Dialogue
Cinema City is simultaneously porous, translucent, transient, gated, opaque and ghettoized. In order to engage with the multiplicity and plasticity of this unique configuration a series of dialogues were set across disciplines, sectors, languages, methodologies and lands: beyond the known fields of Urban Study and Film Study. These dialogues were designed to cross the threshold of disciplines and evolve a practice-based, inter-disciplinary discourse for Cinema City.
17 January 2015, The Deepak, Lower Parel, Mumbai
with UDRI (Urban Design Research Institute)
Release of Cinema Theatres in Bombay/Mumbai: A Dossier edited by Paroma Sadhana, design by Afrah Shafiq, Majlis & UDRI, 2015.
Exhibition on Cinema Theatres
Discussants: D. M Sukhtankar, former Municipal Commissioner of Bombay Municipal
Corporation; Pankaj Joshi, director of UDRI; Punit Shah, CEO of Deepak Talkies,
Madhusree Dutta, director of Majlis
21 November 2014, Studio X, Mumbai
with Leeds School of Architecture
Catalytic Commoning: one day forum of workshops, talks and exhibition
Presentations by: Paroma Sadhana on researching Cinema Theatres in Bombay/Mumbai; Avijit Mukul Kishore on Public Images of a City and Rohan Shivkumar on Cinematic City.
21 March, 2014, Asiatic Society Mumbai
Cinema and The City series
Public lecture on Cinema as Public Sphere by Madhusree Dutta
16 February 2014, Max Mueller Bhavan Delhi
Courtesy Magic Lantern Foundation
Delhi launch of the publication Project Cinema City, eds. Madhusree Dutta, Kaushik Bhowmik and Rohan Shivkumar. Design by Sherna Dastur. Tulika Books
Book released by artist Vivan Sundaram
Screening Sin City by Shrikant Agawane
Presentation Public Images of a City by Avijit Mukul Kishore
Discussants: Ravi Vasudevan,film historian; Tushar Joag, visual artist; Sherna
Dastur, filmmaker-designer; Madhusree Dutta, filmmaker-curator. Moderator:
Kaushik Bhowmik.
Performance by Neel Chowdhury
24 January, 2014, India Habitat Centre Delhi
(Aga Khan Trust for Culture)
Invisible Heritage at Conference on Culture as a Tool for Urban Development
Paper presentation on Labour, Aspiration and Space Use in Cinema City by Madhusree Dutta
11 January 2014, Kala Ghoda / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai
Mumbai launch of cinema city publications
Cinema City exhibition at Kala Ghoda promenade
Opening remarks by Arjun Appadurai
dates.sites released by cine archivist P. K. Nair
Project Cinema City released by artist Nalini Malani
Readings and presentations of excerpts from the books by Bishakha Datta, Prasad Shetty, Paromita Vohra, Rohan Shivkumar, Sameer Tawde.
Discussants: Sooni Taraporewala, photo artiste-filmmaker; Meenal Bhagel, editor; Kaiwan Mehta, urban theorist; Madhusree Dutta, curator – Project Cinema City. Moderator: Kaushik Bhaumik, film historian.
9 December 2013, IFFK (International Film Festival of Kerala), Trivandrum
International release of Project Cinema City, eds. Madhusree Dutta, Kaushik Bhaumik, Rohan Shivkumar. Designed by Sherna Dastur. Tulika Books
Book released by filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Keynote address by filmmaker Harun Farocki
Readings of excerpts from the book
Panel discussion: Rohan Shivkumar (ed.), Madhusree Dutta (ed.), Ayisha Abraham
(visual artist). Moderator: C.S. Venkiteswaran (film historian-curator).
27 June 2013 Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne
Journalist Regina Wyrwoll discusses the publication dates.sites Bombay / Mumbai with Madhusree Dutta.
22 November 2012, Max Mueller Bhavan Bengaluru
Bangalore launch of dates.sites Bombay / Mumbai
Discussants: Arshiya Sattar, translator-writer; Indira Chaudhury, archivist; Arundhati Nag; theatre artist
17-18-19 November 2012, Bar 1 Studio, Bengaluru
Other Cinema Cities
Festival of short films related to the theme of Cinema City, curated by Hansa
Thapliyal.
Exhibition of works by artists Suresh Kumar Gapalareddy and Christoph Storz.
4 November 2012, NGMA Bengaluru
Conversations on Ways of Mapping the City
Urban Intervention: Art, Activism and Collective
Deepa Dhanraj, filmmaker; Nam Ismail, journalist; Arvind Narain, Alternative
Law Forum.
Moderator: Madhusree Dutta, filmmaker and curator of Project Cinema City.
(Re)presenting City: Subverting the Popular
Atul Dodiya, visual artist; Archana Hande, visual artist and co-curator of
Project Cinema City; Pushpamala N., visual artist and Shantamani, visual
artist.
Moderator: Suresh Jayaram, curator and art critic.
1 November 2012, 1 Shanti Road Bangalore
An evening around the book dates.sites: Bombay / Mumbai,
Researching found image / text: Presentation by Paroma Sadhana and Samma Blu
Discussants: Christoph Storzch, visual artist; Ram Sinam, graphic designer; and
Anil Kumar, art historian.
8 September 2012, Max Mueller Bhavan Calcutta
Calcutta launch of dates.sites Bombay / Mumbai
Book released by Swapan Kumar Chakravorty, Director General of National Library India, Kolkata
Presentations on Archiving Practices and Methodologies
Tactility in Project Cinema City: Madhusree Dutta
Archive of Family Portraits: Hardik Biswas
Discussion on dates.sites: Disseminating Archive
Madhuja Mukherjee, Film theorist; Samita Sen, Historian; Sarnath Banerjee,
graphic novelist; Ruchir Joshi, author-filmmaker; Sadanand Menon,
journalist-archivist. Moderated by Indu Chandrashekhar, publisher.
October, 2012, THINK.FILM: International Experimental Cinema Congress
(Arsenal: Institute for Films and Video Art Berlin)
Cinema City in the panel on Urban Culture
14 September 2012, Ambedkar University Delhi
Documenting the Transient, Archiving the Contemporary
Screening Sin City by Shrikant Agawane
Introductory address by Madhusree Dutta, project curator
Panel Discussion: Kaushik Bhaumik, film historian; Ranjani Mazumdar, film
scholar; Pushpamala N, visual artist; Vivan Sundaram, visual artiste.
12 September 2012, Max Mueller Bhavan Delhi
Materiality, Performance and Location in Cinema City
Screening Dhananjay Kulkarni ‘Chandragupt’ by Rrivu Laha
Conversation Shohini Ghosh, media theorist-filmmaker, with Madhusree Dutta,
curator, Project Cinema City, on the book dates.sites Bombay/Mumbai
Screening Dark Room by Renu Savant
Panel discussion: Anuradha Kapur, theatre director; Kaushik Bhaumik, film
historian; Rohan Shivkumar, urban theorist. Moderated by Robin Mallick,
Director Programmes South Asia, Goethe-Institut.
Screening Women Viewing Cinema
3 August 2012, Siri Fort Auditorium Complex, Delhi
Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival
Delhi Launch of the publication dates.sites Bombay / Mumbai authored by Madhusree Dutta; designed by Shilpa Gupta and Madhusree Dutta. Tulika Books
Release of the book by filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee
Project introduction by Kaushik Bhaumik
Lawrence Liang (Alternative Law Fourm)converses with Madhusree Dutta and Shilpa
Gupta
Reading from the book by performance artiste Maya Krishna Rao
20 May 2012, (NGMA) National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai
on occasion of the Cinema City exhibition premiere
International Symposium on Archiving the Contemporary
Run through Project Cinema City by Madhusree Dutta\
Keynote I The City of Festival: The Durga Puja of Contemporary Calcutta
Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Director, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences,
Kolkata
Respondent: Gulammohammed Sheikh, Artist
Panel discussion Archiving the Contemporary
Rohan Shivkumar, Architect, Deputy Director KRVIA
Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum
Jyotindra Jain, Researcher, Museologist and former Dean of School of Arts and
Aesthetics, JNU
Moderator: Ashish Rajadhyaksh, Film Historian
Keynote II Living Archive
Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Director, Arsenal: Institute of Film and Video Art,
Berlin
Respondents: Arghya Basu, Filmmaker and faculty of FTII; and Paromita Vohra,
Filmmaker
Conversation: The City as Artwork/Archive
Artists of the Project Cinema City (Atul Dodiya, Anant Joshi, Archana Hande,
Kausik Mukhopadhay, Pushpamala N., and Shreyas Karle) in conversation with
Kaushik Bhaumik.
28 March 2012, Film and Television Institute of India, Pune
(Short Course on Film Curation and Practice)
Curatorial Interventions in Project Cinema City, lecture by Madhusree Dutta
22 March 2012 Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai
Inaugural show of Fried Fish, Chicken Soup & a Premier Show by Mamta Murthy, followed by Q&A with the director.
15-24 April 2011, The South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development, Egypt
Conference on Visual Methodologies: Beyond the written and towards the sensory
The Calendar Project: Iconography in the 20th Century presented by Samma Blu
30 January 2011, Film and Television Institute of India
(curtesy Open Space) Commemorating Golden Jubilee of FTII
Cinematic Imaginations and the City
Screening of Cinema City Shorts
Panel Discussion: Ajit Duara, film critic; Gayatri Chatterjee, film scholar;
Kaushik Bhaumik, film historian; and Rohan Shivkumar, urban theorist.
Moderated by Madhusree Dutta, filmmaker-curator.
1 November 2010, Korean National University of Arts, Seoul
Master Class Cinema in / of the City with the Post Graduate students of Dept. of Film Studies by Madhusree Dutta
July-September 2010, Edward Theatre, Kalbadevi Road, Mumbai
Weekly Public screening of World City Cinema
22 July
Goodbye Lenin by Wolfgang Becker, 2003, Germany.
Portrait of an East German family around the fall of Berlin wall.
29 July
Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, 1960, France.
Tale of a street smart crook and a female newspaper vendor on the streets of
Paris. (Curtesy Alliance Francaise de Mumbai)
5 August
The Devil Strikes at Night by Robert Soidmak, 1957, Germany.
A serial killer is found to be a mentally deranged man and a staunch Nazi
loyalist by the Gestapo officials.
12 August
Films on Bombay / Mumbai by Films Division. 90 minutes
The Burning Sun by SNS Sastry
And Miles to Go by Sukhdev
Explorer by Pramod Pati
Arrival by Mani Kaul
Destination Bombay by G L Bharadwaj
Trip by Pramod Pati
19 August
Bhumika by Shyam Benegal 1977, India.
Based on Sangte Aika, the autobiography of Hansa Wadkar, the film star of the
1940-50.
26 August
Memories of Underdevelopment by Tomas Gutiérrez Alea 1968, Cuba.
Caught in the intersection of a changing society in Cuba, immediately after the
revolution, the protagonist from the elite strata watches life through a
binocular.
2 September
An Autumn Afternoon Yasujiro Ozu, 1962, Japan.
The last film by the maestro, depicts the journey of an old patriarch who
slowly comes in terms with the modernisation process and shifting of social
values.
July-October 2010, Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai
Public Lecture Series
13 July
City Narratives: film/s on Bombay by Amrit Gangar, film historian
20 July
Multi-linguality of the City and Urban Literature by Mitra Mukherjee
Parikh, literature scholar
3 August
Urbanity in Post-war Europe and Cinema of the Underground by Robin Mallick,
film curator
17 August
Contemporary Art and the City: Conversation between Art Critic Girish
Sahane and performance artist Nikhil Chopra
24 August
Writing the Bloodstream of the City: Talk on contemporary writings by
Ranjit Hoskote, poet
31 August
The Re-makes, Remixes and Re-circulations in Digital Era by Paromita Vohra,
filmmaker
14 September
Performing Urbanity: Bodies and performance conventions in urban Hindi
cinema by Jerry Pinto, author
21 September
Digital Dialect: An overview of Manipuri cinema: presentation by Mamta
Murthy, filmmaker
28 September
Imaging the City in Contemporary Documentary Practices by Surabhi Sharma,
filmmaker
5 October
Validity of City Cinema in the 21st Century by George Jose, cultural study
scholar
9 July 2010, SNDT Women’s University, Juhu Campus
Inauguration of the PG Certificate Course
Premier of Anna Sound Please by Tangella Madhavi
Panel Discussion Cinematic Cities and City Cinema
Madhusree Dutta, project curator; Rahul Srivastav, urbanist; and Sadanand
Menon, journalist and archivist. Moderated by Kaushik Bhaumik, film historian.
29 April 2010, Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai
An evening of Contemporary City Narratives
Screening of Sin City by Srikant Agawane
Introduction to Project Cinema City by Madhusree Dutta
Framer Framed: Filmmaking practices. Paromita Vohra converses with Saeed
Aktar Mirza.
Unreal City: Poetic Narratives and the Cities: Readings from the works of
Arun Kolatkar, Dilip Chitre, Namdev Dasal and Arundhati Subramanium. Moderated
by Abhay Sardesai and Mitra Parikh.
Mapping Bodies in the city: Architect Rohan Shivkumar talks to visual
artist Sudhir Patwardhan.
16 February 2010, Arsenal Kino II, Forum Expanded, Berlinale
(on occasion of 60th anniversary of Berlinale)
Cinema City Project: International Premiere
Screening of Certified Universal by Avijit Mukul Kishore, Dark Room by Renu Savant, Have you Dreamt Cinema? by Hansa Thapliyal and Sin City by Srikant Agawane
Panel Discussion on Cinema City
Kaushik Bhaumik, film historian; Madhusree Dutta, project curator; Robin
Mallick, film curator; Rohan Shivkumar, urban theorist; Dorothee Wenner, film
curator.
Moderated by Nicole Wolf, film study scholar.
11 October 2009, National Centre for Performing Arts Mumbai
(curtsey Asia Society India)
Preview of Cinema City
Conversation: artist Atul Dodiya and film historian Ashish Rajadhyadhaksha
Screening of Certified Universal by Avijit Mukul Kishore, Have you Dreamt
Cinema? by Hansa Thapliyal, Dhanajay Kulkarni ‘Chandragupt’ by Rrivu
Laha.
Discussion moderated by Paromita Vohra
Panel Discussion What is Cinema City?
Madhusree Dutta, curator – cinema city; Mamta Murthy, filmmaker; Rohan
Shivkumar, urban theorist. Moderated by George Jose, cultural study scholar.
Screening of Dark Room by Renu Savant, Do Refique by Rafeeq Ellias and
Sin City by Srikant Agawane.
Discussion moderated by Surabhi Sharma
18 April 2009, India International Centre, New Delhi
(courtesy Magic Lantern Foundation)
Curtain Raiser on the project
Screenings Dark Room by Renu Savant and Dhananjay Kulkarni ‘Chandragupt’ by Rrivu Laha
Project introduction by Madhusree Dutta
Topology of the Cinema City Rohan Shivkumar
Introduction to Pila House Abeer Gupta
Considering Return of Phantom Lady Pushpamala N.