Experimenta 2024: ‘The number of Indians making experimental films has gone up exponentially’
Shai Heredia, founder and director of the biennial experimental film festival, talks to ‘Scroll’ about what to expect from this year’s edition.
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In 2003, filmmaker Shai Heredia organised the first edition of Experimenta, a festival dedicated to “all forms of experimentation with the moving image, from celluloid to digital and documentary to fiction”. Held in Mumbai annually and then biennially, Experimenta soon became a vital platform for filmmakers and cinephiles keen on testing the known boundaries of the cinematic language.
After Heredia moved to Bengaluru – she teaches Experimental Film and Contemporary Art Practice at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology in the city – Experimenta moved with her too. This year’s edition will take place from December 4 to December 8 at the Goethe Institut.
The 12th chapter has 28 films from Asia and South East Asia. Among the titles are Mahdi Awada’s Notes on Sanity, JT Trinidad’s The River That Never Ends, Shambhavi Kaul’s Slow Shift, Gavati Wad’s O Seeker, Utsa Hazarika’s Round Two, Tenzin Phuntsog’s Pure Land and Lovers’ Wind by Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour and Ryan Ferko.
Three films reflect the Bengaluru setting: Babu Eshwar Prasad’s Dear Chalam, Hansa Thapliyal’s Kyaa Hai Yeh Samjhauta and Mahesh B’s Babasaheb in Bengaluru. Heredia and Erika Balsom have curated a collection of feminist nonfiction from the Global South, titled One Way or Another. The films include Grupo Chaski’s Miss Universe in Peru (1982), Simone Fattal’s Autoportrait (1972/2012), Nalini Malani’s Onanism (1969), and Gloria Camiruaga’s Popsicles (1982-84).
The festival will close with Prem Kapoor’s Badnam Basti (1971). The Hindi-language...
