You Don’t Belong, A West Heavens Project

You Don’t Belong:
Pasts and Futures of Indian Cinema (Screening) & India-China Dialogue on Film and Social Thought (Forum)
A West Heavens Project, in partnership with Magic Lantern
Curated by Ashish Rajadhyaksha
November 25 to December 25, 2011 Beijing-Shanghai-Guangzhou-Kunming

Opening:
3:00 pm, November 25, 2011 Iberia Center for Contemporary Art
Ten-Day Forum in Beijing (Nov 25 to Dec 4):
November 26, 10 am to 4 pm full day forum at Iberia Center for Contemporary Art
December 3, 10 am to 4 pm full day forum at Ullens Center for Contemporary ArtTraveling Film Festival with 35 Indian Independent and Experimental Films with Screenings in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Kunming
westheavens.net/youdontbelong

Hosted by:
Hanart TZ Gallery / Embassy of India, Beijing/ School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art

Beijing Station:
Iberia Center for Contemporary Art
798 Art Zone
No.4 Jiuxianqiao Road
Chaoyang District, Beijing

Beijing Film Academy
4 Xitucheng Lu
Haidian District, Beijing

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
798 Art Zone
No.4 Jiuxianqiao Road
Chaoyang District, Beijing

As India’s film industry has already rapidly surpassed the rest of the world in its annual output, one is left to ask: what defines contemporary Indian cinema, especially the cinema that is created in opposition to or outside of the current cinematic vanguard? Through over thirty film screenings of feature-length narrative films, documentaries, and experimental short films, as well as a series of discussions on the state of contemporary Indian cinema, You Don’t Belong seeks to reexamine the concept of Indian cinema within multiple discourses, including cultural history, partition and post-British colonial rule, social and activist movements, and the expanding digital matrix. Spanning the past three decades of Indian commercial and independent filmmaking, the discussions in this forum posit narratives that reposition Indian cinema within the contexts of multiple, sometimes contradictory, spheres—the local and the global, the rural and the urban, the individual and the national. In addition, You Don’t Belong aims to continue the larger cultural dialogue between India and China through a series of lectures and roundtable discussions featuring notable scholars, filmmakers, and social activists.

India-China Dialogues on Film and Social Thought

India and China are often positioned as rivals, especially in the Western world, due to their rapid economic development and high populations. However, India and China have more in common than simply being the shared targets of Western fear-mongering. These discussions seek to establish a richer cross-cultural dialogue between India and China, examining their histories through a cinematic lens. These conversations feature Indian and Chinese intellectuals dedicated to disrupting the rigid dichotomy of ‘India versus China.’

‘Ancient’ Cinemas? A Theory of How Cinema Works within Ancient Civilizations
Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Forum Curator and Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Culture & Society
Iberia Center for Contemporary Art

Body, Time, and Rhythms of Production in Indian Cinema
Moinak Biswas, Associate Professor of Film Studies, Jadavpur University
Iberia Center for Contemporary Art

Dotting the ‘I’
Paromita Vohra, Documentary Filmmaker and Screenwriter
Beijing Film Academy

Cinematic and Digital Ontologies
Lawrence Liang, Legal Researcher, Lawyer, and Co-founder of the Alternative Law Forum
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

Roundtable Discussions

Roundtable I: Documentary Images and the Language of Rights
Beijing Film Academy

Roundtable II: Bringing the Documentary Home: Domesticity and Documentary Film
Beijing Film Academy

Roundtable III: Urban Culture, Part One
Beijing Film Academy

Roundtable IV: On the Ecology of Independent Filmmaking
Beijing Film Academy

Roundtable V: Urban Culture, Part Two
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

For more information and the programs in other cities, please visit www.westheavens.net