BR Ambedkar: Now And Then (BRANT) directed by Jyoti Nisha (111 mins)
This feature length documentary film explores questions of the human condition. The film aspires to translate the praxis of Ambedkarite politics to image making and representation of marginalized subjects’ culture, history, politics in popular cinema and media. Driven by Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy epistemologically, the film symbolically and politically documents the representation and assertion of Bahujan people in the contemporary era. Questioning the institution of caste in India, this film is a commentary on religion, revolution, politics, and the freedom of speech.
Discussion participants:
Jyoti Nisha is a multi-disciplinary professional- an academic, writer, screenwriter, filmmaker and a producer with a focus on cinema, gaze, caste, gender and mass media. Produced by Dharmatic Entertainment and streaming on Netflix, she also worked as a Director’s Assistant to Neeraj Ghaywan on his short, Geeli Pucchi (part of Ajeeb Daastaans anthology), which received rave reviews. She studied journalism from IIMC, Delhi, screenwriting from FTIl, Pune & and Media and Cultural Studies from TISS, Mumbai. She wrote for many national and international publications and worked as a full time Producing faculty with a film school for a year and half. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Now & Then is her debut feature length documentary film, which she has directed, produced, crowdfunded, co-produced with Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Productions.
Dr Nicole Thiara is Co-lead of Nottingham Trent University’s Postcolonial and Global Studies Research Group and Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded Research Network Series ‘Writing, Analysing, Translating Dalit Literature’ and its Follow-on Grant 'On Page and on Stage: Celebrating Dalit and Adivasi Literatures and Performing Arts'. She teaches postcolonial and contemporary literature at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Her area of research is Dalit and South Asian literature, and her current research project is the representation of modernity in Dalit literature.
Neeraj Bunkar is a PhD Scholar at the Department of English, Linguistics, and Philosophy at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom with a specific interest in Caste, Dalit, Rajasthani folklore, Oral History and Cinema. He is researching Rajasthan-based Hindi cinema from the Dalit standpoint. His write-up in the category of PostScript: ‘Spring Thunder: Adivasi Resistance for ‘Jal, Jangal, Jameen’’ (2022) and the Book review: ‘Subalternity at the Centre: A Young Diary Demands Radical Change’ (2024) published in the Economic and Political Weekly. He regularly contributes to platforms such as Forward Press and RoundTable India.
Mrigakshi Das hailing from Odisha, India, is a doctoral candidate at the School of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, UK. She holds both a Master’s and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delhi, India. Her current research focuses on Adivasi literature, and her thesis is titled “Adivasi Literature and Cinema: Exploring Adivasi Alterity and Assertion”. Her areas of interest include Dalit literature, Adivasi literature, and decolonial and postcolonial studies.
17 сен 2024
