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 under Explorations that will delve into the philosophical dimensions of finding a physical theatrical performative form for the ritualistic singing of the Arichandran (Harischandra) song that is sung only orally, during the death ritual, in front of the Arichandran temple located at the entrance of the graveyard in Puducherry. The outcomes of the project will be a playscript in Tamil and theatrical experiments in an open-air theatre. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the Tamil playscript along with photographs, and audio-visual documentation of the theatrical artistic process. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees, hire of equipment, hire of venue, materials, printing, and stationery.
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 Neighbourhood Engagements that will examine notions of ‘belongingness’ and ‘neighbourhood’ through an understanding of food habits of the ‘indigenous’ and ‘tribal’ communities from the northeast in Kalyan Nagar. Through collaborative ethnography, this project will interrogate the constructs of caste, gender and race, as well as identity formations and negotiations through the lens of food. The outcomes of this project will be a photo exhibition that will capture narratives around northeast food in Kalyan Nagar, and a short video documenting northeast food stalls in that neighbourhood. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be photo and video documentation of the process and the final photo exhibition, a copy of the documentary video, and any writings / articles that might emerge from this project. Project funds will pay for hire of equipment, hire of venue, printing and travel.
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 that will examine the role of illustrations in a variety of Tamil magazines in the second half of the 20th century. It will seek to understand how the ascription of supplementary nature of illustrations to fictional narratives was understood and negotiated in the public sphere. The outcomes of this project will be an open-source digital repository and a monograph. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with reports, will be a link to and a sample from the digital repository and the monograph. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, archive fees and purchase of equipment.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will create a multimedia installation using the forgotten subaltern literary and music genre Gujili Paatu of Madras from the early 20th century, and classical Sangam literature. Drawing from the real-life love stories of five women reported in newspapers, government reports, interviews, and journals, the project will examine the underlying connections among Sangam literature, Gujili Paatu and contemporary literary and artistic expressions to trace the continuum of the theme of love in Tamil cultural traditions. The outcome of this project will be a multimedia installation. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with final reports, will be a copy of the installation as an experimental film. Project funds will pay for contract fees, production, travel and living, hire of equipment, and purchase of books.
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.
