Yugantar

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India’s first feminist film collective

Founded by Abha Bhaiya, Deepa Dhanraj, Meera Rao and Navroze Contractor in 1980, Yugantar made four pioneering films. Working collaboratively with existing or ensuing women’s groups Yugantar forged novel filmmaking practices, political vocabularies that still resonate today.

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1981

Molkarin

Molkarin exposes the oppressive working conditions of hundreds of domestic workers in Pune. Through re-enactments of significant moments of the original process of unionising the film powerfully narrates the coming together of women workers to form their own union to fight for their rights.

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1982

Tambaku Chaakila Oob Aali

Tambaku Chaakila Oob Aali traces the history of one of the largest strike actions of the all women trade union in Nipani (Karnataka), including over 3000 tobacco workers, that sparked many other unionising processes. The film’s entire documentation and re-enactments, inside the factory and large scale strikes outside, were developed in collaboration with female tobacco factory workers.

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1983

Idi Katha Maatramena

Idi Katha Maatramena is a fictional reconstruction of domestic violence. The screen presence of the complex inner struggle of the lead female character, explored through the script, camera and acting, was pioneering at its time.

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1983

Sudesha

A portrait of Sudesha Devi, a village activist in the Chipko Forest Conservation Movement in the foothills of the Himalayas where people’s livelihoods depend on the forest, threatened to be destroyed by powerful timber traders.

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THE NOWNESS OF YUGANTAR

Walking with feminist archives

Yugantar’s films sparked reflections on political friendship, solidarity, mobilizing, going on strike, demanding labour rights, defying violence against women and making films collectively. They created platforms to debate and organise towards radical change, are part of a distinct feminist Third Cinema, rewrite colonial histories of feminist cinema and male dominated histories of documentary film practice. They ignited speculations on past and future cinematic friendships.

THE NOWNESS OF YUGANTAR

TO RESTORE, RETOUCH, REVIVE—

A material journey

Yugantar’s four films were shown and debated extensively during the early 80s and then vanished from the public sphere. For approximately 40 years the films existed through memories and vivid narrations, their material copies being either lost or too scratched and fragile to be screened. In 2009 a journey starts: Resources to restore, digitise and recirculate the films became available.

THE RESTORATION JOURNEY

TIMES FOR RADICAL CHANGE

Of the autonomous Indian women’s movement (1970 and 80s)

Yugantar arose out of the vibrant autonomous Indian women’s movement in India while the collective’s films contributed to the movement’s debates and innovative creative practices of protest, organising and demands for radical change. Sketches below point to just some of the critical historical aspects, political developments and the challenging as well as hugely energetic and hopeful atmosphere that provided a crucial environment for Yugantar’s work. As pioneering documents Yugantar’s films also aid reflections on these histories and their feminist politics.

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CHAPTER 1

Promise of independence collapses

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Anti Price-rise movement // Total Revolution // Women leaving universities to join agrarian struggles // Anti Price-rise movement // Total Revolution // Women leaving universities to join agrarian struggles // Anti Price-rise movement // Total Revolution // Women leaving universities to join agrarian struggles // Anti Price-rise movement //
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CHAPTER 2

Women form their own organisations

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Chipko andolan All sleeping women now awake and move // Chipko andolan All sleeping women now awake and move // Chipko andolan All sleeping women now awake and move // Chipko andolan All sleeping women now awake and move // Chipko andolan All sleeping women now awake and move // Chipko andolan All sleeping women now awake and move // Chipko andolan All sleeping women now awake and move
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CHAPTER 3

Emergency declared: All protests crushed

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all protest crushed // Civil liberties and human rights curtailed // all protest crushed // Civil liberties and human rights curtailed // all protest crushed // Civil liberties and human rights curtailed // all protest crushed // Civil liberties and human rights curtailed // all protest crushed // Civil liberties and human rights curtailed //

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CHAPTER 4

Personal is Political: Birth of the autonomous women’s movement

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women address patriarchal violence // women work on legal reform // feminist publishing // feminist street theatre // women address patriarchal violence // women work on legal reform // feminist publishing // feminist street theatre // women address patriarchal violence // women address patriarchal violence // women
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CHAPTER 5

Founding of the Yugantar Film Collective

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MOLKARIN // TAMBAKU CHAAKILA OOB Aali // IdI KATHA MAaTRAMENA // SUDESHA // MOLKARIN // TAMBAKU CHAAKILA OOB Aali // IdI KATHA MAaTRAMENA // SUDESHA // MOLKARIN // TAMBAKU CHAAKILA OOB Aali // IdI KATHA MAaTRAMENA // SUDESHA // MOLKARIN // TAMBAKU CHAAKILA OOB Aali // IdI KATHA

Events

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  • PREVIOUS

2023
January

Launch of website

Launch of website in Bangalore, maybe Hyderabad, Madras

January

Experimenta Film Festival, Bangalore

Screening followed by discussion with Deepa Dhanraj and Nicole Wolf

January

Screening and panel discussion with union activists (tbc)

January

Hyderabad English and Foreign Languages University

Screening and seminar with Deepa Dhanraj and members of Stree Shakti Sanghathana

November

Batalha Centro de Cinema, Porto, Portugal

Invitation to screen all Yugantar films plus seminar with Deepa Dhanraj

2022
March

Berlin, House of World Cultures

“Going on strike! Friendship Synergies and the Nowness of Yugantar.” Screening of Tambaku Chaakila Oob Ali, presentation of Yugantar website in progress and conversation between Deepa Dhanraj, V. Geetha and Nicole Wolf. ‘Yugantar, India’s first feminist film collective, left a potent legacy of feminist and collective filmmaking practices. Founding member Deepa Dhanraj and feminist historian V. Geetha present some of Yugantar’s films, the new online research platform that will make the films and further material accessible and reflect on political friendship and the resistance practices of strikes.’

March

Sudesha @ Jacaranda Tales, a festival on Women and Nature

Screening and discussion with Deepa Dhanraj, Bangalore Film Society

April

House of World Cultures, Berlin

Podcast: Lakshmi Padmanabhan in conversation with Deepa Dhanraj, as part of: “No Master Narratives. Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image”, curated by Erika Balsom and Hila Peleg

August

24th Seoul International Women's Film Festival (South Korea)

Screening of all Yugantar films and Something like a war, Special Talk by Deepa Dhanraj, Roundtable discussion on the restoration of films by female filmmakers focused on re/writing film historiography with feminist perspective and post screening discussions.

December

Hyderabad Literature Festival

Screenings and discussion with Deepa Dhanraj

2021
March

London, Essay Film Festival “Is this just a story? Celebrating the Yugantar Collective”

This programme featured three recently restored prints of films made in the 1980s by the India’s first feminist film collective, founded in Bangalore in 1980 by Deepa Dhanraj, Abha Bhaiya, Navroze Contractor and Meera Rao. Between 1980 and 1983, during a time of radical political transformation in India, Yugantar created four pioneering films together with existing or emerging women’s groups.

May

Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen

Screening  of  Tambaku Chaakila Oob Aali

August

FilmFest, Melbourne

Screenings of Idi Katha Maatramena, Tambaku Chaakila Oob Aali, Molkarin

August

Moma (NYC, US)

Screening of Yugantar films as part of selection of Arsenal archive films, online conversation between Deepa Dhranraj and Nicole Wolf

September

“Friendship Synergies: The Yugantar Collective.” , Berlin, Arsenal Institute of Film and Video Art

Screening of Tambaku Chaakila Oob Ali and premier of newly restored copy of Sudesha, followed by discussion with Abha Baiya and Deepa Dhanraj

October

Thinking Feminism, Gail Omvedt

Course taught by V.Geetha at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. The course included screenings of Molkarin (Maid Servant), Tambaku Chakila Oob Aali (The tobacco heap is ready to ignite), Idi Katha Maatramena ? (Is this just a story?) These films, created and produced by Deepa Dhanraj [Yugantar film collective], pertain to the times that Gail Omvedt defines as constituting the conjuncture that made for women's dissent, protests and feminism. The first refers to the struggle of the Domestic Workers' Union that Gail writes about; the second to the struggle of tobacco workers at Nipani, which also she was familiar with. The last is a film that features women who were part of the Progressive Organisation of Women (POW) founded in Hyderabad in 1974 and she takes note of their work as well.

November

Singapore International Film Festival

Screening of Idi Katha Maatramena

November

Forms, Voices, Networks: Feminism and the Media, at German Historical Institute London

Yugantar Film Collective was featured as part of the exhibition Forms, Voices, Networks which explored the intersections between the growth of mass media and women’s rights movements in a transnational context during the 20th century. Centred on the histories of feminisms and the media in Britain, Germany and India, this project drew attention to little-known or unheard voices and stories and made connections between activists and the media across time and space. Developed by the International Standing Working Group on Medialization and Empowerment, curated by Maya Caspari (GHIL) and coordinated by Jane Freeland (GHIL). A digital copy of the exhibition will be saved at the German Historical Institute London.

November

Kinothek Asta Nielsen, Frankfurt

Screening of Idi Katha Maatramena

2020
November

Sarajevo

Screening of Idi Katha Maatramena, Tambaku Chaakila Oob Aali

2019
February

Berlinale, Forum Expanded “Of strikes, Visions and Friendships: The Yugantar Film Collective

Screening of the newly restored Tambaku Chaakila Oob Aali and Idi Katha Maatramena, followed by a discussion between Abha Baiya, Deepa Dhanraj and Nicole Wolf

2018
June

Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne “Speculative feminist ciné-geographies”

Lecture by Nicole Wolf followed by conversation with Madhusree Dutta

2017
August

Summer School: ‘Filme Bewegen’, Arsenal. Institute of Film and Video art, Berlin.

Presentation of research and collaboration with Deepa Dhanraj on digitisation of Yugantar film collective films, by Nicole Wolf

November

Cividep, Bangalore

Screening of Tambaku Chaakila Oob Ali to union activists, hosted by Cividep Bangalore, followed by discussion with Deepa Dhanraj

November

Centre for Women’s Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad

Screening of Tambaku Chaakila Oob Ali and Idhi Katha Matramena and presentation by Nicole Wolf: “Re-projecting Yugantar. Legacies of a feminist film archive.”

2015
March

Vision Mix 6-day workshop JNU, Delhi

Workshop with lectures and discussions organised by Lucia Imaz King and Rashmi Sawhney, with Vision Mix artists and associates

March

‘Relations, co-habitations, alliances. Reflections on cinematic friendship and critical global publics’

Lecture by Nicole Wolf

2014
December

Visible Evidence 21, Delhi

‘Current urgencies, feminist legacies and political fiction’, with Sheba Chhachhi, Deepa Dhanraj and Madhusree Dutta; workshop/ panel, chaired by Nicole Wolf, for Visible Evidence 21, December 11-14, 2014

2013
June

Kunstwerke, Institute for Contemporary Art

“Engaging cinema. Re-viewing collective practices” Seminar organised by Nanna Heidenreich and Nicole Wolf, with Deepa Dhanraj.

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