Excavating Indian Experimental Film

Dadasaheb Phalke at work

This ongoing research project aims to create an understanding of experimentation with film in India through engaging in discussion with filmmakers, critics, archivists and academics. By unearthing rarely seen avant garde and experimental works, this project looks to initiate discussion and critique on Indian experimental cinema, towards creating an environment that celebrates experimentation with the film form in India. Originally supported through a fellowship by Sarai Delhi (www.sarai.net)

EXCAVATING INDIAN EXPERIMENTAL FILM

This ongoing research project aims to create an understanding of experimentation with film in India through engaging in discussion with filmmakers, critics, archivists and academics. By unearthing rarely seen avant garde and experimental works, this project looks to initiate discussion and critique on Indian experimental cinema, towards creating an environment that celebrates experimentation with the film form in India. Originally supported through a fellowship by Sarai Delhi (www.sarai.net)

INTERVIEWS__________________________________________________________

AMRIT GANGAR is a Mumbai-based writer, film critic, historian and curator. He has co-authored…

ASHISH AVIKUNTHAK has been making self funded films on 16mm & 35mm for the past 10 years and…

SANJIV SHAH directed  the cult classic Hun Hunsi Hunsi Lal (1992), the story of Hunshilal…

ABID SURTI is a master of all trades. He has earned accolades within India and abroad as a…

NINA SHIVDASANI ROVSHEN In 1975 Nina Shivdasani Rovshen (aka Nina Sugati SR), made ‘Chhatrabhang’ – the first Indian…

FILM SOCIETIES: When Godard Rode the 17:05 Borivli Local – An Interview with Amrit Gangar on Screen Unit,  the film society he ran for over two decades in Mumbai.

ARTICLES / ESSAYS_________________________________________________________

 ARTISTS IN ACTION
“The blank canvas and the virgin, unexposed film are the same – on it the maker of film paints not with brush and oil but with light: not only on space but in time at his cutting bench; not only with colour but also with sound. In this – in facing a problem and solving it, a problem of style and form and content – documentary making, again as other arts, calls for experiment, grows with experimentation” – Jean Bhownagary[1]