Events
Barnard College: Film Screening of "Jai Bhim Comrade" & Discussion with Director
Jai
Bhim Comrade (2011, 198
minutes)
Followed by a discussion with director
Anand Patwardhan
Co-sponsored by the South Asia Institute and the
Film Department, School of the Arts
Introduction by Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor
and Chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures
Department
Fourteen years in the making, Anand Patwardhan's
documentary tells a story of Dalit and communal
politics in
Maharashtra, and the ongoing struggles of Dalits
for justice and equality. When a statue of B. R.
Ambedkar in Mumbai's Ramabai colony was desecrated in 1997,
angry crowds gathered, and the police opened fire,
killing ten unarmed persons, all of them from the Dalit
community. Vilas Ghogre, an activist, poet and
singer, who witnessed the events, later hung himself in
despair. Jai Bhim Comrade traces the
decade-long story of the protest through the poetry and music of Ghogre and
others. Jai Bhim Comrade was named Best
Film at both
the Mumbai International Film Festival and Film
South Asia, Katmandu, Nepal, and received the
Firebird Award at the Hong Kong International Film
Festival.
Anand Patwardhan earned a B.A. in English
Literature from Bombay University, a B.A. in
Sociology from
Brandeis University, and a Master's degree in
Communications from McGill University. He has been
making
award-winning political documentaries for nearly
three decades, pursuing diverse and controversial
issues that illuminate social and political life in
India. Many of his films were at one time or
another banned by
state television channels in India and became the
subject of litigation by Patwardhan who
successfully challenged the censorship rulings in court. His
film War and Peace/Jang aur Aman (2002)
received a Best Documentary award from the National Film
Awards of India in 2004, as well as top prizes at
film festivals in Karachi, Kerala, Mumbai, Sydney, Tokyo, and
Zanzibar.
Seating is limited and will be on a first-come,
first seated basis.
Time: 3:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: Julius S. Held Lecture Hall, Room 304, Barnard Hall
Enter Barnard College campus
at 117th Street and Broadway