ANAanchal's 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 22 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
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 but not able to operationalise. This led to the beginnings
of online screenings on the Kriti Film Club’s portal www.doculive.blogspot.com
In
November 2020, Aanchal curated the first South Asian Feminist Film Festival for
Sangat, a South Asian Women’s Network and hosted the festival online on the
above platform. From January to April 2021, Aanchal managed and hosted another
online film festival in collaboration with One Billion Rising South Asia and
Sangat – the Rising Gardens Film Festival. Subsequently, Aanchal curated the
second edition of the Sangat film festival, titled ‘Beyond Borders Feminist
Film Festival’ in 2021; Me, We and Us Film Festival on Self and Collective Care
in 2021; the Jacaranda Film Festival on Women and Nature in March 2022. She then
curated the One Billion Rising Travelling Film Festival 2022, which was held
in-person during May-June 2022, across eight Indian locations. In
November-December 2022, Aanchal curated and organised the 3rd
edition of the Beyond Borders Feminist Film Festival in a hybrid format.
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 also a member of International Association of Women in Radio & Television (IAWRT) India and the Bitchitra Collective - Indian Women in Documentary
Aanchal
Kapur has 32 years 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
Comments
Post a Comment