Roshan Bayan

March 14, 5.00 pm


ROSHAN BAYAN (THE LIGHTNING TESTIMONIES)


A film by Amar Kanwar, 113 minutes, 1997


The filmmaker will be present for the screening


Synopsis:


ROSHAN BAYAN (THE LIGHTNING TESTIMONIES)


Why is one image different from the other? Why does an image seem to contain many secrets? What can release them so as to suddenly connect with many unknown lives.


The Lightning Testimonies reflects upon a history of conflict in the Indian subcontinent through experiences of sexual violence. As the film explores this violence, there emerge multiple submerged narratives, sometimes in people, images and memories, and at other times in objects from nature and everyday life that stand as silent but surviving witnesses. In all narratives the body becomes central – as a site for honour, hatred and humiliation and also for dignity and protest.


As the stories unfold, women from different times and regions come forward. The film speaks to them directly, trying to understand how such violence is resisted, remembered and recorded by individuals and communities. Narratives hidden within a blue window or the weave of a cloth appear, disappear and are then reborn in another vocabulary at another time. Using a range of visual vocabularies the film moves beyond suffering into a space of quiet contemplation, where resilience creates a potential for transformation.