Ali Kazimi: A Commitment to Justice
September 14, 2006 - September 16, 2006
For documentary filmmaker Ali Kazimi, our artist in residence this September, a commitment to justice is essential both on- and offscreen. "I know that I can't talk about social responsibility in my films as a theoretical construct and not do anything about it myself, in my life," he writes. Born and raised in India, Kazimi worked as a freelance photographer in Delhi, then emigrated to Canada after winning a scholarship to the film program at Toronto's York University. Kazimi has consistently trained his camera on those rarely represented onscreen, be they ostracized indigenous groups in India or recent immigrants in Canada. Telling of Indian villagers organizing against a government-sponsored dam, Indo-Canadians participating in arranged marriages, an Iroquois photographer creatively redefining his culture, or a horrific anti-immigrant incident from Canada's past, Kazimi focuses on the relationship between the individual and society, and the power that people have to effect change and defy how others have defined them. "All cultures, including my own," Kazimi notes, "have borrowed, incorporated, and absorbed influences from all encounters, absorbing, reviving, and at times reinventing themselves." To redefine and reinvent oneself in the face of internalized cultural pressure or external political power is true empowerment for Kazimi's subjects, and, one senses, for the artist as well.
This series is presented in conjunction with the BAM exhibition Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
5:30 p.m. A Conversation with Ali Kazimi (Admission Free)
Join filmmaker Kazimi for an informal conversation about his artistic process.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
7:30 p.m. Shooting Indians
Ali Kazimi in Person. A dialogue with Iroquois Canadian photographer Jeffrey Thomas about Edward S. Curtis, photography, and stereotypes. With short Passage from India.
Friday, September 15, 2006
7:30 p.m. Runaway Grooms
Ali Kazimi in Person. This illuminating documentary investigates Indo-Canadian men returning to India for arranged marriages, only to disappear with their brides' dowries. With Some Kind of Arrangement, another view of Indo-Canadians preparing for arranged marriages.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
6:30 p.m. Continuous Journey
Ali Kazimi in Person. Kazimi's award-winning film examines one of North America's first "immigration panics," when a boatload of Indian immigrants were refused entry to Canada in 1914.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
8:45 p.m. Narmada: A Valley Rises
Ali Kazimi in Person. Taking sides, not just photographs, this documentary follows indigenous protests against India's notorious Narmada Valley dam project. With short Documenting Dissent.
Ali Kazimi's artist residency is funded by a grant from the Consortium for the Arts at UC Berkeley, and is presented in collaboration with EKTA and 3rd I: South Asian Films.
