Films
Curated film screenings at FRAME 2019 attempt to showcase a panorama of ideas and images that form a narrative for the idea of modernity in India and its subcontinent.
Doshi (2009/2019)
74 minutes (Original)
Directed by Premjit Ramachandran; Edited by Premjit Ramachandran & Bijoy Ramachandran (Hundredhands, Bangalore)
The film presents Doshi’s architectural work, his role in the setting up the Center for Environmental Planning & Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad and posits these roles within the larger narrative of his philosophies on life and his relationship with people. The film is not a biopic, but a series of conversations around his projects and it serves as an insight into the way Doshi approaches life. The screening at FRAME 2019 will feature new and previously un-published edits.
A Day with the Builders (1979)
13 minutes
Directed by C.J. Paulose; Produced by Films Division India
With only music and images, this film captures the grim struggle for existence of a family of unskilled labourers working on the construction of a new building.
Gandhi, Nehru and Modern Art (1999)
20 minutes
Directed by Arun Khopkar; Produced by Films Division India
The film shows the emergence of the individual modern artist as a result of the colonial transformation of the country, colonial hegemony and its nationalistic negation. It also focuses on how ‘Gandhian’ life and Nehru influenced the modern-day artist during the years leading to and following independence.
Modern Art: 1947-1997
9 minutes
Directed by Zul Vellani; Produced by Films Division India
This News Magazine (NM) - a unique documentary format - shows the highlights of fifty years of Modern Art in Mumbai. The film talks about an iconic exhibition that aimed to delineate the stylistic changes in contemporary Indian art that took place in the mid-1990s.
Moving Focus: A Voyage with K G Subramanyan (2006)
57 minutes
Directed by Shaji N.Karun
Titled, ‘Moving Focus – is a voyage through the thoughts of the eminent artist, teacher and thinker K.G. Subramanyan, the documentary traces the artist’s journey through Kerala - a place he left decades ago. The film draws its title from one of the books published by Subramanyan.
O Horizon (2018)
90 minutes
Commissioned by Bauhaus Imaginista; Co-produced with the Rubin Museum, with the kind support of Project 88.
O Horizon reflects upon the modernist theories of dance and song developed by Tagore and the experimental practices of mural, sculpture, painting, and drawing developed by India’s great modernist artist affiliated with Santiniketan: K.G. Subramanyan, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Bali. O Horizon draws together visual arts, dance, song, music, and recital to assemble a structure of feeling of the 'Tagorean' imagination in the twenty-first century.
Nostalgia for the Future (2017)
54 minutes
Directed by Avijit Mukul Kishore & Rohan Shivkumar; Produced by Films Division India; Script: Rohan Shivkumar; Camera, Editing & Narration by Avijit Mukul Kishore; Sound Recording: Asheesh Pandya; Additional Sound Recording by Suresh Rajamani; Sound Post-Production by Gissy Michael; Assistant Direction by Sabari Pandian.
‘Nostalgia for the Future’ is a film on Indian modernity, the making of the citizen and the architecture of the home. It looks at imaginations of homes across four examples of building made over the period of a century.
Chandigarh (1969)
11 minutes
Directed by Yash Chaudhary; Produced by Films Division India
This short film depicts the various aspects of this modern city - a dreamscape with images that represent an uncanny utopian thought in its manifestation.
In the Realm of the Visual (2000)
54 minutes
Directed by Iffat Fatima
A documentary on one of India’s versatile modernists - Dashrath Patel, In the Realm of the Visual focuses on Patel’s 1998 retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi which covered five decades, 1948-1998, of paintings, ceramics, photography and designs of Dashrath Patel.
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A Summer Story (1987)
5 minutes
Illustrated by K G Subramanyan; Animation by Nina Sabnani
Based on KG Subramanyan’s illustrated book ‘A Summer Story’ that retells the old story of the thirsty crow in today’s context. Ink drawings on paper, animated in 1987. The original book by KG Subramanyan published by Faculty of Fine Arts and Seagull Foundation.
A Talk by Bawa (2003)
30 minutes
Reconstituted by David Robson from a recording of Geoffrey Bawa’s 1984 lecture, the film presents seven projects through a series of slides juxtaposed on Bawa’s voice. First presented in the Bawa exhibition at the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt in 2004 the AV sequence has not been shown anywhere since. Remastered with a voice clarity “as if he were in the room”, the film is reminiscent of the wit with which Bawa presents the seven projects. This is the only existing recording of Bawa’s voice.
Lovely Villa
32 minutes
Architecture as Autobiography;
A Film on Charles Correa’s LIC Colony
Director: Rohan Shivkumar; Associate Director: Avijit Mukul Kishore; Produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust
"Every house is haunted by the spirits of those are yet to come, and of those that came before. We are all marked by the architecture of the homes we live in." ‘Lovely Villa’ is the name of the apartment building where the director grew up in as he studied to become an architect. It is in LIC colony designed by Charles Correa and represents an imagination of the ideal community for a modern India. The film explores the architecture of the colony through a personal narrative. Using found materials, like old photographs and drawings, and stories that range from family histories and other narratives — both semi-fictional and documentary, the film highlights some of the specific architectural gestures of the project.
The final list of all scheduled screenings will be updated.
