Aparajito (Undefeated) (1956), 110 min.
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Film Intro: Amy Winter, GTM

The second, and perhaps the best, of Ray’s famous Apu Trilogy, the film follows Apu as he leaves home for school. A narrative of the complex interplay of social change, family ties and freedom.

REPRESENTING
SOUTH ASIA ON FILM

Films constitute the most vibrant mirror of South Asian culture and societies. This series of sixteen films, including commercial, ‘alternative’ or ‘art’ and experimental short films, brings together a broad spectrum of South Asian film in all its diversity. Indian film is a highly influential cultural phenomenon, meaningful not only to Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, but also Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, African and Eastern European people. It is also a primary window through which people in the larger South Asian diaspora in the United States and Canada maintain their connection to their worlds of origin.

Selections from Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam films, offbeat and independent films, the Parallel Cinema, and shorts, as well as the better-known productions of “Bollywood,” are showcased in the series. While Bollywood has great appeal in the popular imagination, the virtuosity and sophistication of Indian filmmaking as a whole is less known or appreciated except by cinephiles and specialists in South Asian culture. The films have been selected on the basis of their historical and cultural significance, critical reception, and artistic excellence.

Three panels involving major scholars of cinema and society, filmmakers, faculty and students from Queens College are open free, along with the films. The panels and films highlight themes that have concerned South Asian directors and audiences over the years such as gender, political rights, urbanization, and identity and cosmopolitanism in rapidly changing societies. They also draw attention to distinctive aspects of the work of specific directors and actors, such as Satyajit Ray, Mani Ratnam, Amitabh Bachchan and Shabana Azmi.

The program is sponsored in collaboration with the Kupferberg Center for the Visual and performing Arts and the Departments of History, Economics, Media Studies, and Classical, Middle Eastern, and Asian Languages and Cultures, as part of Queens College’s “Year of India.” It was assembled by the Film Committee of the Year of India at Queens College, Serinity Young, Amy Winter, and Satadru Sen.

For more information visit  http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/godwin_ternbach/year_of_india