Film Screening of THE PLAY IS ON and THE VOTE with Director PANKAJ KUMAR

Date: Saturday, October 18, 2003
Time: 6 PM
Venue: Auditorium, 3rd Floor
Address: California Institute of Integral Studies
1453 Mission Street, San Francisco
(between 10 and 11 Street)

Pankaj Rishi Kumar, a film maker from India, will be screening Pather Chujaeri (The Play Is On) and his latest film Mat (The Vote) in October in the Bay area. Pather Chujaeri reveals the state of a popular art form "the street play" in the face of militancy and severe curbs on daily life in Kashmir. Mat depicts the election process in India through the eyes of candidates, workers and voters in the constituency of Siyana in Uttar Pradesh. Both films take the shape of narratives, with Kumar in the role of an anchor who interviews the various social actors about their experiences and views. After the flim screenings, Kumar will discuss his own experiences in producing the films and provide insights into the lives and aspirations of the people of Kashmir and Siyana.

PATHER CHUJAERI/ THE PLAY IS ON
(Hindi and Kashmiri with English subtitles, 44 min, 2001)

"The Play is on.... follows the two groups as they prepare for public performances, a rare phenomenon today. For the bhands, who daily witness the erosion of their way of life, each performance represents both a change as well as a repetition of the same brutal fact: that they are not free to share their revolutionary spirit."

Awards

Bronze Remi at Houston International Film Festival
Best Film---UNESCO MITIL Prize
Special jury award at Karachi film festival

MAT / THE VOTE
(DV, 60 min, 2003 ) Hindi with English subtitles.

"For the last fifty-five years, India has had a democracy that operates from above. Democracy in our country has functioned as a sop from the elite to the masses, rather than a system of gooddecentralized governance that the masses are able to create, sustain and exploit for the establishment of a common wealth. The production of THE VOTE has been motivated by a need to bring these vital issues in Indian democracy to the fore, by revealing in a comprehensive and articulate manner, the failure of our society to meet even the most basic challenges of such a social and political system."

Sponsored by the Cultural and Social Anthropology Program, California Institute of Integral Studies