EVENTS

Considered a classic by most, yet not the best of Chaplin, The Great Dictator which released in 1949, is one of the most enduring satires of its time. The film takes place, as the title card clarifies, in a ‘period between two wars’. This film was screened as a part of Meta-Culture 2008 Film Festival on Conflict and Resolution last month at the Alliance Francaise. In the film, writer-director Chaplin plays opposed dual roles – that of a Jewish amnesiac barber and the Tomanian dictator Adenoid Hynkel. The plot The Great Dictator was Chaplin's first feature-length talkie. The movie, in…

SUNDAY JAM is a uniquely informal musician's meet that is part of an on-going endeavor by Guruskool (regd) to support musicians. Every first Sunday of the month, music bands meet at Guruskool's farm space in Nelamangala (about 33 kms away from Bangalore city) to share, perform and jam.Maraa, a media collective introduced theatre to the SUNDAY JAM in the month of October, and with this we hope to build a culture of theatre into this space. The idea was to create a space for short performances- self-written texts, stories, ideas, concepts and improvisations. Towards building an arts collective, we hope…

An interesting photographic exhibition is on from 3rd October to 15th November at Café Fresco’s on Cunningham Road. Titled ‘Stone Theater’, the exhibition displays photographs of a different kind by Magali Couffon de Trevros. These beautiful images not retouched or reframed, but just printed on aluminum sheets. It is hard to believe that these are photographs of stones, sand and water bodies around them and the aluminum sheets add to the earthy effect of the theme.Magali is French by origin, and has been in Bangalore for about 6 years and in India for 15 years. Trained as a graphic designer,…

PANEL DISCUSSIONCONFLICT AND THE FUTURE FOR BANGALOREANSFacilitated by Hosted by 4:00 pm, Sunday, 19 October 2008Alliance Francaise de Bangalore. No 108, Thimmaiah Road, Vasanth Nagar, Bangalore All are welcome!The panel discussion is part of a weeklong festival of films and discussions, facilitated by Meta-Culture, a conflict resolution centre. The panelistsM Narasimha is the founder-secretary of the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha, a Bangalore-based volunteer-driven cultural and social organisation, founded in 1965. He was formerly Assistant General Manager at Hindustan Machine Tools. He has been a social worker for four decades in the area of Kannada literature, culture and education.Dr Ambar Abdul Qaiyum…

PERCEPTIONS and PERSPECTIVESDispute and Resolution In CinemaA week long festival of films and discussionsOctober 13 – 19 To celebrate Conflict Resolution Day, October 16th, Meta-Culture Dialogics, Center for Dispute Transformation and Dialogue, in collaboration with Bangalore Film Society, and Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, and with the generous support of Arghyam, Citizen Matters and Visthar, are presenting a week long Festival of Films on Conflict and Resolution. After a very successful launch in 2007, with over a thousand viewers, Meta-Culture Dialogics is renewing its effort to reach out to the Bangalorean public, offering alternative ways of looking at disputes and conflicts…

There are any number of destinations in and around Bangalore which need to be on your quick list of getaways for sightseeing, heritage visits, walks, trekking and more. Here is a lowdown on some of these popular places with descriptions, directions and much else. Heritage BuildingsBangalore Palace, Vidhana Soudha, Attara Kacheri/Karnataka High Court, Bangalore Fort & Tipu Sultan's Palace. ParksLalbagh Botanical Garden, Cubbon Park, Jawahar Bal Bhavan, Cariappa Memorial Park, Bannerghata Zoological Reserve. MuseumsGovernment Museum and Venkatappa Art Gallery, Sheshadri Iyer Memorial Hall, Visveswaraya Museum, Nehru Planetarium. LakesHebbal, Ulsoor, Sankey, Nagavara, Agara. City Tours and WalksCubbon Park (Sri Chamarajendra Park),…

rafiki is a theatre group from Bangalore. Established in 1998, it comprises a group of youngsters working in the fields of theatre, with particular focus on socio-economically backward street and working children in the age group of 7 to 14 years. Woyzeck is a German play written by Georg Buechner set in Prussia in the 1830s. I had watched one version of Woyzeck staged by Koothu-p-Pattarai of Chennai, at Ranga Shankara, sometime ago. When I realised that rafiki was staging it at Ranga Shankara, I was compelled to watch the new performance too. I was very glad I went. The…

It's a challenge to "work on an adaptation of an English translation of a Russian play", as the brochure given by Centre for Film and Drama (CFD) said, and the Bangalore angle intrigued me sufficiently to walk down to Ranga Shankara to see the production at its first showing on the 4th of this month. I was not disappointed. City of Gardens - Play (Pic: Deepa Mohan)‘City of Gardens' is an adaptation of Anton Chekov's ‘The Cherry Orchard’, and has been converted into an allegory for Bangalore by Abhishek Majumdar and Jisha Menon, with inputs from Arshia Sattar, Gautam Raja,…

While Bombay found many an obsequious reference in timeless books by its Vikram Chandras and Suketu Mehtas; William Dalrymple wrote home about Delhi in The City of Djinns; and numerous homegrown authors did as much for Kolkata, Bangalore drew a near blank in the English literary scene. Until now, of course. No longer the poor cousin, Namma Bengaluru is coming to seal its place on literary firmament with authors increasingly finding inspiration from Garden City. Thanks in part to the Indian Publishing industry opening up, leading to writers of diverse backgrounds. Thanks, also, to international interest facilitated by a flat…

Deccan Development Society India, Hyderabad and the Network of Women in Media, Bangalore cordially invite you to the launch of a unique publication: Affirming Life and Diversity: Rural Images and Voices on Food Sovereignty in South India Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Auditorium, Race Course Road, Bangalore 56000110:30 am to 3 pm on 18 June 2008 Our partners in hosting this event are Communication for Development and Learning (CDL), Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR), Sarathi and Openspace. Affirming Life and Diversity is a multimedia publication comprising 12 video films made by the peasant women filmmakers of the DDS Community Media Trust…