In this lecture presentation Amarnath Praful will introduce the cinematic oeuvre of the Malayali filmmaker Govindan Aravindan (1935 -1991) who lived and worked in Kerala, India. G. Aravindan was considered one of the most influential filmmakers in India and was a unique figure in the Parallel cinema movement in Kerala and India. His meditative and eclectic vision became an important marker of Kerala modernity in the 1970s and 80s. The presentation will trace the film maker’s practice, from his days as a reputed cartoonist and dramaturge, to subsequently becoming a filmmaker who collaborated with a range of cultural practitioners and traditional artists across Kerala.
Using certain instances and threads from his early films, Praful will try to locate the unique position Aravindan’s cinema had within a triad of contexts: folk traditions and mythology of Kerala – its appropriations and adaptations in performative and literary arts; the socio-political and cultural history of Kerala (especially in the 1970s and 1980s) and the history of cinema and cinephilia in the region.
Introduction by Constantine V. Nakassis, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago and moderated by Eléonore Rimbault, doctoral student in Anthropology, University of Chicago
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