Book Opening
June 4, 2023
CAMP, Mumbai
Midnight's Third Child
Readings, Screenings and Discussions
with Naeem Mohaiemen
Midnight's Third Child is an anthology of essays by Naeem Mohaiemen on artists and art movements in Bangladesh – with a focus on cinema, literature, and visual arts. The title is a response to Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981); it points to what was left out of postcolonial art history in South Asia– the many fates of the geography of Bangladesh.
Midnight's Third Child is also a translation of the Bangla phrase: chagol'er tritiyo baccha lafay beshi (the goat's third child jumps more), that suggests that the youngest needs to strive for maternal sustenance. It also proposes a clarity of purpose from being the last born.
This event explores the book and two film projects discussed in the book, and ends with a screening of Naeem’s film Jole Dobe Na (Those Who Do Not Drown).
Schedule
6:30pm: Chai, Greet and Meet.
7 pm: Reading from the book by Naeem, with accompanying films.
Excerpt from Adam Surat by Tareque Masud, 1989.
Followed by Dadu by Molla Sagar, 37 mins, 2017.
Discussion with Prabodh Parikh, Shaina Anand and friends.
Book Signing*
9 PM: Jole Dobe Na , 2020, 64 mins.
*Copies of the book will be available for sale. RSVP early here.
Naeem Mohaiemen combines photography, films, and essays to research the many forms of utopia-dystopia (families, borders, architecture, and uprisings) in South Asia after 1947.
Prabodh Parikh is a poet, fiction writer, painter and teacher of Philosophy and Film based in Bombay.
Shaina Anand is a filmmaker and artist based at CAMP, Bombay.
Cover image by Ali Morshed Noton, featuring (l to r), Tareque Masud (1956–2011), Dhali Al Mamoon (1958–), Unidentified, Syed Sajjad Hossain Jyoti (1959–missing 1993), Mishuk Munier (1959–2011); during shooting of Tareque Masud's 'Adam Surat' (1989) on artist S M Sultan (1923–1994) at Audiovision office, Lalmatia, 1986.
