Music for (prepared) Bicycles

Music for (prepared) bicycles (after John Cage & Marcel Duchamp)
A project by Caecilia Tripp, 2012

Synopsis: “The image, the imagined, the imaginary – these are all terms that direct us to something critical and new in global cultural processes: the imagination as a social practice…. The imagination is now central to all forms of agency, is itself a social fact, and is the key component of the new global order.” (Arjun Appadurai)

The global project consists of seven « prepared » bicycles in echo with « Music of change » by John Cage (1951) which will lead to seven sonic bicycle processions through seven different metropoles. Each bicycle procession through the city is filmed, so that there will be seven films together with the seven bicycles in the end. The bicycle wheels are strung with musical strings of an electric guitar, and playing cards are placed in between the spikes, provoking musical sounds as the bicycle is on the move. The technique of the inserted playing cards translates John Cage’s « prepared piano » for the bicycle, but is also inspired by the vernacular culture practiced and invented by the teenagers in socially disregarded suburbs; relating both to each other. Beginning « Music for (prepared) bicycles » in Mumbai mingles further with John Cage’s entanglement with Indian philosophy and the act of civil disobedience initiated by Gandhi as an anarchistic means of change.

Making of the Film:
Performer: Nikhil Raunak
Camera: Ram Devineni
Editor: Pradiph Pahil & Caecilia Tripp
Sound: Hiru Upadhay
Filmteam Driver: Santosh

Film screening & discussion at Alliance Française 7 May, 2012
Exhibition at Clarkhouse Initiative 27 april until 7 May, 2012
At: Ground Floor, Clark House, 8 Nathalal Parekh Marg (Old Wodehouse Road), opposite Sahakari Bhandar, and Regal Cinema, near Woodside Inn, Bombay 400039. Contact: +919820213816 | info@clarkhouseinitiative.org | clarkhouseinitiative.org

with Solang Productions Bruxelles & French Institute Paris
Rattapallax Films New York & Clark House Initiative Mumbai, India

Read the article The Bicycle Diaries: Caecilia Tripp’s New Film is a Tribute to John Cage, Marcel Duchamp and Mumbai

STATUS: Completed.

Karma Killers

Synopsis: The terror planted its first seeds in the slums of Kurla, on the outskirts of Mumbai, in early 2010, when the body of a five-year-old girls was found stuffed in a gunny sack on a staircase. A month later, it spread into a near-riot when a nine-year-old, raped and murdered, was left on a terrace across from a police station. By the time the decomposed body of another nine-year-old was discovered, the entire city understood: Another serial killer, another in the growing number of serial predators who have wreaked havoc in a nation long known for its lower murder rate.

The timely documentary delves into the complexity of this case and the infamous Noida serial murders between 2005 and 2006 at the house of horrors belonging to businessman Moninder Singh Pandher. At present his servant Surender Koli has been convicted of four of twelve murders and sentenced to death. Other serial killers profiled are Mohan Kumar, an Indian primary school teacher accused of killing 18 young low-caste women after he promised to marry them.

Why, at the very moment that India is experiencing an unprecedented economic and population explosion, has this rash of serial killings broken out in a nation steeped in a tradition of karmic non-violence? How can under-funded police forces identify and capture these predators in a nation of one billion people? Can Indian authorities use FBI profiling techniques to create a portrait of the Kurla serial killer in a culture so starkly different from the West? STATUS: Development.

RAM DEVINENI (Producer) co-produced, edited and co-directed the feature documentary The Human Tower, which was shot in India, Chile, and Spain. The film is being distributed by Goldcrest, which produced the Academy-Award nominated film, Restrepo, and have won 19 Academy Awards and 28 BAFTAs. Recently, he produced Amir Naderi’s feature film, Vegas: Based on a True Story, which premiered at the Venice & Tribeca Film Festivals and a three-part travel documentary TV series called On the Road about endangered languages shot in West Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and showing on LINK TV. Besides films, Rattapallax publishes poetry books and DVDs and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Devineni is one of the founding partners of Academia Internacional de Cinema, the first independent film school in Brazil.

ELINOR BURKETT (Executive Producer) is the producer of Music by Prudence (HBO, 2010), for which she won an Oscar for Best Documentary (short subject). She produced and co-directed a feature-length version of the film called iThemba. Additionally, she has worked as a newspaper reporter at the Miami Herald, Fulbright university professor, and a magazine writer. She is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and the author of numerous books including Golda (2008, HarperCollins), The Baby Boon (2000, The Free Press), and The Gravest Show on Earth: America in the Age of AIDS (1995, Houghton-Mifflin).

TUSHAR PRAKASH (Assistant Director) studied at the prestigious National Polish Film School in Lodz, where he made his award winning 35-mm film, Jestem OK / I am OK. As editor, he has worked for Deepa Mehta and was the associate curator for the Sadho Poetry Film Festival.

Um Beijo para Gabriela

Sinopse: Gabriela Leite é a primeira prostituta de quem se tem notícia a concorrer a um cargo político no Congresso Nacional brasileiro. “Um Beijo para Gabriela” segue de perto sua campanha a deputada federal em 2010, quando concorreu com outros 822 oponentes e enfrentou osdesafios de um sistema político dominado pelo gênero masculino. Poderá uma prostituta, ativista, esposa, mãe e ícone cultural contrariar a norma e vencer as eleições?

A atividade da prostituta não é ilegal no Brasil, embora o gerenciamento da prostituição, como a posse de um bordel, seja criminalizado, e a profissão sofra de forte estigmatização. Gabriela Leite vem se dedicando a mudar esse contexto há 30 anos, por meio do mais conhecido e controverso movimento de ativismo sexual do país, o de defesa dos direitos das prostitutas, fundado por ela em 1987. Autora de duas autobiografias, a segunda encenada no teatro e em adaptação para o cinema, Gabriela ganhou em 2005 o status de ícone cultural ao criar uma bem-sucedida linha de roupas, a grife Daspu, para promover os direitos das prostitutas e levantar recursos para a organização não-governamental que dirige, Davida.

O documentário acompanha a jornada de Gabriela como líder carismática, por meio de um estilo observador, garantido pelo acesso irrestrito concedido por ela à diretora. No belo e sedutor cenário do Rio de Janeiro, repleto de pôsteres de candidatos homens e brancos, principalmente, a protagonista surge fazendo sua própria campanha, recusando a oferta de um pastor evangélico de captar votos em sua comunidade em troca de dinheiro, cozinhando para o marido, cantando seus sambas favoritos, trabalhando sozinha tarde da noite e chorando ao votar em si própria pela primeira vez. O filme é um retrato intimista de uma mulher marcante cujos motivos de notoriedade e proeminência são os mesmos que tornam remota a possibilidade de sua eleição.

Embora a ativista não tenha sido eleita, em “Um beijo para Gabriela” percebemos que o importante para mulheres como ela, que desafiam estereótipos, não é ganhar ou perder, mas ter a oportunidade de entrar em campo e jogar.

Vencedor do “Best Documentary Pitch” no Fusion Film Festival em Nova Iorque em marco do 2011. Para maiores informações, escreva para laura (at) akissforgabriela.com

Diretora: Amiga de Gabriela desde 2004, a diretora Laura Murray trabalha com grupos internacionais que defendem os direitos das prostitutas como cineasta, ativista e pesquisadora desde 2000. Este é o seu terceiro projeto de documentário sobre sexualidade no Brasil. Laura cursa doutorado em antropologia da medicina na Universidade Colúmbia, escrevendo seu tese sobre ativismo relacionado à prostituição no Brasil.

Equipe. “Um Beijo para Gabriela” é uma co-produção de Rattapallax e Miríade Filmes. O produtor executivo do filme, Ram Devineni, produz filmes exibidos em festivais internacionais de prestígio e é editor e publisher da Rattapallax, uma editora e produtora sem fins lucrativos. Cheryl Furjanic, a produtora, é uma cineasta premiada que, há mais de uma década, leciona produção de vídeo-documentário na New York University. A produtora associada, Beatriz Seigner de Miríade Filmes em São Paulo, é a diretora, produtora e roteirista do filme celebrado pela critica brasileira e internacional, “Bollywood Dream – O Sonho Bollywodiano”. A produção da finalização do filme esta sendo coordenado pela produtora Larissa Bery, de Bruta Flor Produções no Rio de Janeiro.

Read ENGLISH description.

Salt in the Air (cіль y повітрі)

Synopsis: Salt is famously “the only rock eaten by humans.” It’s also the only rock inhaled by humans for health benefits. SALT IN THE AIR, a feature-length documentary film, will tell the stories of salt miners, mine engineers, doctors, asthma patients and residents of a small Ukrainian village called Solotvyno, which is located deep in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Romania. A 2,000 year old salt mine exists beneath the town with salt so pure that inhaling it can virtually cure asthma in children. Today, the salt mine is collapsing, the asthma clinics are troubled, the miners have held protests, and the mine director has been fired. Tensions are rising. On May 19, 2011, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announced that he would “take all necessary measures” to rectify the environmental crisis at the salt mine in Solotvyno, though few believe his claim.

But the subject of salt is larger than salt mining and this environmental crisis in the Carpathian Mountains, and it’s more mysterious. As an icon for life’s wonderful and terrifying magnificence, salt has been equated with the soul and noted as a possible source of life itself. Alchemists claimed it was a combination of water and congealed fire. This reification of a vital material substance presents us with a visceral example of our dependence on the Earth and a reflection of what it means to be human. Similar to air and water, salt is the Earth made palatable or ingestible. While presenting a portrait of a mining town, SALT IN THE AIR will also trace the connection between a huge deposit of salt deep underground and the fragile lungs of an asthmatic child who walks through a small village, far above on the Earth’s surface.

SALT IN THE AIR is nothing less than a story about life, with salt as the centerpiece. The characters engage in conversations about mining, childhood, industry, betrayal, capitalism, corruption, food, health, air and life. SALT IN THE AIR is at once about a small town dealing with profound change and a large question about the meaning of salt to all living beings and to the Earth. In an interview recorded for SALT IN THE AIR, beloved poet Oleh Lysheha tells us, “Salt all the time reminds us of human memory, tears and the bitter taste of great happiness.” Status: Post-production.

ENRICO ROSSINI CULLEN is a film director, producer and writer. He is currently directing a long-form documentary titled SALT IN THE AIR and exec-producing THE HUMAN TOWER. Enrico co-produced PUSHING THE ELEPHANT (2010), which premiered at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York and was broadcast on Independent Lens in March 2011. He was a producer for AN ENCOUNTER WITH SIMONE WEIL (2010), which premiered in competition at IDFA in 2010. He was a consulting producer for ELECTION DAY (POV 2008) and ARCTIC SON (POV 2007). He edited AMAZING GRACE (2004) and HANGING (2004) with artist Wangechi Mutu and he wrote, directed and edited THE MISADVENTURE OF 95 (2005), an original short narrative. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago.