Open Space Activities in January 2006

    

KHOJ DISCUSSION FORUM

Thursday, January 5, 5.00pm – 7.00pm,   Open Space 
Open Space invites you to participate in the first KHOJ meeting of 2006. KHOJ is an informal forum to explore issues related to identity, diversity and sexuality. The introductory session will look at people's perception of identity, their construction and hierarchies. The session will also include a screening of a 17-minute documentary film Identity: Construction of selfhood ( dir: Anjali Monteiro and K P Jayasankar)    

THEATRE

Thursday, January 5, 2.00pm onwards,   Open Space
Open Space announces a reading and discussion group that focuses on modern Indian theatre. Read seminal plays like Evam Indrajor , Sakharam Binder , Andha Yug , consider the lives and times of playwrights like Vijay Tendulkar, Badal Sircar and Girish Karnad, examine trends and influences in regional and national Indian theatre. Join us at Open Space for the first meeting.  


PRESENTATION

Saturday, January 7, 5.00pm, Open Space
Open Space invites you to a presentation on the salient features of the National Right To Information Act by Prakash Kardaley, Senior Editor, Express Initiatives , The Indian Express . He has been campaigning on RTI issues for the past three years.  

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 has been in force as a law across India since the past three months. However, in Maharashtra, where the RTI Act 2005 has replaced the Maharashtra Right to Information Act, 2002, the number of requisitions being filed under the new law -- which has several advantages over the older state law -- has dropped sharply. This is perhaps due to the fact that citizens are not yet familiar with the provisions of the RTI Act 2005.  

 

LECTURE

Wednesday, January 25, 6.30pm onwards, Open Space 
Open Space invites you to a lecture by Founder-Director of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), P K Nair titled, ' Documentary as a means of social awareness and change ' which will address the growing importance of documentary filmmaking as a tool for development and social change. 

As cinema evolved with new technologies, documentary which is a part of it, could scarcely have been left behind. And while the understanding and execution of the documentary may have undergone a sea change since its introduction in the 1920s, its basic concept ' not duplicating reality but providing a creative interpretation of reality' still holds good. 

P K Nair is a film historian, critic, teacher and a film archivist of international repute. For nearly three decades Nair was the force behind the NFAI, Pune -- right from its inception in the mid-1960s to the late nineties. He was largely responsible for pioneering film preservation, documentation and dissemination activities in the world's largest film producing country, and nurturing the NFAI into an institution of international stature.  

The talk will be followed by a discussion.

 
FILM FESTIVAL

January 9 - 10, 5.30pm – 9.00pm, Open Space
Open Space brings a selection of five documentary films from the traveling film festival, ‘Deconstructing Disasters' to Pune. The festival aims to increase public awareness on natural disasters and rehabilitation, focusing on aspects of disaster preparedness, rights and standards. There will be an introduction before screenings, followed by moderated discussion afterwards by Max Martin, freelance journalist and editor of indiadiasters.org .  

Focusing on natural disasters and the response they evoke, the films deal with disasters from the Indian Ocean tsunami and the rehabilitation effort to the drought in Orissa and Gujarat earthquake in 2001.  

The films feature stories of people trying to cope after their lives are torn apart by natural disasters. They address the economics, politics and ecology of disasters and show humanitarian agencies' response to disasters probing their efficacy and the challenges they face.

Film Festival schedule:
Monday, January 9, 5.30pm – 9.00pm, Open Space
Time after Tsunami (44 min) 
Based on a public hearing of testimonies of tsunami-affected people in South India. It flags off issues of environment, disaster management, women's rights and caste equations.  

Children of Tsunami (23 min)
Two young children describe what the tsunami meant for them. Episodes
from a TVE television series.
By Satya Sivaraman

Outside Mercy (27 min)
Farmers and saltpan workers of Nagapattinam, Tanil Nadu demand better relief after the
tsunami.
By R Revathi

Voices from a Disaster (28 min)
People's tribunal hearing on the 2001 Gujarat earthquake.
By K P Sasi

Tuesday, January 10, 5.30pm – 9.00pm, Open Space
River Taming Mantras (31 min)
A panoramic view of recurring floods in Bihar, their consequences and the response to them.
By Sanjay Barnela and Vasant Saberval

Harvest of Hunger (60 min)
Marginal farmers from western Orissa flee from drought and hunger.
By Rupashree Nanda

Entry free on a first come first served basis only

 
Open Space outreach programmes
1. Open Space initiates a monthly lecture series at the Karve Institute of Social Work. The lectures will address issues of human rights vis-à-vis gender/sexuality, development, globalisation and communalism.
2. Art and story telling: weekly sessions at the Door Step School study centre, Shivaji Housing Society 
3. Open Space – Fergusson College film club continues its weekly film screenings at Open Space 
4. Monthly documentary and feature film screenings in collaboration with the Symbiosis Arts and Commerce film club.