Fwd: [Notes] Behind your back: Neighbourhood Secrets
Padmakumar Media Studies
From: e <ek...@maraa.in>
Date: Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 1:25 PM
Subject: [Notes] Behind your back: Neighbourhood Secrets
To: no...@lists.maraa.in
I LIVE HERE
presents
BEHIND YOUR BACK: NEIGHBOURHOOD SECRETS
One chooses to ponder about the mundane only when one has the time for it. A long interval of time.
When you're tied down to the bed or struck by an illness, or when your smart phone has fallen into the pot, when you're locked out of your own house, or when there's a black out in the area - you ponder. Or maybe you're a bored yet keen observer.
We overdosed on nostalgic accounts of the city which led to the bashing of nostalgia altogether (loss of a beautiful word, sigh!) And then we were with the right here, right now approach. How we make sense of the present; stay in the moment? Some others thought the the whole thing was faffy and wanted to stay neither here or there, and zooped off into the virtual hemisphere, an outer space, an inner space, liminal space...
Somewhere, there could be a genuine disgust to belong. Perhaps, we are all alienated, and had to start enjoying the anonymity within our own familiar territories.
Of course, the stray dogs will bark, till you take another route to get home.
THEY ARE LIVID!
Security guards' are silent for a reason, they see much more than they are supposed to. Our powrakarmikas understand what you're saying, you don't understand their language. Did you really think that no one sees us throw our garbage (slyly) at 11 pm every night?
You are beautiful, sexy and hot.The gaze is inevitable. No law or punishment can control that. That ruthless hopeless gaze.
There is a pleasure of living on the edge, because it is violent. We live here, that explains it. Indiranagar, is a neighbourhood that has swallowed itself whole. The left overs are left astray and abandoned, while the shimmering lights and fitness music, keeps the neighbourhood dizzy, intoxicated with the hunger for some more.
Have you not seen the man pointing the gun towards you?
On this note, we present a retrospective of Kleber Mendonca's films, which are apt premonitions of our lives in neighbourhoods, like ours. Kleber's films are an eye opener into the mundane, in all its horror, lust and pathos. Recife, where he comes from in Brazil, shares a similar feel to Bangalore - a paralyzing fear of violence and a taste for ugly and aggressive urbanism common to many cities. Straight lines and right angles. Sterile and boring. Leaving its streets inhospitable and crushing the human element.
We invite to watch these films as a precursor to devise walks around the
"The MUNDANE & THE SECRETIVE".
You need to watch the films, be part of discussions, and write a one pager on the walk you wish to devise.
Maraa can cover the actual costs for 4 selected walks in the neighbourhood. Language/Age/Neighbourhood no bar.
You will get two months to develop your walk. Your walk can use audio, video, image, object or just feet.
19th Jan | Friday | 600 pm - 900 pm | MARAA TERRACE
Recife Frio | 25 mins
In the tropical city of Recife, temperatures drop drastically and its inhabitants have to adapt. This 'mockumentary' gradually turns critical, looking at the climate, urban development and social interaction from every angle. Does a ray of sun pierce the clouds, after all?
The Little Cotton Girl | 6 mins
An homage to childhood nightmares. 'The Little Cotton Girl' was a dead little girl, her nostrils stuffed with cotton, who haunted school toilets in 1970s Recife.
Neighbouring Sounds | 2 hour 11 mins
An x-ray of a middle-class district in Recife: in the street where a rich family owns lots of real estate, life takes an unexpected turn when a private security outfit offers its services to the residents.
***
20th Jan | Saturday | 500 pm - 900 pm | MARAA TERRACE
Green Vinyl | 17 mins
A sweet horror film for children, it's freely adapted from a Russian fairy tale.
Electrodomestica | 22 mins
An inventive portrait of middle class life in Recife, Brazil in the 90s set at 220 volts.
INTERVAL
Aquarius | 2 hours, 26 mins
Clara, a 65 year old widow and retired music critic, was born into a wealthy and traditional family in Recife, Brazil. She is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-story ...
_______________________________________________
Notes mailing list
No...@lists.maraa.in
http://lists.maraa.in/listinfo.cgi/notes-maraa.in
Warmly,