"pedestrian pictures
invites you to
An evening of Satyajit Ray films

A lot of us have our own Ray favourites - the Apu trilogy, Charulata, Shatranj ke Khilari, Agantuk are perhaps the most often cited ones from over 30 films directed by the maestro. To extend that list of favourites, pedestrian pictures, as part of its Saturday monthly public screening, brings you a rare collection of Ray's short films and documentaries.

Venue: IAT, Queens' Road, Bangalore (directions to the venue)
Date: 31 January 2009, Saturday
Time: 5 - 8 pm

Rabindranath Tagore (1961/ 54 mins/ B&W)

Documentary

This documentary film deals with the life and work of the celebrated Bengali author (1861-1941)  who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. The first section is composed of dramatized vignettes recalling the writer's childhood and adolescence: his private, domestic life. The second section, drawn from archived documents, shows his public life, emphasizing the great political movements in which he was engaged, and which led to India's independence. Two (1964/ 15 min / B&W) Short filmThis short film shows an encounter, through a series of games, between a street child from the shantytowns and a child of a rich family, stationed at his window. The film has no dialogue and the action moves through the attempts at one-upmanship evident in their successive display of their toys. Their rivalry (a kite shot down by a toy rifle, for example) concludes with the opposition between the world of noise (the toys inside the house) and that of music (the street child's flute).

Pikoo (1980 / 26 min / Col)

Short film
This film presents a day in the life of a six year old child in Calcutta, who lives shut up in the family home, insulated from the city by a park. The father is away at work. The grandfather is alone in his room, ill and confined to his bed. The mother receives her lover. The child attempts to amuse himself, registers everything in silence before hiding out in the garden where he begins to make drawings of the various flowers. The film ends with
his question, addressed to his mother, in the arms of her lover: "Shall I use black crayon to draw a white flower?"

Sadgati (1981/ 52 mins / Col)

Short film
Based on a short story by the celebrated Hindi/Urdu writer Munshi Premchand, Sadgati is a searing indictment of the caste system in general and untouchability in particular.
Dukhi, an untouchable, approaches the village Brahmin to request him to set an auspicious date for his daughter's upcoming wedding according to the Hindu astrology. The Brahmin promises to perform the task in exchange of Dukhi slaving over household chores in return. Already ailing and weak due to a recent fever, Dukhi agrees and begins with cleaning the Brahman's house and stable. When he is asked to chop a huge block
of wood, Dukhi's anger increases with each blow. Working in scorching sun, hungry and malnourished, the he dies. The corpse lies close to the road used by the Brahmins to go to the village well. What can be done with the corpse of an untouchable that no one will touch? Late in the evening, when no one is looking, the Brahmin ties a noose around
its ankle, slides it out of the city limits and sprinkles holy water on the spot on the road to cleanse it of the untouchable' s touch.

Venue: IAT, Queens' Road, Bangalore (directions to the venue)
Date: 31 January 2009, Saturday
Time: 5 - 8 pm

For more information, contact Deepu (94483 67627) or Siddharth (98802 76820) or email pedepics@gmail. com

www.pedestrianpictures.org for more information about the organization and the Saturday public screenings.
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www.pedestrianpictu res.org
pedestrian pictures is a media activist organization working in Bangalore since 2001. "