POSTPONED: Recasting Selves: A Screening and Discussion with Filmmaker Lalit Vachani

Group of people reading a letter out loud to one another
WHERE:
1 Washington Place
Room 701
 

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. STAY TUNED FOR A NEW DATE.  

Set at CREST (the Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation) in Kozhikode, Kerala – Recasting Selves documents the “soft skills’” training of Dalit and Adivasi post-graduate students in a sensitive and nurturing campus environment as preparation for their employment in the new Indian economy. As a progressive institution combating caste inequalities, CREST has trained over 1200 students and professionals from marginalized communities in Kerala. But how politicized or politically aware is the ‘recast self’? Filmed in February and April 2016 – a few months after Rohith Vemula’s suicide in Hyderabad, the students are initially forced to confront their own identity and a history of discrimination in the context of Vemula’s tragic death. Matters come to a climax when the CREST students research and select the theme of the semester ending play. Will they choose to do a play that exposes caste discrimination around Rohit Vemula’s suicide? Or will they select one that expresses their fears about ‘Bengali’ migration to Kerala? In this choice of play subject and its ensuing debate, lie signs and markers about power, livelihood and identity politics. And the silence around issues of caste in Kerala.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between filmmaker Lalit Vachani and Prof. Ritty Lukose (NYU Gallatin)

Main Credits:

Direction, Script and Editing: Lalit Vachani

Research and Concept: Sanjay Srivastava

Production and 2nd shoot Direction: Priya Sen

Camera: Syed Husain Akbar

Location Sound: Godly Timo Koshy

Executive Producer: Srirupa Roy

A Wide Eye Film for ICAS: MPMade with the support the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), University of Göttingen and the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).

 

This event is co-sponsored by the Urban Democracy Lab, South Asia @ NYU, the Center for Media, Culture & History, and the Gallatin Human Rights Initiative.

RSVP

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