Opening Weekend: Hello & Goodbye: Postcards from the Early 20th Century

Ishita Shah is trained as an interior designer and an architectural historian. Over the last few years, she has been developing a community-based curatorial practice, which focuses on cultural preservation and creative collaborations across individuals, families, and organisations invested in building a culture for archiving in India and across South Asia. Her work is situated under the aegis of a self-founded collective, Curating for Culture.

Ishita has worked with Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd. to curate their recent publication, Biome Diaries: Ecological Architecture from India, as well as collaborated with organisations like the National Centre for Biological Sciences, INTACH Bengaluru, Arthshila Ahmedabad, the Ministry of Culture India; to curate and develop a wide range of public interpretation projects. Before this, she was an educator and the coordinator to the UNESCO Chair in Culture, Habitat, and Sustainable Development at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design, and Technology. She has also been the founding archivist and oral historian at CEPT Archives and worked with the Royal Institute of British Architects (UK), INSITE Magazine, SPADE India Research Cell, and Design Innovation and Craft Resource Centre.

Ishita is also a Graham Foundation Grant recipient (2020), Khoj CISA Fellow (2021), and a fellowship student at The Alternative Art School (2022).

Radhika Hegde is a curator at the Maj Gen S.L Bhatia History of Medicine Museum, Library and Archives, and curates the Institutional Museum at St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences in Bengaluru . Her publications delve into the influence of colonialism on urban landscapes and medical institutions, the history of medicine and ethics, and the interplay of gender, medicine, indigenous healthcare systems in the princely state of Mysore. Her recent collaborative work with the University of Oxford, London, has explored the history of Typhoid in Bengaluru. She is presently working on the archives of maternal institutions in Bangalore, the representation of disability in South Indian temple architecture and collating the archival history of Ross Institute of Occupational health in St John’s. Hegde engages in museum walks and curatorial projects with medical and history students, focusing on disease history, and also conducts educational museum tours for schoolchildren and college students.

Rohini Kejriwal is an independent writer, poet and artist based out of Bangalore. She enjoys flowers, coffee, doodling and hanging out at parks. She is the founder of The Alipore Post, a weekly newsletter on art, poetry and creativity. Among Rohini’s many creative endeavours is Chitthi Exchange, a pen pal project that started in the pandemic, and has since paired over 4000 people from around the world. You can find her writing in publications like Hyperallergic, Art UK, The Brand Identity, Scroll, and many others. 

Srinidhi Prahlad co-founded Beneath-a-tree, an inclusive education and technology consultancy, and has worked to curate an interactive museum and archive at the intersection of STEM, gender and the arts. Srinidhi has co-designed a curriculum and a gendered STEM kit to enable public school children to pursue STEM careers, currently operational in over ten states. Srinidhi is interested in the power of spoken and written word, collective liberation and rest.

Curating for Culture is an open collective driven towards enabling a wide range of cultural preservation processes. Issues of fair representation and marginalisation of microhistories drive us; whether it is the missing representation of minority groups in the national narrative or the lack of documentation of everyday histories over popular and iconic propaganda. Community engagement and creative collaborations rooted in ethical practices of care and critical interpretation are pivotal to our efforts. 

The primary themes under which Curating for Culture strives to further its work, but not limited to, are South Asia/India in the archives, beyond the institutional narratives, empowering the local and a day in the life of an archivist or a curator.  The fifth theme in-making is to look critically at politics of underrepresented narratives in popular histories.

At Curating for Culture, we are passionate about furthering the culture of archiving and creating safe spaces for dialogues to discuss dissent and deliberate creative ways forward.

Basav Biradar is a writer, critic and a non-fiction filmmaker. He teaches film at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. He also is the founder of a history collective called Historywallahs.

Ashish Rajadhyaksha is a film historian, and an occasional art curator. He is the author of the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (with Paul Willemen, 1994/1999), Indian Cinema from the Time of Celluolid: From Bollywood to the Emergency (2009) and John-Ghatak-Tarkovsky: Citizens, Filmmakers, Hackers (2023).

Govindan Aravindan (January 21, 1935 – March 15, 1991), popularly known as G. Aravindan, was a film director, screenwriter, musician, cartoonist and painter from Kerala. He was one of the pioneers of Parallel cinema in Malayalam and is considered as one of the greatest filmmakers in India.

Aravindan’s cinematic style was marked by its artistic sensibility, poetic imagery, and philosophical undertones. He often delved into themes such as existentialism, spirituality, and human relationships, capturing the essence of life through his lens.

His unorthodox way of filmmaking and radical experimentations with storytelling and cinematic forms made him one of the most significant film makers of his time. In 1990, he was awarded a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award given by the Government of India. Some of G. Aravindan’s notable works include Kanchana Sita (1977), Thampu (1978), Kummatty (1979), Esthappan (1980), Chidambaram (1985), and Vasthuhara (1991).

Bangalore Film Forum was Founded with the vision to celebrate cinema as an essential art form and foster a thriving film culture, our mission is deeply rooted in the belief that film has the power not only to entertain and move people but also to change cultures. Our commitment lies in researching, curating, organising, and presenting films that respond to the needs of the time and bring the community together around great films.

We are now almost two years old and In our commitment to film diversity, we steadfastly avoid confining ourselves to any particular niche, offering a broad spectrum of films from Kannada classics to Hollywood masterpieces, experimental works, documentaries.

Engaging discourse forms the cornerstone of our approach, as post-screening discussions are designed to foster critical dialogue and understanding. We believe in creating a passionate community of film lovers who actively engage with the cinematic experience.

More information about the forum here – https://linktr.ee/bangalorefilmforum