Shorts: Tales from Planet Kolkata; I Am Micro; Events in a Cloud Chamber

Followed by discussion with Radhika Subramaniam moderated by curator Priyadarshini Shanker

Tales from Planet Kolkata (Dir. Ruchir Joshi. 1993, 38 mins. Digital projection. English.) Tales from Planet Kolkata grapples with ideas about colonization and representation, using multiple narrators and humor to address both the Calcutta of Western fantasy and the lived Kolkata of independent India. 

I Am Micro (Dirs. Shumona Goel, Shai Heredia. 2011, 14 mins. Digital projection. English.) In this poetic tribute to India’s vanishing analog film culture, the filmmakers explore the quiet of a deserted film laboratory, a low-budget film set, and decaying cinemas.

Events in a Cloud Chamber (Dir. Ashim Ahluwalia. 2016, 20 mins. Digital projection. English.) Akbar Padamsee, a pioneer of modern Indian painting, also made two animated films in the 1960s— but these experiments were not well-received by audiences, and one of them, Events in a Cloud Chamber, disappeared. Fifty years later, filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia uses archival footage, surviving pieces, and narration from Padamsee himself in an attempt to reconstruct the work that was lost.

Tickets: $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for children under 3 and Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online. (Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

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