Kriti Docushop Resources Mailer, March 2009

As we leave behind the following days of March, we share with you a selected list of Information and Communication Resources that can be accessed from us. Please write to us for contribution details if interested in ordering any resource, share your address with us so we can give you the info with postal costs. Thanks!

days and dates to remember

International Women’s Day

World Consumer Rights Day

World Forestry Day/ International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

World Water Day

Bhagat Singh’s Martyrdom Day

31 Chandrashkar’s Martyrdom Day

BOOKS

Birthing With Dignity

by Diane Smith

BIRTHING with DIGNITY is an intimate educational tool for working with rural indigenous village midwives. Its wide appeal focuses on midwifery, women, childbirth, culture, health, and tradition. This beautifully conceived and created book is more than a guide for birth attendants; it is a tribute to the act of creation and our creators - mothers.

It is also a guide to a circular journey that led a midwife from a forest glade on a small island off the southwest coast of Canada to a village in India to find a companion who understood her vision: To see women birth in dignity and to uphold the work of the traditional midwife.

Aao Mil Jul Gayen (come lets sing together)

By Jagori

This book is a collection of songs written in Hindi, that reflect on different women’s issues, including dowry, rape, women labour, importance of education, rights and empowerment etc. They also in a way trace the women’s movement’s journey of struggle through different time periods.

Pittrsatta Kya hai? (what is patriarchy?)

By Kamla Bhasin

Pittrsatta (patriarchy) is one significant root causes of problems faced by women in society. This book presents insights into the context, manifestations and forms of struggle against patriarchy. Available both in English and Hindi, prepared in a simple Q&A format for better understanding and learning, this tiny book is a useful training tool for gender sensitisation.

FILMS

Being Male, Being Koti (30min, English)

by Mahuya Bandyopadhyay/ PSBT

Shot in Kolkata, the film explores the experience of growing up with gender variants and not being able to understand, let alone explain the difference. The experience of a world where there is ‘no one quite like me’ is an intensely lonely and troubled one.

Gender Unpack (30min, English)

by Anjali Monteiro & K. P. Jayasankar/ PSBT

This is a collection of four short films that explores and questions the construction of our gendered identities and their manifestations in everyday lives. It reflects on the little ways in which we resist and subvert these modes of power.

It's A Boy! (30min, English)

by Vani Subramanian/ PSBT

The film travels to Bombay, Delhi, Banaras and Shillong, going back in time to reveal how the current crisis of sex ratios had been foretold by those in the forefront of the campaigns against sex determination and pre-selection. It assesses government initiatives, looks beyond the rhetoric, and uses the lens of culture to explore common beliefs about daughters and sons within the family and, men and women in society.

The Fight to Dance (30min, English)

by Anish Patel/ PSBT

An observational documentary following the struggle of Mumbai’s dance bar community to overturn the Maharashtra state government’s ban on dance bars in 2005. The film is a positive tale of female empowerment and 'informal' leadership

Mother Courageous (30min, Hindi with English subtitles)

By Debalina Majumder/ PSBT

Each year 40000 women die in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) alone due to pregnancy related causes. In a journey across seven districts, in U.P, the film explores opinions of government officials, activists, ordinary men and women to reveal social discrimination and state sponsored neglect of women's maternal health.

Featured collection for this month includes:

Flying inside my body

by Sushmit, Ajeeta, Rintu, Sumit (36min, English, 2008)

This film explores how the form of the body can become a powerful physical language to express dissent over societal norms and conventions. The film is a journey with veteran photographer Sunil Gupta, who has used his art to challenge the stereotypes that define one's body, sexuality and identity.

Parinday

Sohaila Kapur / 50mins/ Hindustani/ 2009

Crossing Thresholds

Sonika Jain/ 54mins & 36secs/ English Subtitles/ 2005

The film explores reflexive and participatory strategies in documentary practice, in reference to perceptions of choice marriages amongst Delhi-based middle class women.

DELHI-MUMBAI-DELHI

Saba Dewan/ 63 mins/ Hindi with English subtitles/ 2006

Riya dances in the beer bars of Mumbai to make a living. The documentary follows her from her home in Delhi to Mumbai where hundreds of working class girls come in search of work and a future. The documentary is an intimate portrait of the everyday in the life of the girls, their agents and their neighbourhoods. Shot in the backdrop of the Maharashtra Governments’ controversial move to ban girls from dancing in beer bars, interweaves stories of gender, labour, sexuality and popular culture within an increasingly globalized economy.

BORN TO SING

Shikha Jhingan/ 44 mins/ Hindi with English Subtitles/ 2004

Born to Sing is a musical journey with four Mirasans, who sing life-cycle songs for their patrons in Punjab. Through an encounter with the four Mirasans and their songs, the film explores a rich musical and oral tradition kept alive by these women across religious boundaries. At another level the film also evokes memories of partition and the resilience of the secular and composite culture of the Malwa region of Punjab.

Information is Power! We share it, You can access it!
Kriti team…celebrating 10 years of creative expressions for social change!

(1999-2009)

Contact us @ 011-26027845/ 26033088

Email - space.kriti@gmail.com
Web access - http://krititeam.blogspot.com

Note: This mailer has been put together with the support of Arun Mohan, Kriti team volunteer.