Gulabi Gang: A Documentary, Bristol Screening

This new documentary about the Gulabi Gang, a group of women activists in Northern India is being screened in Bristol in November. Please circulate widely.

GULABI GANG
8th November, Silai Centre Easton Road
Doors open from 6pm, film starts at 7pm

Suggested donation £3

Nishtha Jain, a film maker from India will be visiting Bristol on 8th November for a very special screening of her latest film, Gulabi Gang, a documentary about an inspirational group of women working in Northern India to challenge gender violence and state corruption.

Please join us for this exciting screening and unique opportunity to learn about the activism against gender violence happening in India at the moment.

*GULABI GANG*

Norway/India/Denmark/2012/Hindi with English Subtitles

A film by Nishtha Jain(India), produced by Oscar and Emmy nominated
Torstein Grude(Norway) and Signe Sorenson(Denmark)

*Synopsis*

Enter the badlands of Bundelkhand in central India and you have entered a
place of desolation, dust and despair. This film follows the Gulabi Gang,
an unusual group of rural women led by the energetic and charismatic Sampat
Pal. They travel long distances to fight for the rights of women and
Dalits. Often they encounter resistance, apathy and corruption, even
ridicule. Sometimes whole villages connive against them to protect the
perpetrators of violence. While we see Gulabi Gang members struggling
against gender violence and state corruption, we also see the flip side –
members getting sucked by the trappings of their new found power. Breaking
away from the deep-rooted patriarchal structure is a challenge even for the
most fearless amongst them. The film pulls us into the centre of these
blazing conflicts and uncovers a complex story about the nature of power
itself.

*AWARDS AND HONORS*

Best Documentary, Dubai International Film Festival, 2012

Best Documentary, Kortfilmfestivalen, Norway 2012

Amnesty International Award for Human Rights, Planete-doc Review, Warsaw

First Amnesty International Human Rights Award, Tri-Continental IFF, South
Africa 2013

Best Documentary, International Association of Women in Radio &
Television(IAWRT) 2013

Best Director, Mumbai International Film Festival, Mumbai, 2014

Best Documentary(Social Issues), National Awards, India, 2014

Best Non-feature Editing, National Awards, India, 2014

Best Protagonist, ImagineIndia, Madrid 2014

*Over 50 International Film Festivals including IDFA, Dubai, Zurich,
Tampere, Hong Kong, *

*Dokfest Munich, Dokufest Kosovo, Films de Femmes Creteil, MIFF…*

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE: IDFA, Amsterdam 2012

OPENING FILM: Dok.fest Muenchen, 2013

OPENING FILM: Documentary Section, Kortfilmfestivalen, Grimstad, Norway 2012

OPENING FILM: Pune Women’s Film Festival 2013

OPENING FILM: Our Lives To Live Film Festival, Mumbai 2012

OPENING FILM: Doc@Everest Series, Bangalore, 2014

OPENING FILM: Reality Check, IDPA@NCPA, 2014

*Main Crew*

Direction Nishtha Jain

Script Nishtha Jain, Torstein Grude, Smriti Nevatia

Cinematography Rakesh Haridas

Editor Arjun Gourisaria

Location Sound Niraj Gera

Music Composer Peter Scartabello

Sound Editing/Mix Peter Schultz

Assistant Director Aditya Kelgaonkar

Line Producer Neelima Goel

Producer Torstein Grude, Piraya Films, Norway

Co-producer Nishtha Jain, Raintree Films, India

Co-Producer Signe Bryge Sorenson, Anne Kohncke, Final Cut For
Real

*Supported by*

Sundance Documentary Fund

IDFA Fund

Norwegian Film Institute

Danish Film Institute Film Fund

Nordic TV and Film Fund

*Nishtha Jain* is an award winning filmmaker based in Mumbai. She has
directed several films including the critically acclaimed
*City of Photos(2005)* and *Lakshmi and Me(2008). *She’s a graduate of
FTII, Pune and Jamia Mass communication Research Centre.
http://www.raintreefilms.net
http://www.lakshmiandme.com

Audio of Gail Lewis’ Response to Sweet Sugar Rage at Translation Transmission

Thanks to everyone who come to our screening of Sweet Sugar Rage last night.

For those of you who missed it, you will be glad we recorded Dr Gail Lewis’ response to the film, which is featured below for your listening pleasure.

In the audio Gail reflects on the impact of Sistren’s visit to the Brixton Black Women’s Group in the 1980s, exploring how the feminist work translated across borders within the context of a Black feminist movement rooted in anti-imperialist and internationalist politics.

Gail also uses the conversation to reflect on how the cultural memory of the Black Women’s movement in the UK has been transmitted, and how this has shaped the politics of knowledge production within contemporary feminism more widely.

You can listen and download the audio by clicking through on this link.

Our final screening is on Sunday at 1pm. We are showing the Iranian film Facing Mirrors, get your tickets here.

We are delighted that Elhum Shakerifar will join us to discuss the film.

If you want to read up on the film, and Transgender in Iran more widely, you can read this blog post from the Ajam Media Collective and this article by Afsaneh Najmabadi.

Final Two Screenings – Sweet Sugar Rage & Facing Mirrors

Thanks to everyone who came to today’s screening of Surname Viet, Given Name Nam!

We are now moving into the final week of Translation/ Transmission. This means there are only two screenings left!

Tuesday 25 March 6pm – Sweet Sugar Rage, Sistren Theatre Collective

Founded in 1977, Sistren are a women’s popular theatre company based in Kingston, Jamaica, who use drama-in-education as a means of problem solving at a community level; questioning in particular society’s failure to value the work and skills of women. Sweet Sugar Rage highlights the harsh conditions facing female workers on a Jamaican sugar estate in the 80s. We travel from Kingston to the sugar cane fields of Clarendon and back again, guided by an infectious reggae rhythm.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with Dr Gail Lewis, long standing member of Brixton Black Women’s Group and a co-founder of the Organisation for Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD), who will reflect on her memories of Sistren’s visits to the UK.

Sunday 30 March 1pm – Facing Mirrors

Set in contemporary Iran, Facing Mirrors is a story of an unlikely and daring friendship that develops despite social norms and religious beliefs. Although Rana is a traditional wife and mother, she is forced to drive a cab to pay off the debt that keeps her husband in prison. By chance she picks up the wealthy and rebellious Edi, who is desperately awaiting a passport to leave the country. At first Rana attempts to help, but when she realizes that Edi is transgender, a dangerous series of conflicts arise.

Followed by a response from Elhum Shakerifar, programmer at Bird’s Eye View and documentary producer (The Reluctant Revolutionary).

We also have our final reading group meeting at Hydra Books on Wednesday at 7pm, reading ‘The Embodied Afterlives of Translation’ by Bliss Cua Lim.

Trinh T. Minh-ha’s Surname Viet, Given Name Nam

Cultural translation expert Dr Carol O’Sullivan will be facilitating the discussion after Sunday’s screening of Surname Viet, Given Name Nam. Here Carol offers some initial thoughts on the film.

I had the very great pleasure today of an advance screening of Trinh T. Minh-ha’s extraordinary 1989 documentary Surname Viet, Given Name Nam.

It’s been talked about by researchers in film and in subtitling, so I had known of it for some time but never had a chance to see it because it’s not on commercial release.

The lovely folk at the Watershed cinema very kindly allowed me to come in and have a sneak preview, which was a great luxury.

I’m particularly interested in how the film plays with text on screen, but as today’s showing showed (ha), the director plays with a lot more than that, including with the documentary format itself.

I don’t want to give away too much about it ahead of Sunday’s showing, but readers who know the film already or don’t mind being slightly spoiled may be interested in Jonathan Rosenbaum’s review from back in the day. There’s also a very short preview on Youtube, though it only gives a hint of the film’s richness.

The film will be screened in 16mm format. I’m really looking forward to seeing it again.

Next Screenings for Translation/ Transmission

We are reaching the mid-point for Translation/ Transmission so wanted to remind you of what is coming up this week.

On Tuesday 18 March at 6pm we are showing Dagmar Schultz’s beautiful biopic of her good friend Audre Lorde.

The film is an intimate portrayal of Lorde which allows us to see her as a transnational feminist figure who worked hard to facilitate the collective identities of the Afro-German community in Berlin.

We will also be screening a very special video made by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, who will be reading a letter she wrote to Audre Lorde as part of her activist-educational project The Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind.

Tickets are selling fast so make sure you buy in advance.

On Sunday 23 March at 1pm we are showing Trinh T. Minh-ha’s Surname Viet Given Name Nam, a profoundly personal documentary explores the role of Vietnamese women historically and in contemporary society,

Using dance, printed texts, folk poetry and the words and experiences of Vietnamese women in Vietnam—from both North and South—and the United States, Trinh’s film challenges official culture with the voices of women.

Bristol based academic and self-proclaimed film nerd Carol O’Sullivan will be on hand afterwards to help guide the debate.

We are reading criticism relating to the film at this Wednesday’s reading group at Hydra books, 7-9pm, if you want to engage with the film’s theoretical ideas. Download the articles here and here – all welcome!

Don’t forget you can buy your tickets for the Intellect Books raffle at all screenings!

Hope to see you at Watershed for one of the shows!

Translation/ Transmission – Intellect Books Prize Raffle

Throughout Translation/ Transmission you will have the opportunity to enter a raffle to win a selection of amazing prizes from our supporters, Intellect Books.

Intellect, who are based in Bristol, is an independent academic publisher in the fields of creative practice and popular culture, publishing scholarly books and journals in four distinct subject areas: visual arts, film studies, cultural and media studies, and performing arts.

To support the season they have donated several prizes from their catalogue, as well as some swanky tote bags.

We have two copies each of Cinemas of the Other: A Personal Journey with Film-Makers from Iran and Turkey by Gönül Dönmez-Colin and Directory of World Cinema: Iran, edited by Parviz Jahed, to give away.

Also up for grabs is a year-long subscription to the Journal of African Cinemas and Film International.

All money raised goes toward the cost of running the film season.

Translation/ Transmission – Opens Sunday!

Translation/ Transmission: Women’s Activism Across Time and Space is nearly upon us!

We open on Sunday 9 March at 1pm with Calypso Rose: Lioness of the Jungle, directed by Pascale Obobo. The film will be preceded by a very special performance of Mento and Calypso songs from local singer Nia Melody.

An exuberant and inspiring ambassador for the Caribbean, Calypso Rose is the uncontested and much decorated diva of Calypso music. With more than 800 recorded songs, she continues to be a pioneer and champion of women’s rights, as she travels the world making music. French-Cameroonian filmmaker Pascale Obolo spends four years with Calypso Rose on a very personal journey. Travelling to Paris, New York, Trinidad and Tobago and to her ancestral home in Africa, we learn more about Calypso Rose in each place, and the many faces and facets of her life. The daughter of an illiterate Trinidadian fisherman, she was one of ten children, and was sent to live with relatives in Tobago at the age of 9. At 15 she wrote her first song and launched a career that took her to the top of the male-dominated calypso world. This creative film is not only about memory and the exchange and discovery of world cultures, but also about the journey of a remarkable woman, an Afro-Caribbean soul and an exemplary artist.

Tuesday 11 March, 6pm

We then move onto Ein El Hilweh, Kingdom of Women, directed by Dahna Abourahme, a film about the experience of Palestinian women in refugee camps in Lebanon, 1982-1984. The film showing will be followed by responses from Rita from the Palestinian Embassy Nakba Museum, Bristol.

The story of the women of Ein El Hilweh refugee camp between 1982 and 1984 is an important chapter in the history of Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the camp was destroyed and its men imprisoned. Kingdom of Women documents the organising spirit of women during this period – detailing how they were able to rebuild the camp and provide for their families while their men were held captive. Using animation and scenes from daily life as it moves between past and present, the film focuses on seven women, honoring the contributions they’ve made to the survival of the Palestinian community in exile.

You can buy tickets for the whole season from Watershed’s website. Don’t forget there is a special offer where you can buy four tickets and get the fifth one free.

Hope to see you at the film season!

Audre Lorde reads Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power

Get ready for the screening of Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992 on March 18 at 6pm by listening to Audre reading her amazing essay ‘Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.’

Get your tickets here!

Reading M. Jacqui Alexander…..

…is the best! You’ve never read her? Why not?!

‘What are the different intolerables from which we desire to flee? And how do we distinguish between those sites to which we must return and those from which we must flee entirely? What becomes of those who cannot flee, no matter how intolerable the conditions? In order to wrestle with these questions we would need to adopt as a daily practice, ways of being and relating, modes of analysing, and strategies of organising in which we constantly mobilize identification and solidarity, across all borders, as key elements in the repertoire of risks we need to take to see ourselves as part of one another, even in the context of difference. We would need to disappear the idiocy of “us” and “them” and its cultural relativist underpinnings, the belief that “it could never happen to us,” so that our very consciousness would be shaped by multiple histories and events, multiple geographies, multiple identifications.’

 M. Jacqui Alexander (2005) ‘Remembering This Bridge Called My Back, Remembering Ourselves’ in Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory and the Sacred, Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 257-287, p. 265.

And check out these videos….