Scarborough Art Gallery film night season continues - how you can watch series of shorts about India

Scarborough Art Gallery’s popular online film nights continue this month with short films re-thinking how India has been and continues to be re-presented on screen.
Next screenings are on June 30Next screenings are on June 30
Next screenings are on June 30

An international collaboration between the UK and India, this screening marks a new and ambitious element of Scarborough Museums Trust’s online programming, with filmmakers joining the post-screening Q&A live from Delhi.

Gallery Screenings Online, on the last Tuesday of each month from 7pm, features films selected to give audiences a new perspective on both visiting exhibitions and the permanent Scarborough Collections. The films are followed by a Q&A.

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The next event, on Tuesday 30 June from 7pm, is entitled Re-presenting India on Screen, and will feature short films by director, cinematographer and editor Priya Thuvassery; Gautam Valluri, an artist working with film; Suraj Prasad, co-founder of Lightcube, India (a film collective in New Delhi) and Tarini Manchanda, a filmmaker based in New Delhi. The films will be followed by a Q&A with Suraj Prasad and Tarini Manchanda.

The event will be co-hosted by Suraj Prasad and curator Martha Cattell. The catalyst for the screening is an item in the Scarborough Borough Collection: a journal by colonialist traveller Colonel James Harrison, from Brandesburton in East Yorkshire.

Suraj Prasad says: “The idea that colonialism is necessarily connected to a specific identity and location is convoluted and over-simplified; we are all colonialists to some degree. Perhaps our images can help reveal a lot about how we see the world.”

Martha Cattell says: “James Harrison’s journal and photographs offer a specific representation of India through an external and colonialist perspective.

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“This screening will consider how filmmakers have used moving images to represent India. It will feature archive and contemporary works, drawing on themes of ecology, architecture and colonialism. It will aim to challenge pre-existing biases and colonist hangovers of India on screen, and is part of ongoing work at Scarborough Museums Trust to decolonialise the Collections.”

Each Gallery Screening will have optional live captions from a stenographer; downloading the app version of Zoom is recommended for those wishing to use this function.

A ‘social story’ (a visual guide) will also be created, with illustrations by Scarborough artist Savannah Storm to explain the format and accessible elements of the screening.

Access to the event is by password only, available, along with a link, by emailing Martha Cattell at [email protected] - please email the same address for access to the social story.

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The introduction and Q&A will be available post-event on Scarborough Museums Trust’s YouTube channel: bit.ly/YouTubeSMT

And visit Scarborough Museums Trust’s YouTube channel at the same address to watch the recorded introductions and Q&As from previous Gallery Screenings.