Harkat 16mm Film Festival Harkat 16mm Film Festival

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Celluloid Karigar

Inviting proposals from artists and filmmakers to make their own motion picture celluloid based works at the Harkat Lab. You get in the film ideas and we’ll give you the film, know-how and the lab.

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A little background

Harkat has been working with celluloid since the past 4 years and has been able to slowly bring to life a continuing practice in celluloid film. We’ve made many handmade films of our own, curated and hosted the fourth edition of the 16mm film festival last December, are the only exhibition space to be able to screen 8mm, 16mm and 35mm; and starting this year, have joined hands with the Gujral Foundation, to put all our fragmented efforts together as a Film Lab. 

The lab is a space to give artists, filmmakers and tinkerers, tools, space and knowledge. It’s intent is to explore Indian thought in film and function as an incubator of sorts, infusing a new wave of ideas in the moving image vocabulary, using the celluloid medium. This is directly in line with our ongoing curatorial, ‘India on Film’. The intent is to kickstart a movement with South Asian artists consolidating their own language of celluloid cinema; replacing western grammar of avant garde and experimental with ‘Cinema of Prayoga’. We wish for the work that comes out of the Harkat Film Lab to speak to this curatorial and be in the direction of finding its own voice.

More about ‘India on Film’ here.

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The Intent

Taking these beginnings further, and with the Gujral Foundation’s support, we are now opening our lab to monthly residents or Celluloid Karigars. 

The idea is to create a safe space for makers with all the tools required for their craft. We are opening the doors to our studio and intend to not only give physical access to the lab but also mentorship, support and guidance to see the projects through to exhibition. As a collective, we are determined to take our work to a global audience and have had our work regularly show at festivals and exhibitions.

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The Residency

Spread over the course of a month, the residency will start off with an overview of the celluloid medium, covering everything from the workings of a projector to all the making processes. You don’t need to know anything about film to do this residency. Intent and artistic practice is enough. Residents will have the remainder of the month to work independently on the celluloid project they have proposed. During their time at the Harkat Film Lab residents are encouraged to experiment with the medium, explore various developing and image-making techniques, including installations and objects. Your proposal should be clear but also have space for the medium to evolve into it. We are not looking for fictional scripts or structure. We are looking for people who question the very nature of the moving image, distort it, create new ways of seeing, make something beautiful, imaginative but also subvert all that we know. Send us philosophy, send us a poem, send us a thought but don’t send us something that could exist on any other medium. 

Please note: Participants need not have attended the Advanced Celluloid Workshop to apply to be a Celluloid Karigar. However, what we are seeking is a strong concept. The ideal participant is an artist or filmmaker who has an existing body of work of some sort in any medium and their idea fits within our curatorial ‘India on Film’. Makers who wish to become a Celluloid Karigar can submit their completed project proposals to us. Proposals should be no more than two A4 pages. Makers will be selected based on the merit of the project idea and how it fits into our curatorial. Harkat will provide logistical help with the finishing of the project. 

The outcome of the residency has to be one finished piece of work which the artist makes at the lab.
Please also note: We are not in a position to provide any financial assistance or boarding and lodging. The lab will cover the material costs of the film and developing though.

The first residency will begin in the first week of May. This is subject to change, in line with state implemented Covid guidelines. We are currently only accepting two residents at a time.

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Deadline: 30, April 2021

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APPLY

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