Crossings presents: Short Takes

The 11^th screening & discussion event of Crossings – the CeMIS film festival will take place online on Monday, December 20^th 2021 at 4.00 PM CET/ 8.30 PM IST.
We are pleased to present three award-winning films under the section Short Takes, featuring the documentary short film form.

Prateek Shekhar, Eshwarya Grover and Payal Kapadia will be in conversation with Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar.

The films will be available for viewing from 2.00 PM CET/ 6.30 PM IST on Friday, the 17^thof December until 2.00 PM CET/ 6.30 PM IST on Tuesday, the 21^stof December. Please find the links below.

Chai Darbari

20 December 16:00-18:00 CET/20:30-22:30 IST
(Prateek Shekhar, 29 min, 2018)

The film is set in the city of Ayodhya, twenty seven years after the demolition of the mosque and foreshadows the building of the Ram Temple. Set at a tea-stall where people assemble to gossip and to discuss politics, the filmmaker stumbles upon varied textures of conversations. Conversations carrying echoes from print, electronic, social media; redolent with the local atmosphere and the context of the city's past.


	After completing his Bachelors in Sociology from Delhi University, Prateek Shekhar went on to do his Masters in Media and Cultural Studies from Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai. There, he worked on two documentaries, Not Caste in Stone (2014) and Govandi, Crime aur Camera (2015). Prateek has assisted filmmaker and video artist Amar Kanwar. Chai Darbari (2019) emerged from the six-month filmmaking programme ‘Moving Image: Open Form’ at SACAC, New Delhi.

After completing his Bachelors in Sociology from Delhi University, Prateek Shekhar went on to do his Masters in Media and Cultural Studies from Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai. There, he worked on two documentaries, Not Caste in Stone (2014) and Govandi, Crime aur Camera (2015). Prateek has assisted filmmaker and video artist Amar Kanwar. Chai Darbari (2019) emerged from the six-month filmmaking programme ‘Moving Image: Open Form’ at SACAC, New Delhi.

And What Is the Summer Saying

20 December 16:00-18:00 CET/20:30-22:30 IST
(Payal Kapadia, 23 min, 2018)

Namdeo has learnt to live off the forest from his father. He stares at the treetops, searching for honey. The wind blows and afternoon descends on the small village by the jungle. Women of the village, whisper little secrets of their lost loves. Never seen, and only heard. A strange smoke emits from the ground, like a dream of a time gone by.


	Payal Kapadia is a Mumbai based filmmaker and artist. She studied Film Direction at the Film & Television Institute of India. Her short films AFTERNOON CLOUDS (2017) and AND WHAT IS THE SUMMER SAYING (2018) premiered respectively at the Cinéfondation and the Berlinale. Her first feature, A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING, is part of the 2021 Director's Fortnight selection.

Memoirs of Saira and Salim

20 December 16:00-18:00 CET/20:30-22:30 IST
(Eshwarya Grover, 14 min, 2018)

Seventeen years ago in 2002 communal riots in Ahmedabad, India took an ugly shape and a family was forced to abandon their burning house. The event meant to be buried under the debris unfolds when Saira and Salim share memories and conversations from a place they once called ‘home’.


	Eshwarya is a film maker and visual artist from Jaipur, India. She studied Film & Video Communication at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Her visual style and narrative perspective develops with her background in architecture and film. Working with video, photographs and sound design, her work explores memory landscapes. She deals with subjects that feel the weight of time with memory acting as a silent, unresolved issue. Her short documentary, Memoirs of Saira & Salim, received an award at Tokyo Docs, Tokyo 2019 and best student film award at Film South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal 2019. She is also a recipient of the Toto award by Toto Funds the Arts, India. Her projects are an attempt to create connection between disparate objects, discover herself through the process and express it following her own paths of inquiry.

Eshwarya is a film maker and visual artist from Jaipur, India. She studied Film & Video Communication at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Her visual style and narrative perspective develops with her background in architecture and film. Working with video, photographs and sound design, her work explores memory landscapes. She deals with subjects that feel the weight of time with memory acting as a silent, unresolved issue. Her short documentary, Memoirs of Saira & Salim, received an award at Tokyo Docs, Tokyo 2019 and best student film award at Film South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal 2019. She is also a recipient of the Toto award by Toto Funds the Arts, India. Her projects are an attempt to create connection between disparate objects, discover herself through the process and express it following her own paths of inquiry.

The filmmakers will be in conversation with Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar on December 20th, 16:00-18:00 CET / 20:30-22:30 IST


	Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar are retired Professors from the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Their documentary films, which have been screened widely, have won 33 national and international awards. They write in the broad areas of censorship, documentary film and media and cultural studies. Their book, A Fly in the Curry (Sage, 2016), on independent Indian documentary, won a Special Mention for the best book on cinema at the National Film Awards, 2016. Their recent publications include the co-edited volumes, DigiNaka: Subaltern Politics and Digital Media in Post-Capitalist India, Orient Blackswan, 2020 and Many Voices, Many Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Community Media in India, Sage, 2021. More about their work at http://www.monteiro-jayasankar.com/.

Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar are retired Professors from the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Their documentary films, which have been screened widely, have won 33 national and international awards. They write in the broad areas of censorship, documentary film and media and cultural studies. Their book, A Fly in the Curry (Sage, 2016), on independent Indian documentary, won a Special Mention for the best book on cinema at the National Film Awards, 2016. Their recent publications include the co-edited volumes, DigiNaka: Subaltern Politics and Digital Media in Post-Capitalist India, Orient Blackswan, 2020 and Many Voices, Many Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Community Media in India, Sage, 2021. More about their work at http://www.monteiro-jayasankar.com/.