THF Talk Series #5
Framing the Frontier: Ladakh in Cinema
Friday, 10 May
6 PM | On Zoom
Please register via the link here.
Through In Retreat and The Shepherdess of the Glaciers, Maisam Ali Shah and Stanzin Dorjai Gya explore Ladakh through poetic and philosophical visual expressions of the landscape and characters in their strength, vulnerability, resilience and profundities.
In this conversation moderated by Annalisa Mansukhani, we will engage with their practice and consider how their works opens up conversations for the portrayal of Ladakh and extendedly, the Himalayan region through film. Their works also challenge the touristic gaze; in both their expansiveness and also in their limits. By bearing witness to the textures of the place, these filmmakers elicit and attend to the poetics in the lives and stories of people from Ladakh.
About the speakers:
About Stanzin: Stanzin Dorjai Gya hails from a remote village called Gya in Ladakh, north India, situated at more than 15,000 feet in the High Himalayas. Like other children of Gya village, Stanzin had a semi-nomadic childhood, spending half of the month tending to his family’s herd of yaks and cashmere goats, while attending school during the other half. In 1995, unable to pass the necessary standardized tests to complete high school, Stanzin began attending an alternative school,SECMOL (Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh), where he learnt more about the visual medium. Fascinated by the camera and film-making, he made this his life’s passion. He founded the Himalayan Film House in Leh, wherein he has directed and produced notable feature films and documentaries on regional, national and international issues. His films include The Shepherdess of the Glaciers, Jungwa: The Broken Balance, Behind the Mirror and Grandir Au Ladakh.
About Maisam: Born in Iran, and hailing from the Himalayan region of Ladakh, Maisam Ali Shah is a graduate of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII). His short films have been screened in France (Poitiers IFF, Rennes IFF), USA (Yale student FF), UAE (Sharjah Film Platform) and India. As a filmmaker, Maisam deals with the themes of home, belonging, journey and the sense of disconnect. In Retreat is his debut feature.
About the moderator: Annalisa Mansukhani is a writer-curator, studying histories of photography and notions of the image in contemporary art and curatorial practices. She is a contributing writer for ASAP | art, and has been published with Hakara Journal, Take on Art, Shared Ecologies and Serendipity Arts Foundation. She is also one of the recipients of the first Critical Collective-PhotoSouthAsia Young Writer's Award for lens-based practices. As the Programmes Manager for the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in Delhi, Annalisa is committed to creating and activating dynamic spaces for artistic practice as well as establishing frameworks around art and research, spaces of exhibition, critical writing, editorial and public programming.