Film Screenings
Kāḷaji Nagara
Manasu Maathu City, still from the film Kalaji Nagara, c. 2023, courtesy of Maitri Gopalakrishna
What does it mean to have care communities in the city? What does it mean to use the arts to let a language of care emerge? How is such work intentionally facilitated?
Join us at MAP for a screening of the film Kāḷaji Nagara (Kannada for Care/Concern City) to explore these questions, followed by an audience interaction with Maitri Gopalakrishna.
Maitri Gopalakrishna conceptualised Conversations in Drama, a project supported by MAP as part of Mindscapes Bengaluru. She is also a co-director of the film, an outcome of the project that traces the journey of five groups of people, who came together through their common stressors, allowing them to care for each others’ well being through drama and the arts.
Using contemporary shadow puppetry, stop motion animation and a rich sound design, Kāḷaji Nagara was thoughtfully crafted as an outcome of gathering and analysing data from interviews, process notes, images and video recordings of participants and facilitators.
This screening has been organised as part of programming around our exhibition Mindscapes: In the company of others.
Mindscapes is an international cultural programme about mental health developed by the Wellcome Trust with an aim to change how we understand, address and talk about mental health by bringing together cultural, policy and research folks.
Maitri Gopalakrishna
Drama Therapist
Maitri Gopalakrishna is an independent drama therapist, counselling psychologist, theatre maker and practice-researcher. Her approach is strongly influenced by intersectional feminism and anti-oppression practice. She works in community building, preventative care, mental health support, and training in a variety of institutional and community contexts. Her work often uses theatre as both a methodology and context.
Gopalakrishna has conducted practice-research in the areas of drama therapy and sexual trauma, arts-based promotive mental health care in communities and the ethics of arts-based care work. Often the outcomes of these research projects include public facing artistic works.
