DIRECTOR/CURATOR’S STATEMENT
I View World 2020, an unpredictable edition taking place during an unthinkable year in unprecedented times – a year ‘zero,’ if you will. As I look back upon these months of extraordinary challenges, insurmountable losses, and deeply unsettling fears, I feel this huge debt of gratitude to one of the only refuges we have had – Cinema. Cinema has been the antidote, the safe space that kept us engaged and kept families & friends close in conversation through the social distance that COVID-19 has imposed. Cinema brought us together in moments of laughter, thrill & adventure, mystery and, most of all, of empathy. Good Cinema is a call to action, to intention…it moves people, rouses us from apathy and reminds us of our shared humanity.
CONTENT
And during this time of profound shared crisis across the world, now more than ever, we need to put the spotlight on the ‘human’ in humanity. As individuals and communities struggle to face the devastation of the pandemic, the impact on basic human rights, including access to medical and economic survival, are felt most severely by those on the margins, those who are already impacted by stark inequalities. I View World 2020 is a curation of more than 50 unconfinable, unflinching narratives that are powerful, transformative, intersectional and intergenerational. These are stories of freedom, choice, equality and justice, but they are also reminders of histories - sometimes failed ones, but with the potential for newer visions of the future. Together, they lend solidarity, amplify concerns and ask urgent questions about belonging and identity, marginality and community, sexuality and gender, ecology and climate change. In short, these beautiful, remarkable films reflect the complex world around us.
I View World has always been a unique space for interactions with filmmakers, film professionals and film subjects. This year, with the opportunities of being online, we have invited a much wider slate of critical dialogues and roundtables, which will lend to some landmark conversations given the panorama of participants and voices both local to South Asia and from across the globe. Personally, this is one of the most exciting parts of the festival this year.
This year, we are also introducing a VISUAL CULTURE program, an adventurous new section of programming that blurs lines between art, cinema, photography and related media. The idea is to channel both the aesthetics and politics of the moving image to gain cultural insight and to understand art at the intersections of visual activism.
FORMAT
We thought much about our structure this year before choosing a hybrid format. While most of the festival is virtual, we decided to add a few physical screenings as an important gesture towards strengthening our commitment to the future of film and film makers, the industry and the theaters that have been especially hard hit. Needless to say, the scale of the screenings will be a fraction of what they typically are and will follow comprehensive COVID-19 regulations. For us, the screenings are symbolic of resistance and an insistence that art is vital and will persist. We hope the audiences will connect from all over to discover premieres, support films of tomorrow and explore new projects.
Thank you to all our filmmakers for trusting us with their labor of love, our partners for supporting us with their generosity and resource, and our audiences for their attention and energy. This is a festival of many firsts for us. We hope all of you will overlook any teething problems we have in this new format. Welcome to I View World 2020.
-Myna Mukherjee
I VIEW WORLD
I View World is an international film festival that provides new ways of seeing human rights cinema through the lens of gender marginalities and contemporary culture. It was conceived and convened in New York for several years as I View Film by Engendered (an umbrella arts organization). For more than four years, it was the one of the leading and only South Asian film festivals on gender and sexuality.
After making a powerful debut in 2016 in India, I View World is ready for its next edition and is currently the only human rights film festival in New Delhi. In the past, the festival has brought together big names from the world of cinema, media, academia and the development sector on a common platform and created robust conversations using the arts as a catalyst to engage, uplift and transform viewer perceptions around issues pertaining to human rights and contemporary culture across the globe.
ENGENDERED
Engendered is a transnational arts and human rights organization that brings together contemporary South Asian cinema, visual arts and performance to explore the complex realities of gender and marginalities in modern South Asia, especially at the intersection of culture and religion. Engendered is designed not only to raise awareness, but also act as a fulcrum to enter public dialogue, break silences and impact perceptions around issues of gendered identities, stereotyping, bias and sexual choice and further, how those issues relate to affirmation or violations of human rights, health rights, and women's rights.
EXPANSION
This year we are expanding and merging with NYC SAFF (New York City South Asian Film Festival). The festival will alternate between New York and New Delhi every year.
