Talk by Lawrence Liang

[Ranjani Mazumdar]

Dear All,

 

 

This is to inform you that Lawrence Liang will present a talk on Awara’s Constitutional Amendment: Love, Justice and Consent on 23 April 2012, 3 pm at CSDS Seminar Hall.

The abstract of the talk and a brief bio of Lawrence is given below. A line of confirmation of your participation in the talk would be appreciated. 

 

Best

Praveen Rai

Academic Secretary

Centre for the Study of Developing Societies

29, Rajpur Road

Delhi - 110054

Phone: 91-11-23942199

Fax: 91-11-23943450

www.csds.in

 

Abstract:  Law and cinema serve as two important archives through which we imagine the possibilities of collective living. Questions of legality and justice have always had a pervasive presence in Hindi cinema, and cinema has served almost as the juridical unconscious. This paper asks the question about why the courtroom emerges as such as an important space in Hindi films in the fifties, and how questions of love and justice are constantly intertwined in this period. My presentation explores a conversation of justice between these two archives. Using Raj Kapoor’s Awara (a film that coincides with the first amendment to the constitution) I pose the question of how we may rethink consent and amendment not just as formal constitutional categories but deeply personal ones where we register our hopes and disappointments.

 

About the Speaker: Lawrence Liang is a lawyer and co-founder of the Alternative Law Forum. ALF is a collective of lawyers working on various aspects of law, legality and power. He works on the intersection of law and cultural politics. His work on Intellectual Property looks at how the digital turn has accelerated conflicts over questions of authorship, ownership and circulation in the cultural domain. His interest in free software and media piracy led him to looking at how these practices define contemporary culture. Liang has been involved in a number of anti censorship cases and campaigns in India and has also written on law and aesthetics. Currently finishing a thesis/ book on Law, Justice and Cinema in India, Liang has collaborated closely with Sarai: CSDS for ten years and is currently a visiting fellow at CSDS.

 

 

--
Ranjani Mazumdar
Associate Professor
Cinema Studies
School of Arts and Aesthetics
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067