The Indian Institute for Human Settlements has moved its monthly film screenings online with the first screening, Being Bhaijaan directed by Shabani Hassanwalia and Samreen Farooqui. The film explores Indian masculinity by mapping the emotional, spiritual and philosophical contribution star Salman Khan makes to the lives of three men in India who find themselves increasingly disassociated with a changing country.
While the film is already available for viewing for free on the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) YouTube channel, a discussion with the filmmakers will be held on May 27 at 6 pm on Zoom and the IIHS Facebook page.
Says Yashodara Udupa, external consultant, IIHS Media Lab, “PSBT had uploaded Being Bhaijaan a few months ago. It is not time-bound. These are the kind of films we are going for. Something that is already available online and free and not something that requires a subscription or particular access. We have always tried to make whatever we have as accessible as possible.”
Stating that the discussion part with the filmmakers is important to them, she adds, “It is not just that you watch the film and you take away something but that you watch it with other people and somebody points out something that you did not see. These things add value to the screening process. When we do a film screening, we also record the conversation with the director. It is on our YouTube channel (iihs channel) called Dialogue with Filmmakers. We hope that people can come back to it at their own time and listen to how the practice of this particular filmmaker has evolved over time and how they look back and reflect on their work. Hopefully, it will be a resource for somebody at some point.”
Yashodara adds that the discussion with the filmmakers of BeingBhaijaan will be hosted on Zoom (https: / / bit.ly/3bXKmOQ) where people can type out questions and participate. “We understand that not everybody may find that easy so it will also be streamed live on Facebook. People can leave questions and comments and we will collate it from there and loop it into the conversation. We have already asked people to start sharing questions and comments on our social media. The discussion will be recorded and we will upload it to our YouTube channel after the event.”
