Jashn-e-Azadi (How we Celebrate Freedom, 2007, 139 minutes)

screening and discussion with
documentary filmmaker, Sanjay Kak,
on the topic of Kashmir, Independence, and History

Friday, September 28, 2007
3:30-6:30pm
Room 1123 Anderson Hall

Using a beguiling mix of vérité footage, rare archival material, poetry, and text, Jashn-e-Azadi is a provocative look at Indian democracy on the 60th anniversary of Independence and a reflection on power, resistance, and freedom in the Kashmir Valley.

In the aftermath of 18 years of an armed struggle, with 60,000 dead and nearly 7,000 missing, death and loss are everywhere. As the Kashmiri people begin to look within their ledger of loss, Kak's documentary pries open the meanings of Kashmir's struggle for freedom, or Azadi.

About the filmmaker:

Sanjay Kak is an independent documentary film-maker whose recent work reflects his interests in ecology, alternatives and resistance politics. Words on Water (2003, about the struggle against large dams in the Narmada valley in central India), and In the Forest Hangs a Bridge (1999, about the Adi tribe in Arunachal, north-east India, gathering to build a 1000 ft long bridge of cane and bamboo), have been widely screened both in India and abroad. Words on Water won Best Long Film prize at the Internacional Festival of Environmental Film & Video, Brazil. In the Forest Hangs a Bridge received the "Golden Lotus" for Best Documentary Film at the 1999 National Film Awards in India, and the "Asian Gaze" Award at the Pusan Short Film Festival, Korea.

Born in 1958, Sanjay read Economics and Sociology at Delhi University, and is a self-taught film-maker who first discovered the documentary while working in television (1984-1990). Based in New Delhi, he is actively involved in the Indian documentary film movement, as part of the Films for Freedom platform, the Delhi Film Archive, and in the Campaign against Censorship.