JOURNEYS WITH KABIR
4 films by Shabnam Virmani

November 23-24-25 - AF auditorium
Screened in original language with english subtitles
Free entrance

These films journey into contemporary spaces touched by the music and poetry of the 15th century mystic weaver-poet of north India, Kabir. We meet a diverse array of people – an urban folklorist, a street fruit seller, a social activist, a Dalit folk singer, a Zen Buddhist scholar, a neo-fascist cleric of a Kabir sect, a Muslim qawwal – each encounter offering a moment of insight into the poetry and its contemporary meanings. We glimpse not one but many Kabirs. Sometimes he beckons, sometimes he baffles, but always he pushes us to self-interrogate, to question the boundaries of our identity, nation, ideology, caste and religion… making these journeys unrelentingly inward even as they venture outward.
The 4 films are interwoven in significant ways, but each can be viewed independently.

www.kabirproject.org
https://www.youtube.com/user/Kabirproject

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Thursday, November 23 | 07.00 pm
Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein (In the Market Stands Kabir)

Journeys with Sacred & Secular Kabir

In 15th century north India, the mystic weaver Kabir spoke his poems in the market place, his spirituality firmly grounded in the public square. 600 years after his time, Kabir is found in both spaces – sacred and secular. This film interweaves his deification by the Kabir Panth sect with his secular appropriation by the social activist group Eklavya. The story unfolds through the life of Prahlad Tipanya, a Dalit singer whose participation in both domains, begins to raise difficult questions for him about ritual and organized religion.
(94 min, 2009)

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Friday, November 24 | 07.00 pm
Koi Sunta Hai (Someone is Listening)

Journeys with Kumar and Kabir

Interweaving the folk music traditions of the mystic poet Kabir with the life and music of the late classical singer Kumar Gandharva, this film searches for that elusive sound, that jhini si awaaz, Kabir urges us to hear. Where does it resonate, that subtle sound?
Journeying between folk and classical, oral and written, rural and urban expressions of this 15th century mystic poet of north India, the film finds moments of both continuity and rupture between these disparate worlds. (96 min, 2009)

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Saturday, November 25 | 04.00 pm
Chalo Hamara Des (Come to My Country)

Journeys with Kabir and Friends

A journey in search of the “des” (country) invoked in the poetry of the 15th century mystic poet of north India – Kabir – this film interweaves the stories of two people from two very different countries, Indian folk singer Prahlad Tipanya and North American scholar Linda Hess. Where is Kabir’s country? The answer is elusive, as we journey through song and poem into these two lives, brought together in an unlikely friendship by the cross-cultural resonance of Kabir. (98 min, 2009)

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Saturday, November 25 | 07.00 pm
Had-Anhad (Bounded-Boundless)

Journeys with Ram and Kabir

Kabir was a 15th century mystic poet of north India who defied the boundaries between Hindu and Muslim. He had a Muslim name and upbringing, but his poetry repeatedly invokes the widely revered Hindu name for God – Ram. Who is Kabir’s Ram? This film journeys through song and poem into the politics of religion, and finds a myriad answers on both sides of the hostile border between India and Pakistan. (103 min, 2009)