All of photochemistry is based on the idea that an element can transform and make imaginations come to life. Light makes friends with silver and chemistry, and an image is born. Cinema too, is transformative, where ideas tilt into images and come into motion. They become portals into lives other than our own, a third place to rest our dreams.
For ten editions, the 16mm film festival has celebrated this dance of images. And with this edition, we bring it back to where it started— to a simple wonderment of chemistry, chance, light imperfections, mastery and process.
The edition this time, will see a month long celebration of city wide workshops, a mini residency in Alibaug, an analog exhibition, our 1-min film competition, many Indian and International artists joining and multiple venues. We are stretching ourselves a bit and we like it.
Explore Festival 2026 and stay tuned for the programme, screenings, workshops and other photochemical engagements.
चाँदी का घर — A Home Made of Silver
For the past decade, the Harkat Lab has been a home to photochemical and analogue imagemaking processes. Living amongst the young are very old, fragile and sole-surviving machinery and equipment. Prints live on walls, in hidden stacks of paper, under tables. Film, that has long dried, still hangs from the ceiling. A small piece of wall has seen more light than any other. We now want to expand our space and make room for new makers; and this exhibition felt like the best way to fill our home up with more colour and light.
चाँदी का घर (A Home Made of Silver) is a collective showcase of photochemical and analogue image-making from artists and practitioners across India. Our intention with this exhibition is to make the medium more accessible to a larger audience. Housing experimental projects, interactive nooks, and a mini cinema; we hope to see the community carry home with them, a little sprinkle of silver, enough to spark and catalyse their own photochemical practices - or simply find a new medium to appreciate.
20 November: 7 PM onwards
21–25 November: 4 PM – 9 PM
The Harkat Lab
Harkat has been working with photochemical film and its devices since the past 8 years and has been able to slowly bring to life a continuing practice in photochemical film. We’ve made many handmade films of our own, make installations and experiences, curate and host the annual 16mm film festival, and are the only exhibition space to be able to screen 8mm, 16mm and 35mm.
Read more →
Spread over 10 days, this colour film residency sees participants delving hands-on into 16mm colour celluloid, making their own analogue motion-picture short films.
Read more →
