We started the year with announcing the Harkat film lab in collaboration with the Gujral Foundation. Continuing on with our goal of facilitating the making of new work on the celluloid medium, here is presenting our star workshop - Celluloid Karigar - an advanced film workshop which will take you through the entire process of shooting, hand-developing and projecting 16mm black and white film. 

In an age of precise image making with pixels that stare at us with their squared perfection, this workshop allows one to play with the moving image medium, free from any judgement, art markets or Instagram. Handmade film are moving images made with intent, with the medium carrying marks of the human touch. It’s not pristine but it evokes a kind of truth. A truth where the maker physically placates herself in the work. The process of the making, including all the mistakes, discoveries and the unintentional, all make their way into the final work, lending to its organic form.

Spread over the course of two weeks, the workshop will delve into the following:

• Overview of the celluloid medium
• Understanding the medium of 16mm black and white reversal film,
• Working with a Krasnogorsk K3 16mm film camera (loading and filming)
• the workings of a darkroom and the equipment associated with it
• hand-developing film using easily found chemicals in a darkroom
• 'cutting/‘splicing film using a tape splicer
• working with found footage
• hand working on film directly
• working and handling a 16mm film projector
• exploration of celluloid as an artistic medium
• exploring alternate, eco-friendly DIY options for developing reversal film.

The workshop is designed to be with a small ground of 10 participants and will be personal and intimate in nature. The ideal participant is a maker, artist, filmmaker or a creative individual who sees himself/herself working with the medium of film in the future. It is a process driven workshop with a larger view of creating a community of makers working on film.

It will end with a public screening of all the works made, with the artists playing projectionists for their own work. 

The workshop has limited seats, so we'd like you to RSVP as soon as possible so that we can share the application form with you.

The last date for application is 25th February 2021.

Details:

Workshop Dates : 1st March, 2021 to 13th March, 2021

Screening : 27th March 2021 (Online and In-Person)

Seats : 10

Price : Rs. 6500/- (only to be paid after participation is confirmed)

About the Harkat Film Lab, facilitators and more:

The Harkat Film Lab is something that has been in the making for many years now. After many iterations of the 16mm film festival, multiple workshops and a landmark ‘India on film’ programme at the Serendipity Arts Festival, this lab is a culmination. In collaboration with the Gujral Foundation, we will be presenting year long screenings, workshops and exhibitions and consistently work towards re-building the celluloid infrastructure in India.

The workshop will be facilitated by the team who have been instrumental in mounting the festival, workshops, installations over the years. They are all artists and makers on their own and the workshop will too follow a peer pattern rather than a top-down approach. Main facilitators include Karan Talwar, Tanya Dixit, Tanvi Chitre and Aditi Kashyap.

Tha lab will 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. The intent is to also shift the western ideas of ‘Avant-garde’ and ‘experimental’ towards ‘Cinema of Prayoga’. 

Attendees of this workshop will have options of furthering their practice in a hybrid residency model at our permanent workshop space, put together with the Gujral Foundation’s support. 

In order to be eligible to be an in-house Celluloid Karigar, you must have participated in one of the Advanced Celluloid Workshops with Harkat and learned your way around our lab.