Programs and Events
Monthly Archive: December Prog
Five Questions for Hina P. Ansari
Hina P. Ansari’s relationship with Bollywood goes way back to the burgeoning of the industry. Her grandfather was a multi-faceted filmmaker known as one of the leading and first film noir directors of the Mumbai-based industry.
Hydraulophones at the ROM – Making Water Sing!
The golden days of summer just wouldn’t be the same without water – going to the pool, eating popsicles, making a slip’n’slide across the back yard with a sprinkler and a plastic tarp – but have you ever used water to make MUSIC?
Three Questions with Cyrus Sundar Singh
Popular imagery of India is often full of bright colours that create vibrant landscapes. Taking a closer look it becomes clear that not only are India’s many forms of street art a huge source of these aesthetics, but also that they are changing. Canadian filmmaker Cyrus Sundar Singh, enchanted with the hand-painted billboards apparent on the Indian streetscape since he was a child, has made a documentary looking at where these billboards come from and what is happening to them.
Three Questions for Prashant Kadam
For a long time, bioscopes have been a part of India’s bustling landscape, an aspect of childhood that came and went as bioscopewallahs travelled through the country. Bioscopes are an early movie projector taking the form of a wooden box, the interior of which has pictures that can be viewed through four circular holes. Bioscopewallahs are the people who would make their living by them, setting up temporarily and offering them as entertainment to children.
Five Questions for Noah Cowan
Fun fact about the TIFF Bell Lightbox: its Artistic Director started out as a box-office volunteer. As a teenager, Noah Cowan volunteered for the relatively young “Festival of Festivals”, now the Toronto International Film Festival. Since those humble beginnings, he has started Midnight Madness, founded the Global Film Initiative, curated major retrospectives on Indian and Japanese cinema, started a production company, been a film critic, Co-Directed TIFF and became Artistic Director of TIFF Bell Lightbox- but not exactly in that order.
ROMWalks: Coming soon to a neighbourhood near you!
Every time you turn a corner in Toronto, you discover another venerable stone building resplendent with arches, turrets, gables, or statues perched in a niche. Some are nestled between the encroaching skyscrapers of the banking district, others sit proudly on their original estate. The heritage houses, churches, government and university buildings, even the industrial areas, are still brimming with rich history – all have fascinating stories to tell of life in Toronto’s past.
Five Questions with Krishna
Submitted by Netta Kornberg, Intern with the Institute for Contemporary Culture.