Film Screening of 'Cemetery State'

Sheharnama n. Urdu: The Chronicle of the City Films Division and ActionAid India present Sheharnama - a three-day international film festival of documentary and short fiction films. This will feature over forty films that look within the nooks and crevices of the city to render a cinematic expression of the urban experience. Several such films made in recent years will be screened alongside older iconic ones that are an invaluable record of urban cultures in the developing world. The festival celebrates image-making and story-telling traditions around us and juxtaposes them to study the meaning of such images over time. Some of the threads that constitute the palette of the films and videos to be screened at Sheharnama are: iconic and award winning independent films that have shaped our imagination of the city; Films Division documentaries that have sought to shape the Indian citizen; student films that explore an engagement with social reality and form; and citizen videos on the social media. Eleven film makers from India and abroad will be present at the festival. The programme includes iconic films Like Deepa Dhanraj’s ‘Kya Hua Is Shehar Ko?’ on communal riots in Hyderabad in 1984; international films like ‘Tondo, Beloved: To What Are The Poor Born’ on life in slums next to the Manila port and ‘A Disappearance foretold’ on the redevelopment of areas in Beijing before the Olympics. Among recent films from India are Anirban Datta’s ‘Wasted’, a metaphysical reflection on the notion of waste in our cities and lives and Uma Tanuku’s ‘Night Hawks’ on life and labour in the nocturnal landscape of Delhi. ‘Hamare Ghar’ and ‘Breakin’ Mumbai’ are among the student films in the package along with a selection of films from NID and the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. Sheharnama is a precursor to the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2014. The festival is co-curated by filmmakers Surabhi Sharma and Avijit Mukul Kishore.status: publishe