TV & Film
Coined by film historian Amrit Gangar, “cinema of Prayōga” is a conceptual framework used to describe experimental and avant-garde Indian cinema, and to locate it within an ancient history of pre-modern tradition of innovation -- of prayoga. In this episode, PKP turns the lens onto India’s experimental film scene: how it differs from North American experimental cinema, how it flourished under the Nehruvian socialist years due to figures like Dadasaheb Phalke and the Film Division Institute (FDI), the role of media arts, and how the “prayog spirit” is currently being kept alive in India through the Experimenta International Festival of Moving Image Art. Show Notes & Resources: Raja Harischandra (Dadasaheb Phalke, 1913): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zevm0Zjc-k&t=405s Film Division Institute Experimental Film Playlist (many filmmakers and films mentioned in this episode can be viewed for free here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VojoKoHH4sA&list=PLZN9KGi5w_41GXjwlSVhCgdnTzZ4FijFR Experimenta International Festival of the Moving Image Art: http://experimenta.in/