Tag Archives: Imagination

GULABI GANG – film screening 8 November @ Silai Centre

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

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GULABI GANG
Saturday 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 & many more!

*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

Feminist activism – temporary, invisible, documented

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Feminist activism is often omitted from histories, and the majority of mainstream media. One of the main reasons why the Feminist Archive was set up was to ensure that there is a safe, secure place where documentation of feminist movements can be collected so they are less likely to be forgotten.

Feminist activism can of course take many forms. But it is those activisms which are underground, subcultural and temporary that are particularly at risk from erasure from the history books.

This photo of a vibrant piece of graffiti located at the St Werburghs-St Pauls underpass near the M32 junction taken on 5 May 2013 with a smart phone, encapsulates all these aspects of feminist activism.

Colourful piece of graffiti that says 'Stop Violence Against Women'

It is likely that this image, which has clearly been made to capture the attention, to force passer-bys to look again as the combination of text and colour emits a message of hope and social transformation, will be washed away by the council at some point in the next few days, weeks or months.

It will leave no physical record that can continue to tell the story of how this piece graphic communication intervenes into public space, and defiantly offers an alternative to the messages that are paraded on billboards, encouraging nothing more than a culture of excessive consumption and economic exploitation.

Everyday mobile technologies like smartphones (which of course are intimately bound up with capitalism), are tools to document these brazen messages that offer people the chance to dream, hope, live and create otherwise.

If you see other examples of feminist graffiti, please send them in and we can share them on this site.