Times For Radical Change - Yugantar Collective

Composed of three female filmmakers and one male filmmaker without formal training in cinema, Abha Bhaiya, Deepa Dhanraj, Meera Rao, and Navroze Contractor, Yugantar is India's first feminist collective, whose very name speaks in Hindi of "a new era/a revolutionary change." Against the backdrop of major transformations in India in the 1970s and 1980s and civic energies propelled by student and other left-wing movements, Yugantar came together in 1980 as a reaction to the lack of representation of women — especially those from the working classes — in the battle for rights, protections, and autonomy. The collective's activity resulted in only four films (that make up this program), shot in the 1980s and dedicated to several movements for the organization and solidarity of women in urban and rural areas. These films not only sought to examine working and living conditions through documentary footage and reenactments, but also to show the capacity and scale of cooperation and mobilization efforts among oppressed classes and castes. Carefully documented on location and spending a lot of time within the communities themselves, these films make the contribution of the workers or activists who appear in the images more than just a collective subject—they have an advisory role and their own authorship in a model of independent, decentralized, and collaborative cinema. The program is part of the Arsenal on Location initiative and is curated by Angelika Ramlow on behalf the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art. The screening is presented in partnership with F-Sides Cineclub and opens the F-Sides Community Cinema season.

Sudesha

Yugantar | Duration 30'

SUDESHA (1983) takes its name from its central figure, a female activist involved in the Chipko movement, India's major ecofeminist protests at the foot of the Himalayas. The vibrancy of a first use of color is matched only by the fury felt by these women against deforestation, as well as against traditional roles. The happiest day of her life, a woman recalls, was when they arrested her and she no longer had to cook or wash dishes.

Idi Katha Maatramena

Yugantar | Duration 25'

IDI KATHA MAATRAMENA / IS THIS JUST A STORY? (1983), the only film by the Yugantar Collective that doesn't use so-called documentary images, is based on a screenplay co-written with another feminist and activist group, Sri Shakhti Sanghatana, and is dedicated to the issue of domestic violence and the often unseen effects of family life on women in India. Instead of opting for a moralistic tone or dwelling perhaps on the subject of death, the film focuses on the solidarity the main character finds in a friend.

Tambaku Chaakila Oob Aali

Yugantar | Duration 25'

The act of listening and allowing union and trade union groups to speak for themselves is also essential for TAMBAKU CHAAKILA OOB AALI / TOBACCO EMBERS (1982), in which the Yugantar Collective spends four months with the women workers of a tobacco factory in Nipani, the ground zero of one of India's most important labor strikes of the time, which involved 3,000 women. The result of this collaboration is almost like a strike manual, in which the workers discuss strategies of unionising and methods to spread their actions, as well as how they want to be represented.

Molkarin

Yugantar | Duration 25'

In MOLKARIN / MAID SERVANT (1981), Yugantar Collective's first film, reenactments of conflicts between employers and their domestic workers are mixed with interviews and images of community meetings where the workers discuss their needs and grievances. Gradually, these become resolutions, with hundreds of workers in the city of Pune coming together in a strike that succeeds in opening negotiations for new rights and a manifesto regulating working conditions, from respecting days off to providing decent pay.