[URBANTH-L]Two Announcements on Gender and the City

[Angela Jancius]

Two Announcements on Gender and the City
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1. AN INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION. Imagining Gendered Utopias
2. PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT. City Limits: Engendering the Body in Public Space

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From: PUKAR <pukar at pukar.org.in>

AN INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION
Imagining Gendered Utopias

As part of International Women's Day celebrations, we are organizing
a discussion titled where women speak as citizens, professionals,
mothers, commuters, consumers, and flaneurs.

Date:    08 March 2005
Time:    6.30 pm
Venue: The Fourth Floor, Kitab Mahal (In front of New Excelsior
Cinema), Dr. D.N. Road, Mumbai 400001

Neera Adarkar imagines a gender-friendly city from the position of
architecture and design.  Celine D'Cruz provides a view from the perspective
of dispossessed women. Kalpana Sharma envisions a utopian world for
women journalists and for reporting on women. Shireen Gandhy explores the
implications of combining a career in art with motherhood. Sameera Khan
imagines a welcoming public space for breast-feeding women.

The discussion is intended to be an interactive one involving the
audience in imagining a space for women in the truly public spaces in
Mumbai. Our hope is that the discussion would go beyond what is
feasible in the short term to explore our wildest dreams of living as
liberated citizens in the Mumbai of tomorrow.

For more information -
PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research)
Mumbai
Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort,
Mumbai 400 001
Telephone:: +91 (022) 5574 8152 / +91 (0) 98204 04010
Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in
Website:: http://www.pukar.org.in

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2. PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT
City Limits: Engendering the Body in Public Space

Dates: 05 March to 12 March 2005 (Sunday Closed)
Time: 12 pm to 7 pm
Venue: The Fourth Floor, Kitab Mahal (In front of New Excelsior
Cinema), Dr. D.N. Road, Mumbai 400001

Curators: Shilpa Phadke and Bishakha Datta
Photographers: Abhinandita Mathur, Roshani Jhadav, Neelam Ayare and
Karan Arora.

City Limits: Engendering the Body in Public Space intends to view
everyday public spaces in Mumbai through a gendered lens, to focus on
the demarcations between public and private spaces, and understand
the hierarchies of access that have become part of our taken for
granted grammar of viewing the city. The effort has been to privilege
the everyday, to engage with women's strategies in negotiating public
space and to draw attention to the ways in which the private refuses
to be compartmentalized.

FILM SERIES
Imagining Women
Film Schedule: All films will be screened at The Fourth Floor, Kitab Mahal
Sat 5 March 4 pm:  Bhaji On The Beach (Gurinder Chadha)(100 mins)

A group of women of Indian descent take a trip together from their
home in Birmingham, England to the beach resort of Blackpool. The
women vary in ages from mid-teens to old, and initially have little
in common. But the events of the day lead them to better mutual
understanding and solidarity.

Mon 7 March 6.30 pm: Ma Vie En Rose (Alain Berliner ) (88 mins)
Ludovic is a young boy who can't wait to grow up to be a woman. When
his family discovers the little girl blossoming in him they are
forced to contend with their own discomfort and the lack of
understanding from their new neighbors. Their anger and impatience
cave and Ludovic is sent to see a psychiatrist in the hopes of fixing
whatever is wrong with him. A movie that addresses trans-gender and
gender issues in general through the eyes of a child.

Wed 9 March 6.30 pm: Three Women and A Camera (Sabeena Gadihoke) (56 mins)
This film is about Homai Vyarawalla, India's first professional woman
photographer, whose career spanned nearly three decades from the
1930s and two contemporary photographers, Sheba Chhachhi and Dayanita
Singh, who started work in the 1980s. Vyarawalla's work underscores
the optimism and euphoria of the birth of a nation, while Chhachhi
and Singh attempt to grapple with the various complexities and
undelivered promises of the post independence era. This film debates
the major shifts in their concerns regarding representation,
subject-camera relationships and the limits and possibilities of
still photography in India today.

Frida (JulieTaymor) (123 mins)
Frida chronicles the life Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) shared
unflinchingly and openly with Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), as the
young couple took the art world by storm. From her complex and
enduring relationship with her mentor and husband to her illicit and
controversial affair with Leon Trotsky, to her provocative and
romantic entanglements with women, Frida Kahlo lived a bold and
uncompromising life as a political, artistic, and sexual
revolutionary.

Thu 10 March 6.30 pm: Fat Sister (Catherine Breillat) (86 mins)
A Ma Soeur! is a provocative and shocking drama about sibling
rivalry, family discord and relationships. Elena is 15, beautiful and
flirtatious. Her less confident sister, Anais, is 12, and constantly
eats. On holiday, Elena meets a young Italian student who is
determined to seduce her. Anais is forced to watch in silence,
conspiring with the lovers, but harbouring jealousy and similar
desires. Their actions, however, have unforeseen tragic consequences
for the whole family.

Some of the films will be followed by discussions.
For more information -
email: genderspace at pukar.org or pointofview at vsnl.com
call: 55748152 or 55727252

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PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research)
Mumbai
Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort,
Mumbai 400 001
Telephone:: +91 (022) 5574 8152 / +91 (0) 98204 04010
Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in
Website:: http://www.pukar.org.in