Your Bangalore. Their eyes

What does your city mean to you? How do you look at it? What are some of your concerns about the space you live in? These, and some more questions — that’s what Urban Lens: A festival of Films and the City hopes to address. Organised by IIHM (Indian Institute for Human Settlements), Traveling Lens is a three day festival that will feature documentary films by known and upcoming non-fiction filmmakers as well as conducts panel sessions and discussions with some of the filmmakers. Subashri Krishnan, curator for the festival, says that this film intends to bring to the forefront some of the varied perspectives as far as urban lives are concerned.

“The films focus on various aspects of the ‘urban’ - from lives in a city to what happens to an urban environment over the years - different filmmakers have different things to say. And it’s not just about the present, the films highlight the past as well and the impact it has had on our ‘today’, which is why we have chosen films from different times,” she says.

Some of the films that are being screened are Sukhdev’s India 67, Anand Patwardhan’s national award winning film Bombay Our City to Sameera Jain’s acclaimed documentary, Mera Apna Shehar, and Ruchir Joshi’s Tales from Planet Kolkatta.

Apart from the movie screenings, a panel discussion on two days of the festival —  Codes of Non-Fiction and The City in Non-Fiction will also be a part of the festival. The panelists will be a mix of filmmakers and academics. There will also be conversations with filmmakers who will be present after the screening of their films.

The filmmakers who are expected to attend the festival are Anand Patwardhan, Sameera Jain, Avijit Mukul Kishore, Sunanda Bhat, Sushma Veerappa, Hansa Thapliyal and Amit Mahanti. Apart from this, national award winning filmmakers Iram Ghufran and Aparna Sanyal will also be present at the film festival, moderating conversations with filmmakers after the screening.
 
Be at IIHS Bangalore City Campus, Sadashivanagar , 2pm to 7pm on April 26, 9.30am to 7pm on April 27 and 10am to 6pm on April 28. Log on to http://transformurbanindia.com/urban-lens-film-festival/ for more details