2013 marks 100 years of Indian cinema. Amidst all the revelry around the 100 years of Indian cinema, maraa invites creative practitioners and diverse audiences to participate in out of FOCUS to get a closer look at labour in the cinema industry. The jam hopes to bring different strands of cinema to the forefront; disaggregated, in its raw form. The jam will highlight off-screen experiences, techniques of cinema, and explore the relationship of labour and cinema. The jam takes a few steps back – before sounds merges with image, before scripts get shot, before songs get sung, before cinema comes to the theatres. The jam is a tribute to the personal histories of workers in the cinema industry.

With time, digitization has altered the working of cinema industries. What is the impact of digitization on the production and distribution of cinema? What is the nature of the shift in labour, from the analogue through to the digital in cinema? In light of the many single screen theatres shutting down in Bangalore in the last decade, owning to the imposition to upgrade facilities at the theatres by Karnataka Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1964, the jam will also try and delve deeper into the impact it has had on the industry and livelihoods of people.

 

All of us at maraa, have a keen interest in films and the city. We have been curious about how changes in the city affect the cinema industry? What is the relationship of labour to cinema? How do different viewing cultures affect day to day life in the city? Can we claim public spaces for cinema? We hope that the jam provokes dialogues and questions about cinema in the city.

 

Talks | Projections & Film Screenings | Performance | Wall Painting | Storytelling | Poetry