An afternoon with Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam and Laura Poitras

Saturday 23 September, 2–5pm
Marabouparken
Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam

2–3pm
A presentation on their practice and its engagement with the Tibetan struggle. The presentation will particularly focus on their current long term work Burning against the Dying of the Light

Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam (1959) in New Delhi, India and (1959) in Darjeeling, India. In 1990, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam founded the production company, White Crane Films, which is dedicated, among other things, to research and to reflect on Tibetan cultural identity and political aspiration. In 2012, the duo founded the Dharamshala International Film Festival, now one of the leading independent film platforms in India. Their work has travelled to several film festivals and recently included a solo exhibition at Khoj Studios in New Delhi (2016), Contour Biennial, Mechelen (2017) the Dhaka Art Summit (2016).

3–3.30pm
Break with snacks and drinks

Saturday 23rd September 3.30–4.30pm
Critical Platforms – Artist’s role in creating alternative platforms for the distribution of moving image.

A discussion by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam on the Dharamshala International Film Festival and Laura Poitras on Field of Vision.

When filmmakers and longtime Dharamshala residents Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam started the Dharamshala International Film Festival in 2012, their main aim was to give the local community a platform for good alternative cinema. Five years later DIFF has become one of India’s leading independent film festivals and draws audiences from across the world.

Laura Poitras is a filmmaker and artist. She is also co-creator of Field of Vision, a filmmaker-driven documentary unit that commissions and creates original short-form nonfiction films about developing and ongoing stories around the globe. Her film CITIZENFOUR, the third part in a trilogy about post-9/11 America, won an Oscar for best documentary. Her reporting on NSA mass surveillance received the George Polk Award for National Security journalism, and shared in the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service.

Her first solo museum exhibition of immersive installations, Astro Noise, was presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2016. Her most recent films include Risk, following WikiLeaks and Julian Assange over 6 years, and Project X, about a mysterious windowless building in lower Manhattan. She is currently suing the U.S. government to learn why she was placed on a terrorist watchlist in 2006.
www.fieldofvision.org