Arts:
One of the most well-known aspects of India is its rich array of art forms and styles, the country offering a space to ways of expressions which are located in different places, times and political contexts. The arts have always formed an interesting arena in which social, political and cultural reshaping and rethinking take place and where the lines between content and form are easily blurred. Just as film form is integral to the text and important to the understanding of it, the art form is not separable from what is represented. It therefore becomes important to understand the historical and ideological positions of different art foms, following which thread the notions of what art is become less defined and are thrown open to new possibilities and new understandings of ‘ancient’ art forms. This enables us to go deeper into how ideas of ‘culture’ are formed and to explore their relation to contemporary Indian society. The festival hopes to raise and discuss some of these issues, through films that will look at different kinds of art forms and their relevance and role in the Indian context.

Animals:
Animal rights and wildlife conservation are areas which have become important in the contemporary Indian context, and various questions have arisen surrounding them. These questions come from diverse, sometimes oppositional positions - from wildlife activists who argue for the preservation of endangered species and also sometimes take stands against meat-eating and animal sacrifice; to dalit activists and academics who critique the above in their ignoring or avoiding of questions of how certain castes and ‘tribes’ are particularly affected and disadvantaged by the moves taken to ‘protect’ or ‘conserve’ animals or the environment; to those who combine their arguments for wildlife conservation with arguments against the capitalist invasion of spaces which are occupied by both animals and people; and these are just three points of view.

An increasing number of films are made on these issues everyday, and it is exciting and important to look at how these questions are represented or opened up by the films. This is what the festival will try and do in relation with this particular category ‘Animals’.