Cinema of Resistance 5.0
Film Enthusiast workshop 2025- Special focus on artist collectives and activists
27th to 30th of June 2025
Friends,
The Cinema of Resistance campaign in association with Sambhaavnaa Institute is organizing a four-day workshop on ‘Cinema of Resistance’ for film enthusiasts, activists and artist collectives about using the medium of documentary and alternate films to initiate dialogues about critical issues. This is the fifth edition of this workshop and this time our focus is on activists and artist collectives who are in the process of developing spaces for conversations on rights, justice and critical thinking. We would like to think with them on devising ways in which those spaces can be used for screening cinemas and continuing the conversations.
Despite the access to free sources of cinema online and the overflow of material through various online portals, the kind of visual content people end up watching includes a lot of misinformation and hate speech; digital platforms heavily rely on AI to moderate such content. In an environment where fake news and propaganda movies thrive, how can we create a culture of critical viewing and how can those working with communities on issues of rights, social justice, democratic values, environment help people rethink about those issues with a critical lens, collectively?
These four days with documentary filmmakers, artists, community organisers and cinephiles will open the world to the joy and meaning of screening. Participants will be able to learn how to strategically use the spaces that we have to view content together and think about what the medium can/is doing.
This is the fifth workshop we are organising at Sambhaavna and we are happy to say that our conversations at these workshops have extended beyond a one-time meeting space and have led to longer associations. In the light of increasing need for creating spaces to have collective screenings and encouraging youngsters to be associated with it, we have created a network of schools around our program Cinema in School. This program aims to screen thought provoking cinema in schools, libraries and other learning spaces; through such screenings we are hoping to expand the space for discussions around democratic values. We intend to use this workshop as a space to ideate on the potential and possibilities of cinema in school program with the participants and also to consider how points of collaboration can be found.
Please remember that the four-day program is essentially on film screening practice and not on filmmaking. We shall be talking about the ways of screening movies, the need for co-creating and organising screening spaces, the need to claim cinema as a potential tool to counter propaganda and incite critical thinking. There shall be no sessions on how to make videos/audiovisual content.
Who can apply: We invite applications especially from artist collectives and activists who believe in the need and potential of cinema to build community and collective spaces of critical thinking and conversations. Welcome to the wonderful world of cinema!
Objectives of the Programme:
- To give an overview of the history and impact of critical cinema in building democratic spaces in India.
- To train the participants in doing collective film screenings at community centers and learning spaces and thereby to initiate conversations on various issues.
- To orient them to be alert about audiovisual content in circulation and the impact of this circulation among young people.
- To share films and videos that can be screened in their area of work.
- How cinema was used by artists/activists in community spaces.
The Resource people will be announced shortly
Language: Hindi and English
Dates and Venue: 27th to 30th of June 2025. The participants are expected to reach the venue by/at/before 9 AM on the 27th and can leave from the venue after 3 PM on the 30th.
Sambhaavnaa Institute, VPO – Kandbari, Tehsil – Palampur, District – Kangra, PIN 176061, Himachal Pradesh.
How to reach the Sambhaavnaa’s campus: Please visit: Getting here.
Contribution towards Programs Costs: We hope that each participant would contribute an amount of Rs. 4000 – towards the workshop expenses, inclusive of all on-site workshop costs: boarding, lodging, and all the materials used in the workshop. Need-based partial waivers are available, especially for people from marginalized communities. We have a very limited number of partial waivers, so please apply for a waiver only if you really need it. Please do remember that there may be others who need it more than you.
To know more, contact: WhatsApp or call – 889 422 7954 (between 10 am to 5 pm, Mon-Sat), and e-mail: programs@sambhaavnaa.org.
To register for the workshop, please fill out this form: