Here it is, and I am quite happy we made this possible. The first French academic event on Tamil cinema with international scholars gathering to reflect on its current evolution “from the margins”, and cherry on the cake, a spotlight on Independent Tamil Cinema, with a programming of great films that deserve to be seen by all.
📌 The first good news : you can join the conference online, it’s free with a mandatory registration. LINK IN BIO.
📌 The second good news : each screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.
Do spread the news !! It’s important that research on Tamil cinema and Independent Tamil films can be accessible, discussed and valorized ! Can’t wait !
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Tamil cinema is one of the most dynamic film industries in India. Although historically marked by the figure of the mass hero, the codes of the masala movie, and the intertwining of cinema and politics, Tamil films reveal some profound transformations in form and substance over the past two decades, embracing new aesthetics, narratives and representations.
This new wave is less interested in showing the unity of the Tamil nation, as defined by ‘Dravidian’ ideology, than in revealing the realities of Tamil society, fragmented by patriarchal oppression, social inequality and the violence of casteism. These films give a voice to the voiceless, the oppressed, to characters marginalized by their caste, gender, religion, social status or sexual orientation. They shift the gaze and reveal perspectives that were previously invisibilized in Tamil cinema. These works, also defined by narrative and formal experimentations, are made by filmmakers who have earned widespread recognition as leading figures in ‘anti-caste cinema’ such as Pa. Ranjith, Mari Selvaraj and Vetrimaaran or filmmakers who emerge through their independent films, such as P. S. Vinothraj, Leena Manimekalai and Arun Karthick. Beyond the films themselves, this new wave of Tamil cinema questions forms of censorship as well as it disrupts production and reception practices in Tamil Nadu and the diaspora.
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1916 / about tamil cinema 