The ‘One Billion Eyes’ annual Indian documentary film festival was launched in August 2005 by the Prakriti Foundation, Chennai. The aim of this festival is to promote documentary films and the filmmakers who push intellectual, political and cultural boundaries and explore issues that are relevant to the Indian context today.
(The first festival in 2005 invited films on the themes ‘Arts, Activism, Animals’ and began with a screening of Rakesh Sharma’s ‘Final Solution’ and an interactive session with the director. It was brought to a close with a cross-media theatre-encounter performance by Parnab Mukherjee from Kolkata, titled ‘And the dead tree gives no shelter’. The Best Film Award was presented to R. P. Amudhan for his film ‘Pee(Shit)’.)
This year’s theme is “Our Cities: the Real and the Imagined” – the festival will be looking at cities as locations, the chosen cities being Bombay, Benares, Bhopal and Bangalore. The idea behind this kind of a theme is to look at the kinds of spaces created within these four cities, literal/ideological/imagined spaces. The city, with its specificities, its history, its local dynamics, its cultural politics – these are the kinds of explorations the festival will be hoping to make.The films screened will therefore dwell on these cities in their own ways, not restricting themselves to one idea of what the city ‘is’ but recognising the billion ways in which a city can be imagined.
Schedule for One Billion Eyes 2006
15th August (6 pm – 9 pm) – at Chamiers/Anokhi
– Inauguration of a photo exhibition on the Bhopal gas tragedy
– Screening of Anand Patwardhan’s film “Bombay: Our City” and an interactive session with the director
16th (3 pm – 9pm)
– 3 – 6:30 pm – screenings of entry films – at the South Indian Film Chamber theatre
– 7 – 9 pm – Quawali performance by “Laique Quawal and group” from Bhopal – at Chamiers/Anokhi
17th (3 pm – 9pm)
– screenings of entry films – at the South Indian Film Chamber theatre
18th (3 pm – 9 pm)
– screenings of entry films – at the South Indian Film Chamber theatre.
– film screening followed by talk by Nawab Bhai (survivor of the Bhopal tragedy) and Rachna Dhingra (Bhopal activist).
19th (3 pm – 9 pm)
– screenings of entry films – at the South Indian Film Chamber theatre
20th August –
– presentation of the award for Best Film – 6 pm at the Museum Theatre
– staging of Ramu Ramnathan’s “Cotton 56 Polyester 84”, directed by Sunil Shanbag – 7 pm at the Museum Theatre
Invitation
We would like to invite you to attend and be a part of ‘One Billion Eyes 2006’. Passes will be available at the the following outlets:
Levis Signature
Odyssey
Landmark
Amethyst
Anokhi
One pass is valid for the entire festival. Student passes are priced at Rs. 100/- and the rest at Rs 300/-
The complete schedule of our screenings will soon be available on our website www.abillioneyes.in . For further details, please contact us at:
Email: abillioneyes@gmail.com
Phone: (0) 9342414112
Venue addresses:
15th and 16th (Quawali performance) – Anokhi – Chamiers, 85 Chamiers Road
16th, 17th, 18th, 19th film screenings – South Indian Film Chamber theatre – C4/5, 606, Anna Salai, Chennai 6
20th – Museum Theatre – Pantheon Road, Egmore, Chennai 8
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