Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Films

Journeys With Kabir
4 films by Shabnam Virmani
view stills from the films at www.flickr.com/photos/kabirfest/sets/
(feel free to download the posters and share them)
These films journey into contemporary spaces touched by the music and poetry of the 15th century mystic weaver - poet of North India, Kabir. We meet a diverse array of people - an urban folklorist, a street fruit seller, a social activist, a Dalit folk singer, a Zen Buddhist scholar, a neo fascist cleric of a Kabir sect, a Muslim qawwal - each encounter offering a moment of insight into the poetry and its contemporary meanings. We glimpse not one but many Kabirs.
The 4 films are interwoven in significant ways, but each can be viewed independently.


Had -Anhad : Journeys with Ram And Kabir (Dur: 102 mins)


Kabir defied the boundaries between Hindu and Muslim. His name and upbringing were muslim but his poetry repeatedly invokes the widely revered Hindu name for god-Ram. Who is Kabir's Ram? This film journeys through song and poem into the politics of religion, and finds myriad answers on both sides of the border between India and Pakistan.

1st Prize (shared), One Billion eyes Documentary Film Festival, August 2008, Chennai
Mahindra Indo-Americal Arts Council Film Festival, Nov 5-9, New York, USA
World Performing Arts Festival, Nov 13-23, 2008, Lahore, Pakistan
Bangalore International Film Festival, Jan, 2009, Bangalore, India

Kala Ghoda Festival, Feb 7-8, 2009, Mumbai
VIBGYOR Film Festival, Feb, 2009, Thrissur, Kerala, India

Kabira Khada Bazar Mein : Journeys with Sacred and Secular Kabir (Dur: 94 min)



This film investigates the ironies and tensions between sacred and secular Kabir, interweaving the sacralization
of Kabir by the Kabir P
anth (an organized sect of the followers of Kabir) with the secular appropriation of the same poet by the social activist group Eklavya. The story unfolds through the life of Prahlad Tipanya, a Dalit singer whose participation in the Panth and Eklavya begins to raise difficult questions for him about ritual and organized religion.

One Billion Eyes Documentary Film Festival, August 2008, Chennai, India
World Performing Arts Festival, Nov 13-23, 2008, Lahore, Pakistan
VIBGYOR Film Festival, Feb, 2009, Thrissur, Kerala, India


Koi Sunta Hai
: Journeys with Kumar and Kabir (Dur: 96 min)


This film interweaves the oral folk traditions of Kabir in central India with the intensely personal narrative of the late classical singer Pandit Kumar Gandharva, keeping the spiritual ideas of Kabir as the central binding thread. Journeying between folk and classical, between rural and urban expressions of Kabir, the film finds moments of both continuity and rupture between these disparate worlds.

One Billion Eyes Documentary Film Festival, August 2008, Chennai, India
World Performing Arts Festival, Nov 13-23, 2008, Lahore, Pakistan
VIBGYOR Film Festival, Feb, 2009, Thrissur, Kerala, India

Chalo Hamara Des: Journeys with Kabir and Friends (Dur: 98 min)


A journey in search of Kabir’s des (country) this film unfolds through the interwoven narratives of two people from two very different countries – Dalit folk singer Prahlad Tipanya and North American scholar Linda Hess. We enter the world of Kabir, through the personal and public lives of these two individuals, brought together in an unlikely friendship by the amazing universality and cross-cultural resonance of Kabir.

One Billion Eyes Documentary Film Festival, August 2008, Chennai, India
World Performing Arts Festival, Nov 13-23, 2008, Lahore, Pakistan
International Festival of Sacred Arts, Feb, 2009 Delhi, India
VIBGYOR Film Festival, Feb, 2009, Thrissur, Kerala, India


9 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I watched the documentaries on NDTV and really enjoyed them. I would like to know if they are available on download-able form?

    Regards
    Monmohan

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  2. Prahlad Tipanya stirred the soul within me.

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  3. I am staying at Bangalore last 12 years and I had never felt that life can give me this much in one festival. Last time I felt such meaning of life after watching Roger Water's show at palace ground. I have no words to express my feelings especially after last evening, especially after hearing Vijay Sardeshmukhji - I was speechless.

    Can anyone let me know where I can get some of his Cassette or CDs?

    Long live kabir project and its organisers.

    Regards
    Mrinalch@gmail.com
    9341402182

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  4. I traveled from Auroville to see this festival with five friends, and all of us were over the moon with it all,we were introduced to this music/Kabir at a program in Auroville, prior to Bangalor we went to Prahlads festival at his place in Madhya Pradesh .
    My wife and I bought everything that could be bought at the festival, twice over,and have brought one set to UK and have lent them out to all my friends.
    I wondered if anyone out there has information as to how we can get the two folk music vidios that were suposed to be at the festival, but did not see.
    regards
    terry

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  5. Dear Sir,

    I had the privilege of attending the Kabir Festival with family and friends at Bangalore. Through your site, I wish to compliment Shabnam Virmani for her creative passion and the wisdom to select a topic which is of utmost relevance today. Her commitment and untiring effort using Kabir as the icon and music and visuals as the medium, shall pay rich dividends in achieving Compassion, Acceptance, Tolerance, Communal Harmony and Love amidst the people of this divisive world, a thriving convenience of self-serving politicians and third rate bureaucrats. Shabnam has raised hopes of humanity and her pursuit should be rewarded for her commendable gift to the nation.

    aj bahadur

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  6. I want to know from where i will get ur cds and dvds please let me know

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  7. I hope if any body can tell the source or from to download these CD or anything .I saw the documentary.The way it was shown (Presentation) was good.Can i have that.

    My email id ashish.jagiasi2007@gmail.com.

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  8. Just a note of immense gratitude for introducing me to the world of Kumar Gandharva and Kabir, to the world of Malwa and Prahlad Tipanya and all the others.

    I could buy all the CDs from www.scholarswithoutborders.com. I bought these haunting CDs by Vidya Rao and others.

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