Date: 9 – 11 January 2016        Time: 9 am to 4 pm        Venue: Sky View, Central Block

A three day Workshop on Cinema and Gender, in collaboration with Suchitra Film Society  began on 9 January 2016. It was titled, ‘Gendering Moving Frames’. The program was inaugurated by the Kannada Director Mr. K.M Chaitanya, Mr. Neeraj Madhav, the film actor and choreographer, N. Sasidhara, President of Suchitra Film Society and Dr. Abhaya N B, Head, Department of English.

The session started with an address by Mr. Chaitanya. He spoke about the making of the films and the minute details to which you give attention to while you dedicate yourself to the processes. Mr. Neeraj Madhav joined the interactive session and spoke about how the director is the ‘Godfather’ of a film and not the actors. He also spoke that the actors are just oracles and the directors and the team of light, sound and camera are the real “lights”.
Dr.Nikhila took the audience through the gender roles and issues depicted in the various movies such as Quissa, Rudrammadevi and so on. She talked about the blurring of gender margins and societal influences in coding gender.

Day 2 of the Workshop was addressed by Ms Ekta Mittal, From Maraa Film Society. The session started with the screening of the French film A Girl Walks alone in Night. The movie about a female vampire and the guy who falls in love with the vampire, along with the cat and the kid who witness “something which they should not see” brought the contrasting images of male vampires and female vampires to the audience. Ms Ekta talked about the ‘real versus virtual’ crisis in a child’s mind when it watches the vampire and its brutal deeds. She also put forward the image of female vampires who can do better things in society and bring better life for the people. The film breaks the stereotypes of only men being vampires and she argued that females can be better ones. She also argued about why women are shown as victimized and why they are not shown being bold.
The final day of Workshop was addressed by Ms Deepanjana Pal, a Mumbai based Journalist and Art and Film Critic, Ms M.D Pallavi, the singer , Mr Anand Varadraj and Mr Prakash Balwadi from the Suchitra Film Society. Ms. Deepanjana Pal looked at the various nuances of gendering in cinema from the spectator’s point of view. She problematized the very positioning of the spectator into gendered spaces. M.D Pallavi talked about the gendering of music in film industry as well as theatre industries. She talked about the male dominance in the instrumental areas. She also spoke about how women are represented for many objects such as bomb, halwa, mango and how women are objectified and degraded.

The sessions ended with the keynote address by Mr. Prakash Belawadi, representative of Suchitra Film Society and vote of thanks by Dr.Arya Aiyappan, Department of English, CHRIST (Deemed to be University).