Current Projects...

Persistence Resistance: A festival of contemporary political films

Magic Lantern Foundation, along with the Indian International Centre (IIC), is organising Persistence Resistance: a festival of contemporary political films on the 28th, 29th and 30th April 2008 at the IIC in New Delhi.

The festival aims to create a cinema space that celebrates the diverse nature of films today.

The films that are to be screened at the festival are largely from the collection of films that are being distributed through Under Construction, a non-broadcast, non-commercial, educational distribution initiative of Magic Lantern Foundation.

More on the festival

Under Construction: A distribution centre for independent films

Even though hundreds of independent films are produced in India every year on important social themes, India lacks a viable mechanism for non-broadcast, non-theatrical distribution of such films and videos. Consequently, the lack of organised distribution is a serious handicap for viewers for whom these films are primarily made. In an effort to bridge this gap between documentaries and their users, Magic Lantern Foundation has launched a distribution centre for independent films that can reach films to audiences in India and South Asia.

Encouraging the use of documentaries

Closely related to the effort on distribution of documentaries, Magic Lantern has been working closely with grassroots groups in India, encouraging them to organise local film screenings and film festivals that can enable common people to watch documentaries. In this regard, Magic Lantern has been assisting a number of groups all over the country with information on films, their sources and in the organisation of the festivals.

Other Worlds Are Breathing 2005 - On the road ...

After the encouraging response and enthusiasm generated by Other Worlds are Breathing, a global film festival that we had organised during the WSF 2004 in Mumbai, Magic Lantern Foundation, as part of @Culture, a coalition of organisations and artists from India, organised another Film Festival at the WSF 2005. We called it Other Worlds Are Breathing 2005. The Film Festival was held at Porto Alegre, Brazil, between January 26 and 31, 2005.

To be able to show these films far more widely and extensively, the travelling package of Other Worlds are Breathing 2005 is now available to those who are interested to screen these films in their organisations, cultural institutions, media centres, colleges, etc.

The package contains 21 films, and hopefully another 3 for which negotiations are still on with the films' producers. The full package is on DVD.

Developing a database on documentaries

Currently, Magic Lantern Foundation is developing a database of documentaries on various issues to assist groups in accessing information on films. This database is in the making for the past few years and will soon be uploaded on this site. However, the information in this database is already available to groups who need to locate films for their use. Whenever groups have made written or telephonic inquiries on films, MLF has shared the information from this database.

Dissemination of the WSF 2004 film festival

In January 2004, MLF curated Other Worlds Are Breathing, a film festival for the World Social Forum. In the four days of WSF, 84 documentaries from all over the world was screened. Subsequently there has been a tremendous response for these film from groups both in India and worldwide. The WSF festival films have already travelled to Kerala and Bangalore in India. There are requests from groups in Hyderabad and Madurai as well. These films have also travelled to Germany and Thailand. There are requests for the films from Italy and several other nations. MLF is ready to share the package with any group interested to organise festivals in local areas, cities in India and abroad.

As Others See Us

As Others See Us , a research project conducted in partnership with the National Films Archives of India, tries to look deeper into films on India made by non-Indian filmmakers. The research, conducted by Ms. Vijaya Mulay, tries to understand why they had chosen India, how they represented India and if there was a feminist sub-text in any of these films. One of the outcomes of this research will be a book that will be published soon.