For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will facilitate research towards the creation of a series of episodes for an audio-visual podcast, exploring the presence and location of class, caste, gender, and influence of mainstream politics in Tamil cinema. Based on the collections of Tamil Cinema reviews in Periodical publications from 1930s - 1990s at The Cinema Resource Centre (TCRC), the outcomes of this project will be seven episodes for an audiovisual podcast, research-based materials for social media, blog posts and public workshops. The Project Coordinator’s final deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be the audio-visual recordings of the podcast, the final script of the episodes, content on social media, materials uploaded to the blog and documentation of the workshops. This is a collaboration with The Cinema Resource Centre in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Project funds will pay for workshop, post-production, production, contract fees, travel and living.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will facilitate research and analysis to uncover the historical significance of lobby cards and explore the broader discourse on intersection of cinema, design, and spatial dynamics based on the collection of Tamil film lobby cards at The Cinema Resource Centre. The outcomes of the project will be a series of scholarly essays, an online catalogue, zines, lecture performances and heritage walks. The Project Coordinator’s final deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be soft copies of the writings and essays, hard and soft copies of the printable zines, audio and video recordings of lecture performances, and photo and video documentation of the heritage walk. This is a collaboration with The Cinema Resource Centre in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Project funds will pay for travel and living, printing, contract fees, documentation, hire of equipment, website building, hire of venue, and materials.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Workshops, Residencies, Seminars, that will create a month long technical residency followed by a week long workshop, addressing the role of the contemporary body, movement and improvisation, in theatre and dance. The outcomes of the project would be a draft performance out of the residency programme and a presentation out of the workshop that will be shared in March Dance 2024 at Basement 21. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs and audio-visual documentation of the residency and the workshop. Project funds will pay for contract fees, and publicity and marketing.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA which will develop a photo-film by weaving the archival materials from the Photo Archive, STARS Archive and Herbarium, the three collections available at the Institut Français de Pondichéry (IFP). The film will narrativise a fictional account of an elusive Tamil woman who has successfully through the ages escaped the attempts of being photographed by various photographers. It intends to address the intersections of photography, ecology and women. The outcomes of this project will be the film, an exhibition of images from the Herbarium paired with audio featuring relevant Sangam poems, a series of audio-visual social media posts, and public engagements with children. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables along with the final reports will be high resolution digital copy of the film, finished high resolution audio pieces, social media posts along with a selection of images from the Herbarium, and photographs from the public engagements. This is a collaboration with the Institut Français de Pondichéry (IFP). Project funds will pay for contract fees, production and travel and living.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create a theatrical production titled The Mobile Girls Koottam. Set in a tea-shop built on a small truck, the performance will travel to various locations within Tamil Nadu and to Bangalore and Pondicherry facilitating conversation among actors and audiences around women's lives, their work, bodies and identities. There will be eight shows of the performance as part of this project. The outcomes from this project will be the performances, a travelogue booklet with sketches, photographs, and notes on experiences from the tour drawn from writings by the performers, crew and audience members, and audio-visual documentation of the tour that will be presented as episode/s on Youtube. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the booklet, still and video documentation of the performances and the tour, and links to Youtube. Project funds will pay for contract fees, equipment hire, printing and publicity, materials, travel, food and props and costumes.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions that will lead to the creation of sixty poems based on the interior lives of key women characters from the epic Mahabharata. Structured as quasi-dramatic monologues, nesting within the narrative frame of prose passages, this body of imaginative poetic literature seeks to probe into the many dimensions of these characters that have largely remained invisible and unexamined within extant interpretations. In doing so, the work will creatively dialogue with existing tellings and retellings of the Mahabharata. The outcome of this project will be a manuscript containing the narrative prose and the sixty poems. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be this manuscript. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees, communication, printing and stationery, and purchase of books.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA, which will study the non-dominant Tamil narrative traditions that are replete with instances of disfigurements, associated with two deities, Sudalai Madan and Madurai Veeran. It will examine aesthetic features of embodiment and shape contained in these narratives, while documenting the visual, oral, ritual and performative accounts in accessible formats. A core objective of this project is to study disability access cultures in relation to the performance and reception of these narrative traditions. The outcomes of this project will be manuscript for a book, pedagogical videos, and a haptic exhibition. The Principal Investigator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the manuscript for the book, pedagogical videos, and audiovisual documentation from the exhibition. Project funds will pay for professional fee, honorarium, travel and living, and printing and stationery.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Explorations, which will experiment to create a form for Asunam, a non-Vedic mythical creature from Sangam Literature of the classical Tamil oeuvre. In a collaborative artistic process between a comics writer, an illustrator and a voice-over artist, this project will use motion and sound to imagine this mythical creature with surreal physical features and hypersensitivity to sound. The outcome of the project will be an audio-visual and a motion comic. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be process documentation of the collaboration, the audio-visual and the motion comic. Project funds will pay for professional fees and honorarium.
For the making of a 25-panel non-fiction comic on the evolution of the internet in India, presented using the graphic narrative format. Following significant moments of using the internet in the lives of its makers who grew up in the 90s, the project will connect these personal memories to important milestones in the history of the internet in India. The outcome of the project will be a manuscript of the non-fiction comic. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the digital files of the 25 comic panels, two copies of the manuscript of the comic and detailed documentation of the process. Grant funds will pay for professional fees, honorarium and materials.
For the creation of a collaborative performance work, exploring politics around notions of identity of the ‘refugee’. Anchored in a doctoral dissertation on Sudanese refugees, the performance will be built on the individual and collective explorations and experiences of marginalisation, exclusion, borders, statist politics, ‘refugee-ness’ and ‘other-ness’ by seven artists. It seeks to question dominant discourses on the refugee, challenging homogeneity, and aspires to build human connections and inclusion. The work will be scripted, devised, directed, and performed by a collective of seven artists who hail from theatre, movement, literary, and visual arts backgrounds. The outcome will be a series of work-in-progress performances across South India. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be photographs, video and textual documentation of the process, and performances. Grant funds will pay for costs towards an honorarium, professional fees for resource persons, travel and living, rehearsal space rental, documentation, materials, and an accountant’s fee.
