2022 PRO EVENTS
- 2022 Masterclass With Shabana Azmi
- 2022 Masterclass With Javed Akhtar
- 2022 Masterclass With Anup Singh
- 2022 Workshops With Gurvinder Singh
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
TALKING FILMS & SONGS: MASTERCLASS WITH JAVED AKHTAR
DIRECTOR’S WORKSHOPS WITH GURVINDER SINGH
An in-depth learning experience with Cannes alum and National Award winning film director Gurvinder Singh. Four workshops of four hours each.
Date: Monday – Thursday, Aug 15 – 18 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Venue: The Alderlea, 40 Elizabeth St S, Brampton, ON
Fee: $50
*ONLY 15 SPOTS*
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ABOUT GURVINDER SINGH
Gurvinder Singh is an internationally acclaimed film director. He is best known for his films Anhe Ghore Da Daan, and Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction) which premiered at Venice and Cannes Film Festival respectively. Gurvinder is an alumnus of the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune from where he studied film-making and graduated in 2001. He travelled extensively through Punjab between 2002 and 2006, living and traveling with folk itinerants, documenting folk ballads and oral narratives. It led to his first documentary ‘Pala’. He continued to make short experimental works and documenting arts/artists for the next few years. In 2005 he was invited by avant-garde Indian filmmaker Mani Kaul to be his teaching assistant for a master-class at FTII, which led to a close association with the filmmaker who became his mentor. He translated and published a book of conversations of Udayan Vajpeyi with Mani Kaul, titled ‘Uncloven Space’.
He directed his first fiction feature in Punjabi, Anhe Ghore Da Daan (English: Alms for a Blind Horse) in 2011. The film, based on the novel of the same name by well-known Punjabi writer Gurdial Singh, dealt with the angst and distress of the marginalised lower caste in Punjab. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and screened at various festivals including Rotterdam, Busan, London, Munich, etc., besides releasing at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. It won the ‘Special Jury Award’ at Abu Dhabi Film Festival, and the ‘Golden Peacock’ for Best Film at the International Film Festival of India, Goa, in 2012. It also won three National Awards in India, including National Film Award for Best Direction and National Film Award for Best Cinematography’ at the 59th National Film Awards of India.
His second feature Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction), an Indo-French co-production, premiered in ‘Un Certain Regard’ competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. Based on two short stories by Punjabi writer Waryam Singh Sandhu, the film explores the fear, mistrust and paranoia in Punjab in the background of the militant unrest in the 1980s. The film has travelled to various international festivals and won the ‘Grand Prix’ at the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival, the Singapore International Film Festival Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Feature Film. and the ‘Golden Gateway’ for Best Indian Film at the Mumbai Film Festival. It received the National Award for ‘Best Punjabi Film’ in 2015.
His next feature blending fiction and reality, ‘Khanaur’ (Bitter Chestnut) in ‘Pahari’ dialect of Himachal Pradesh, premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2019 and was nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award. The film had its Indian Premiere at MAMI, 2019 and its European premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival, 2020.
His new feature in Punjabi Adh Chanani Raat (Crescent Night), based on a novel of the same title by Punjabi writer Gurdial Singh, was invited at the 51st International Film Festival Rotterdam held from 26 January to 6 February 2022.
He has taught filmmaking at the Film & Television Institute of India (Pune), Satyajit Ray Film Institute (Kolkata), National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad) and the KR Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts (Kerala).
All 2021 workshops, masterclasses and panels are listed on IFFSA Toronto 2021 Schedule.
EVENT 1 of 5: DIRECTORS WORKSHOP
In our world, we write, gesture, speak in familiar ways and modes so that we are quickly understood and can achieve whatever goal we’ve set ourselves. We rarely reflect on these familiar modes – that, perhaps, they have have locked us into a habitual and mediocre way of relating to our world. We sense that there’s so much more within and between us, but are hardly ever able to reach that depth or breadth.
This workshop is for writers, directors, actors who would like to take a line of flight into other possibilities of performance: not simply re-present to us ready-made ideas of ourselves, the other and our cosmos, but enter a process of creation that allows the outside world to challenge & galvanize us and our work – & our work to cast its new expanse back into the world.
PROCESS:
- Understanding how familiar modes order the world and predetermine our performance
- The joy of journeys: speed, intensity and intervals of the body, relationship with the other, space & time
- Playing without an end: the body and the other as process, materiality, possibilities
ABOUT ANUP SINGH
ANUP SINGH was born in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa. He graduated in literature and philosophy from the Bombay University. He is a student of the Film & TV Institute of India, Pune, graduating in direction in 1986. He now lives & works in Geneva, Switzerland.
ANUP SINGH is an internationally renowned film director who’s feature “Qissa – The Tale of a Lonely Ghost” (2013) premiered at TIFF, where it won the award for “Best Asian Film”. One of the most critically acclaimed films, it has won 15 international awards to date. His next masterpiece, “The Song of Scorpions” (2017), starring Irrfan Khan had its world premiere at Locarno in front of 8000 people on the world’s largest film screen. The film has won numerous accolades worldwide.
Anup Singh has taught and lectured on cinema at numerous universities and film schools in the UK, India and Switzerland.
WORKSHOP DETAILS
Date : Sunday, May 19th | 3:00 PM
Venue: Courtyard by Marriott,
90 Biscayne Cres,
Brampton, ON
L6W 4S1
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EVENT 2 of 5: MASTERCLASS WITH MANOJ BAJPAYEE
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EVENT 3 of 5: PRODUCERS WORKSHOP
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EVENT 4 of 5: THEATRE WORKSHOP
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
A theatre exploration workshop with the master of theatre art, Anamika Haksar who has been trained at National School of Drama and Moscow State Institute of Theatre Arts.
Anamika is a multi faceted actor, playwright, director, and producer of scores of celebrated theatre plays. Her very 1st film as director and producer, Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon, has won accolades world wide including at Sundance 2019. Anamika also taught at National School of Drama and counts bollywood actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Adil Hussain and Rajpal Yadav among her students.
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EVENT 5 of 5: MUSIC WORKSHOP
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
Join the Yogi of Sound Professor Surinder Singh for an insightful workshop exploring the depths of human emotions and their musical connection. Discover how to master your emotions through music and empower yourself with an incredible tool that has the capacity to tackle some of life’s biggest challenges. Journey through sound, emotion and reality to become a better you.
BUY TICKETS*Festival management reserves the right to modify schedule and replace content under unforeseen circumstances. All film screenings are for 18+ audience.