ANAanchal Kapur, Documentary Curator, Facilitator & Impact Producer
Aanchal's and love for cinema dates back to her childhood days, when during the summer holidays her parents would take their two daughters to Sapru House (a hub for children's films) in New Delhi. They would also make sure that the girls saw the black and white reels before every commercial film in the theatre, much of which was in the 'documentary' format. This interest grew in her student and early years as a gender and rights specialist, as she was exposed to the work of independent filmmakers. She recognised the need to use documentary films on human rights, development, environment, social and women’s issues in her work as a practitioner.
In the
year 2000, she founded the Kriti Film Club, as a documentary screening
initiative of her non-profit organisation - KRITI: a development praxis andcommunication team. The film club screens, curates and distributes documentary films on
peace, human rights, development environment, labour, violence against women,
children’s and women's rights, mental health, disability, etc. among diverse
audiences across India. These screenings have been held monthly in New Delhi
since the initiation, in Mumbai since 2019 and online since March 2020.
Aanchal has conceptualised and organised several issue-based, mini film festivals over the past 25 years, across the country. She likes to collaborate with peer and student based organisations to screen relevant films on a regular basis. One of her key roles at these screenings is to facilitate filmmaker-audience conversations, as her mission is to present #thoughtprovokingcinema #cinemaforsocialaction and enable active citizenship and social impact on issues, people and places that matter.
Aanchal uses her knowledge and practitioner experience of over three decades in the social sector with films as a tool to enable thinking and action that is issue and content person. When audience leaves a Kriti Film Club screening, Aanchal knows that she has 'triggered' some change in their thinking, behaviour and pushed them towards taking some affirmative action around the subject and/ or takeaways from the film they have watched. Aanchal is keen to take documentary cinema to students across social, economic and geographical backgrounds as also 'unconverted audience' who she believes are all significant players as citizens of India.
In the
summer of 2020, the Kriti Film Club showed documentary films for 102 days of
the lockdown by sharing their links through its social media and blog.
Learning from experience, Aanchal decided to revive an online space that she had created a few years earlier. This led to the beginnings of online screenings on the Kriti Film Club’s portal Doculive.in
Aanchal is the founding curator and festival director of three annual Kriti Film Club IP film festivals:
- Eco Reels Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Film Festival (2005 onwards)
- Beyond Borders Feminist Film Festival (2020 onwards)
- Bacchon ka Bioscope: A Young People's Film Festival (2023 onwards, earlier organised as the Children's Film Festival from 2005 onwards)
Aanchal has been closely involved (as curator and jury) with the film festivals such as the PSBT Open Frame, IAWRT, Jeevika Film Festival, Dharamshala International Film Festival, Chalti Tasveerein, Vibgyor and the Auroville Film Festival, and is committed to using documentaries for social change.
Aanchal is a member of International Association of Women in Radio & Television (IAWRT) India and the Bitchitra Collective - Indian Women in Documentary
Aanchal
Kapur has over three decades of work experience as a facilitator-trainer, documentation
and communication specialist. She works with a gender and intersectionalities
approach in building capacities, advising and strengthening developmental
programming in the social sector.
Among the
other initiatives spearheaded by Aanchal are 'Our Diary' (an annual planner
documenting peoples movements), Gestures (a livelihoods support
initiative), Rightscape (offers students, activists and professionals the
opportunity for volunteering and making their contributions to the development,
environment and human rights space) and Astitva (a women and child centred
community programme in Dehradun).
Aanchal
has a MSc. in Development Studies (Gender, Social Policy and Planning), from
the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a Masters in
Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She graduated from Lady
Shriram College for Women with a Bachelors’ in Political Science.
Aanchal
works and lives out of Bombay and New Delhi.
aanchal_kapur@hotmail.com/ space.kriti@gmail.com
https://krititeam.blogspot.com https://doculive.blogspot.com/ https://sutra.vikalpsangam.org/
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