain to our academic program.”

In the face of this clear and unambiguous position, both the University authorities, and the Delhi Police were forced to support that stance. The Times of India quotes the Dy Commissioner Police (North), I B Rani’s quite significant response:

“Since it was a private screening, there was no need for students to seek permission from us. The film was shown inside the classroom. We had, however, decided to station our officers at the spot after getting intelligence inputs that certain groups might protest in the area.Though some protested outside the venue, we did not need to arrest or detain anyone”.

Later  AISA issued a statement which can be read here on kafila.org

(Not many noticed that the same day as the Dept of Sociology screening, a smaller, more quiet screening was held by the Informal Discussion Group at St Stephen’s College. An excellent discussion followed… Different strokes work for different folks)

Perhaps there is a lesson in this for those at the Symbiosis College in Pune (and the Pune Police) whose reaction was to crawl when they were simply asked to bend. Our previous post has some of the links to that story, but in case you missed those you could start with the excellent coverage in The Hindu. If you want to draw cheer from the sad goings on in Pune, there is an excellent post by a student of Symbiosis, Akshat Jitendranath. We like to think that Akshat had been provoked by a commentary a few days earlier on the same site by the redoubtable Shuddhabrata Sengupta.

Kafila.org also carries an excellent account of a more samizdat screening held last week at Presidency College, Kolkata, posted by one its organisers, Waled Adnan. Apart from an ‘alert’ that appeared in the Indian Express, the coverage in the Kolkata editions of The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, The Telegraph, and the Indian Express do give a sense of the possibilities of student action! All power to students!

Finally, for perspective you could also read Shanta Gokhale’s excellent commentary in Mumbai Mirror, Mayank Shekhar blogging in The Hindustan Times, and Shivam Vij on First Post.

As you can see, a busy week for a 5 year old film!