Screening of CLASSMATES OF ANNE FRANK

Pradarsh screened Eyal Boyers' documentary film Classmates of Anne Frank on Friday, 25th November, 2011 at the Management School Auditorium.

To comprehend fully the events in the life of Anne Frank, one must listen to the voices of the children who were there with her, of those who remember her.

Theo (Maurice) Coster, a famous games' creator from Israel, renews contact with five of his and Anne Frank's former classmates, only to discover an astonishing and confusing truth about the village where he was hiding during World War Two.

Set against his childhood locations in Amsterdam, Westerbork Transit Camp and their current homes in Holland and Israel, these former classmates discuss their relationships with Anne and how they survived the war. Through these discussions, the film takes a bold and illuminating look at the different Dutch attitudes towards the war years in the Netherlands and towards the Holocaust.

Anne Frank's diary confirms the tragedy of the Holocaust and continues to debunk Holocaust deniers. The documentation of Anne's classmates is not only illustrated through interviews and discussions between the classmates themselves, but also through photographs, archival footage, personal scrapbooks and letters and other new resources.

Screening of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

Pradarsh screened the 1959 classic The Diary of Anne Frank, which won three Oscars, on

Friday, 18th November, 2011.

Vox-Pop Film Competition

Pradarsh held a Vox-Pop Film Competition during the university's annual cultural festival of the academic year 2011-12, Abhivyanjana and screened films under the following themes

• Gender Segregation
• Moral Policing
• Gender Discrimination
• Student Life
• Examination Stress
• Student Activism

The three best films were later awarded. The term Vox-Pop is an abbreviation of the Latin Vox-Populi (Voice of the People). Vox Pop Films are short duration films, largely based on interviews. Each film was of only two minutes' duration. The competition was open to groups as well as individuals. There was no limit to the number of entries per competitor.

Screening of SPRING 1941

Pradarsh screened the award winning feature film Spring 1941 on Friday, 4th November, 2011 at the Management School Auditorium. The film's screenplay writer, eminent playwright Motti Lerner had given a lecture at the Gautam Buddha University under the auspices of its Dramatics Club, Dishayan, on Friday, 23rd September, 2011.

A Film by Uri Barabash
(2008, 35 mm - 122 Minutes, DVD - 97 minutes, Color, English, cast: Joseph Fiennes, Clare Higgins, Kelly Harrison, Neve McIntosh, Maria Pakulnis) In 1971, world famous Cellist Clara Plank returns to her homeland of Poland for the first time. She is the guest of honor in a gala concert to be held in her home town. But the familiar sights and faces are so powerful that her mind wonders to that one spring, 30 years earlier, when that terrible war came to destroy her world.

Spring 1941 is the story of the young Clara, her husband, and two daughters, a Jewish family seeking shelter as Nazis storm Poland. They find a safe house in the farm of Emilia, their local grocer. After her husband was taken to fight for his country and never came back, Emilia is all alone in the big house.Under the horrors of the war and the agony of death that surrounds them, an impossible love triangle erupts.
The fragile arrangement, made only in order to live, is tested again and again.

Will love be enough to keep them alive? Is it love or is it survival?

Screening of A MIGHTY HEART

Pradarsh

screened the feature-film,

A Mighty Heart,

based on the American journalist Daniel Pearl's widow Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart - The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl
on
Friday, 21st October, 2011
in memory of
Daniel Pearl.

Daniel Pearl was born in October.

For more information:

• Trailer
• Official Website
• Wikipedia

Screening of PRAYING IN HER OWN VOICE

On Friday, 23rd September, 2011, Pradarsh drew the attention of the students to the discrimination against women in the religious sphere by screening the award winning documentary Praying In Her Own Voice. 

Praying in Her Own Voice documents the courageous struggle of Women of the Wall for the right to wear prayer shawls and read aloud from a Torah scroll - acts which women are permitted to perform by Jewish religious law but the powerful Ultra Orthodox establishment in Israel opposes fiercely. The film follows the group during their services, hearings at the Supreme Court and violent confrontations with their Ultra Orthodox opponents. The story of Women of the Wall is a test case for the deprived status of women in Israeli public life. The film is an outcry protesting religious coercion and the violent silencing of women at the Western Wall, a national symbol and a public space, where there should be room for everyone. To see its trailer, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-xjZWX5rlE

Screening of FROM REFUGEE TO IMMIGRANT

Pradarsh brought the plight of refugees to sharp focus by screening the documentary From Refugee to Immigrant: A Story of Three Kossovar Albanian Americans on Friday, 16th September, 2011. 

Narrated by Olympia Dukakis, From Refugee to Immigrant (2003) is an hour-long production that traces the lives of three refugees from Kosova who arrived at Fort Dix, New Jersey in May 1999 following the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Albanians. With footage captured in the US and on three trips to Kosova, including one immediately after the war when the three young men returned home to discover what fate had befallen their loved ones, the documentary examines the process of assimilation into American society in the aftermath of a national atrocity.

Screening of I'M STILL HERE

On Friday, 9th September, 2011, Pradarsh screened the documentary-film I'm Still Here to help the students understand that it is the responsibility of citizens in any society to learn to identify danger signals, and to know when to react to prevent genocide and the steps required.

I'm Still Here brings to life the diaries of young people who witnessed first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust. Through an emotional montage of sund and image, the film salutes this group of brave, young writers who refused to quitely disappear.

The stories of the young Holocaust victims come to life as read by some of today's most talented young actors. The documentary skillfully weaves together personal photos, handwritten pages and drawings from the diaries, and archival films. It complements them with original footage shot in Vilnius, Lithuania, in the remnants of the old jewish ghetto. The powerful journey is intensified through unobstrusive, evocative music scored by Grammy Award nominee Moby. 

I'm Still Here, produced and directed by the supremely talented Oscar nominee Lauren Lazin, was nominated for two Emmy Awards. 

It's trailer is available here.

Screening of DELICIOUS PEACE GROWS IN A UGANDAN COFFEE BEAN

Pradarsh, the Audio-Visual Educational Club, tried to make the students of the Gautam Buddha University realise how communal harmony and religious amity benefits us by screening the award winning documentary, Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean, on Friday, 2nd September, 2011.

Living in the lingering wake of the Idi Amin regime of terror and intolerance, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Ugandan coffee farmers challenged historical and economic hurdles by forming “Delicious Peace” Cooperative. Their mission was to build harmonious relationships and economic development, and they are succeeding. Partnering with a Fair Trade US roaster, the farmers’ standard of living is improving, peace is flourishing, and their messages of peace and fair wages are spreading to their coffee customers in the US. For more information, visit: http://www.deliciouspeacethemovie.com/

Screening of THE ROMANI TRAIL

Pradarsh drew attention to the plight of the Romani people, distant cousins of Indian Banjaras, by screening the documentary film The Romani Trail on Friday, 19th August at 5 p.m. at the Management School Auditorium as part of its series of Friday film screenings. 

The people popularly known as gypsies are shrouded in mystery : migratory tribes of Indian origin, with their own language and a lifestyle that has kept them apart from tha mainstream of most the societies in which they have settled. To the Romani people, music is a life force and a medium to tell of their history and suffering. They are the victims of ignorance and prejudice, who have suffered much, and their experiences are expressed in their music and dance across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.


The Romany Trail - Part One takes us on a search for the lost Romani tribes of Egypt, up to the Nile to the ancient town of Luxor in the shadw of the great Pharaoh's tomb. Along the way, from the markets of Cairo to the temple of Karnak, we meet dancing girls and acrobats, magicians, fortune-tellers and even mystics performing an exorcism. The programme culminates in the rythms of Flamenco, in the gypsy caves of the Alhambra, where some of Spain's foremost gypsy families celebrate their history.