Thursday, February 13, 2003, 8pm
Mani Kaul in person!
This spring, the Department of Film, Video & New Media is pleased to have Mani Kaul as an artist-in-residence. Mr. Kaul was at the forefront of the emergence of a new cinema in India in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In the singular, visually arresting work he has produced over the past three decades, Kaul has pioneered the blending of documentary and fiction forms and has developed a distinctive cinematic style that remains open to the arts of painting, theater and music. His acclaimed first film, Uski Roti (a.k.a. A Day’s Bread), is considered the first formal experiment in Indian cinema. With a Bressonian vocabulary, Hindu philosophy and profound literary approach, Uski Roti is infused with a polemic that confronts traditional representations of women. Kaul will present two other films during the season, Siddeshwari (March 6) and The Servant’s Shirt (April 24) (KJ Mohr, excerpts courtesy of Harvard Film Archive). 1970, Mani Kaul, India, 95 min, 35mm.