Tuesday, May 1 - Monday, May 7, 2007, 2.00pm - 6.00pm, at Open Space

The Last Jungle on Earth
A creative workshop conducted by Randhir Khare

Open Space collaborates with poet, writer and visual artist Randhir Khare to conduct a six-day creative workshop of storytelling, reading and performance for children. 

The workshop includes storytelling, listening, reading, enacting and performing as well as discussion of ideas and themes. 

This workshop has been inspired by the story ‘The Last Jungle On Earth’, a popular fable by Randhir Khare which explores a time in the future when the world has been devastated by environmental disasters and a surviving  group of birds, animals and reptiles heroically sets out to look for the last jungle on earth. Their long and difficult journey across a desolate planet becomes more and more amazing as they persist and finally triumph using the wealth of nature's wisdom enriched by an understanding of the creative magic of ecology. The story combines an understanding of our environment with the magic of storymaking and artistic expression. 

Participants will become storytellers, composers of songs and performers, and in the process get to express their own sensitivity to and concern for the world they live in...enriched by an awareness of nature's life and resources. 
 
The workshop will result in the writing and production of a handmade book, an exhibition and a performance, all based on the original work of participants.
 
The workshop will be conducted by writer Randhir Khare who has spent many decades working with and writing for children and young people. He has published 16 books of poetry, fiction, travelogues and essays and is the recipient of a number of awards including the Sanskriti Award, Pegasus -– the Gold Medal For Poetry awarded by the Union of Bulgarian Writers and the Development Award for his creative work with severely disabled children and young people.
 
Age Group: Approximately 9 to 13 years 
Duration: 4 hours a day for 6 days & on the 7th day an exhibition and presentation  

FILM FESTIVAL

Friday, May 11 - 13, 2007, 3.30pm - 7.30pm, at SOUL, ABC Farms, Koregaon Park, Pune 01

THE IAWRT - IIC ASIAN WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL 2007
REFLECTIONS: WOMEN IMAGING REALITIES

Presented by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (The IAWRT is a non–profit professional organization of women working in electronic and allied media)

The Film Festival is being hosted and organized by Open Space, Centre for Communication and Development Studies, Pune

FESTIVAL NOTE:
The aim of the festival is to open up a cultural space for debates on creative processes enriched by women’s quest for documenting their experiences. The IAWRT collective has curated a rich fare, unique perspectives of women, looking at self, relationships, sexuality, family, tradition, politics and urbanization and development. Recognizing the critical need for forums that sustain the form of documentary as well as women’s contribution to this unique form, the festival showcases the best of documentaries created by women, covering a whole range of genres and expressive styles.

There is humour, sensitivity and perspectives on the personal and political. Women filmmakers are widening the frame, negotiating and documenting social and political events and issues of concern, bringing in new insights into the ordinary events, challenging our beliefs and views. The film Madsong centers around a woman wanting to plan an extraordinary party for her lovers return, merging stories in our heads, reality merges with the imagined and past with the present. Another film, Bare uses home video films and conversations with the filmmaker’s family to explore their relationship with an alcoholic father. Rashtriya Kheer and Desi Salad uses recipes to create a montage and a playful look at a modern Indian family as it imagined itself soon after independence. Dedicated to Unicorn searches through simulated dreams, reminisces and the imaginary unicorn. Call it Slut portrays a transgendered woman who fearlessly takes on patriarchal attitudes and pokes fun at middle class morality. Many of the films take a look at the face of democracy and its oppressive impact on women. Six yards of Democracy revisits the gruesome stampede that took place during the election. Through this film we see the women struggle to keep their homes with their dignity intact. Tales from the Margins focuses on Irom’s hunger strike for the last eight years to repeal AFSPA in Manipur. Q2P, no place for women to pee. The toilet becomes a metaphor. A riddle with many answers about gender, class and caste, about urban space for development. An episode from the series, Crossing Fires pushes the frontiers in the patriarchal society as the female LTTE cadres protect the Kilinochi district and are considered equal to any fighting force. Live Containers narrates the stories of women whose bodies are used to smuggle heroin across borders, their tragic choices, desperation, and government laws. Delhi Mumbai Delhi looks at Ria, a bar dancer deprived from her work by the Maharastra Governments ban on girls dancing in the bar, weaves stories of sexuality and popular culture in a globalised economy.