Children Playing God: The Ramlila Project (60 minutes, 2008)

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

11:40am - 1 pm, CHAT Lounge, 10th Floor Gladfelter Hall

Documentary screening followed by a discussion with filmmakers,
Irfana Majumdar and Arshad Mirza

 

 

 

About the film:

In the month of October, the streets of the city of Varanasi are transformed into dramatic stages, where the "gods" descend onto the earth and play. Who are the children who become gods? What are their lives like? What do they learn?

A group of actors, artists, and teachers worked with children from a Varanasi neighborhood to teach theatre, history, and self-identity. They encountered support and prejudice from the community and a child's world unforgiving in its realities and universal in its imagination and discoveries. This film is about their journey.

About the filmmakers:

Irfana Majumdar (director, editor) is a theatre director, documentary filmmaker, and teacher, living in Varanasi. She works with NIRMAN, a non-profit group working for education and the arts.
Arshad Mirza (photographer, editing assistant) is a designer, illustrator, and dancer, also working with NIRMAN. Their previous films, Images of Indian Children: Work and Play and Anupriya have been screened in the USA and India. This film is a culmination of a six-month project on children and the Ramlila by the NIRMAN Theatre Studio (www.nirman.info).