A Timeline and a Film, with Priya Sen
Feb. 29, 2020
CAMP Rooftop
7:00 pm
ASSEMBLY, 30 min.
+
YEH FREEDOM LIFE, 70 min
Followed by a discussion with Priya
S reads out this poem by Vinod Kumar Shukl.
हताशा से एक व्यक्ति बैठ गया था
व्यक्ति को मैं नहीं जानता था
हताशा को जानता था
इसलिए मैं उस व्यक्ति के पास गया
मैंने हाथ बढ़ाया
मेरा हाथ पकड़कर वह खड़ा हुआ
मुझे वह नहीं जानता था
मेरे हाथ बढ़ाने को जानता था
हम दोनों साथ चले
दोनों एक दूसरे को नहीं जानते थे
साथ चलने को जानते थे
-7th February 2020
Fatima Sheikh Savitribai Phule Library, Shaheenbagh.
From ASSEMBLY, A timeline from Shaheen Bagh. 30 min
YEH FREEDOM LIFE, 70 min.
Filmed in Ambedkar Nagar, Delhi over 15 months, Yeh Freedom Life tries to keep up with its protagonists. One of them works at a local beauty parlour, the other runs the family’s small cigarette counter at a crowded intersection. They are surrounded by a cacophonous city; they are both in love with other women. "We realised in this duration, that we were making a film in which love was at the centre, and everything else moved around it. Most of what we had to do was to try and follow its swirls and currents and be present through its heartbreaks and epiphanies. In the end, what had revealed itself to us was intense, yet precarious love - and to paraphrase a line a friend wrote about the film - lives that were fully open to its uncertainties".
Language: Hindi with English subtitles
Direction & Editing: Priya Sen
Cinematography: Ankur Ahuja
Sound Mix: Hashtone, Mumbai
Followed by a discussion with Priya.
Priya Sen is an artist working across film, video, sound, and installation. Her work has largely centered around questions of form, urban ethnographies, music, and migration–mainly in New Delhi, a city in which she chooses to situate her practice. Priya was a long-time member of the Cybermohalla Project at Sarai. Her films have been presented at the Flaherty Seminar 2019, among other festivals and venues.
Mother Truth and her Unruly, Loving Children, Session 1.
