KBF Launches International Festival of Moving Image Art, Experimenta India

KOCHI:

The Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF), in association with Experimenta, today launched the Experimenta India Special Edition: One Way or Another, an International Festival of Moving Image Art, curated by Erika Balsom and Shai Heredia.

One Way Or Another, being held from January 5 to 10 at Biennale Pavilion, Bastion Bungalow, Fort Kochi, brings together feminist nonfiction works from diverse contexts that experiment with form to articulate aesthetic and political commitments.

Two Yugantar films and “Asanghadithar” (2022), directed by Kunjila Mascillamani, will also be screened. Yugantar is India’s first feminist film collective founded in 1980 by Abha Bhaiya, Deepa Dhanraj, Meera Rao, and Navroze Contractor.

On Monday, One Way or Another: Image-making and Unmaking (62 mins) featured three films. The first was ‘Untitled 77-A’ by Han Ok-hee, South Korea (1974). Han Ok-hee, a founding member of Seoul’s experimental filmmaking group, Kaidu Club, opposed mainstream cinema’s commercialism and patriarchy; Untitled 77-A exemplifies this stance.

The second film was ‘Nice Coloured Girls’ by Tracey Moffat, 1987, Australia. Through allegory, experimental techniques, and witty voice-over, Tracey Moffat subverts the colonial gaze in this short film about three young Australian Aboriginal women out on the town with a ‘captain.’

The third film was ‘Miss Universo en el Perú | Miss Universe in Peru’ by Grupo Chaski, Peru (1982). It is about the juxtaposition of two events that took place simultaneously in Lima in July 1982—the Miss Universe beauty pageant and the sixth national congress of the Peruvian Peasant Confederation.

On January 6, two Yugantar Films will be screened. Tambaku Chakila Oob Aali | Tobacco Embers (25 mins, 1982, India) documents one of India’s largest 1980s unorganised labour movements, led by women tobacco workers who resisted exploitative conditions and built solidarities.

This will be followed by Idhi Katha Matramena | Is This Just a Story? (25 mins, 1983, India) created with Stree Shakhti Sanghatana. It portrays a woman moving from isolation to support, through female friendship, while addressing domestic violence.

A conversation featuring Deepa Dhanraj and Dr. Sheeba K.M., Professor of History at Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala will follow.

On January 7, One Way or Another: Possession (94 mins) will showcase ‘Eyes of Stone’ by Nilita Vachani, (1990, India), an exploration of spirit possession, healing, faith, and rebellion within Rajasthan’s patriarchal order, shot in the interiors of Bhilwara district.

On January 8, ‘Asanghadithar | The Unorganised’ (40 mins) by Kunjila Mascillamani (2022, India) will be screened. It chronicles the pioneering struggle of Kozhikode saleswomen, led by Viji and Penkoottu, for basic workplace rights. This will be followed by a conversation featuring Deepa Dhanraj and Kunjila Mascillamani.

On January 9, One Way or Another: Battleground (62min) showcases four films. ‘Onanism’ by Nalini Malani, (4 mins, 1969, India), is about a woman on a divan clutching white fabric between her legs in ecstasy or pain.

‘Susana’ by Susana Blaustein Muñoz, (25 mins, 1980, Argentina/USA), is a reflexive work of autobiography. Susana asks friends and family members to speak about her and weaves their testimonies together with her own responses and an array of filmic and photographic materials.

‘Mi aporte | My contribution’ by Sara Gómez, (33 mins, 1972, Cuba), examines how gender, race, and class shape post-revolutionary Afro-Cuban women’s experiences.

On January 10, One Way or Another: Letters from Lebanon and Palestine features three works. They unfold histories of exile, solidarity, and struggle in Lebanon and Palestine, with a particular attention to the bonds between women and the possibilities of epistolary expression.

‘Les Femmes palestiniennes | Palestinian Women’ by Jocelyne Saab (11 mins, 1974, Lebanon), was commissioned by the French television station Antenne 2 but never broadcast, yet remains a powerful document of commitment and struggle.

‘Measures of Distance’ by Mona Hatoum (15 mins. 1988, Lebanon/UK) is an intimate video that explores exile and displacement, this has Hatoum reading letters from her mother over blurred images, challenging stereotypes of Arab women and motherhood.

‘Letter from Beirut’ by Jocelyne Saab (52 mins, 1978, Lebanon), the second film of Saab’s Beirut trilogy, captures life in a divided city during a lull in the Civil War. It explores homes, buses, and checkpoints with Etel Adnan’s reflective voice-over. This will be followed by a conversation between Deepa Dhanraj and Dr. Sheeba K.M.

In association with Experimenta, the KBF will also launch a five-day KMB: 16mm Cameraless Film Workshop from Tuesday, facilitated by artist and filmmaker Gavati Wad. The January 6 to 10 workshops at St Andrew’s Parish Hall, Fort Kochi, will be held from 3 pm to 6 pm, and it can accommodate 10 people each day. Registration is mandatory for participation. Please register here: https://shorturl.at/wWEcM

The workshop focuses on interpreting 16mm celluloid film as a canvas to create and explore abstract visual realms. Participants will have to paint, draw, write, make collages, and generate sound on celluloid without touching a camera. The hand-made 16mm films created during the workshop will be observed through a 16mm projector.

Facilitator Gavati works mainly with 16mm celluloid. Her cross-disciplinary practice investigates analogue methods of image and sound production, film, video, photography, performance, illustration, and curatorial projects.