Film & Video (Film & Video)

The title of Rainbow Body by Chitra Ganesh refers to an elevated state of, or metaphor for, the consciousness transformation known as a rainbow body. The Buddhist master Padmasambhava achieved this state from his union with Mandarava, a female spirit (dakini) and princess in Tantric Buddhism. Through study and physical connection, each played a key role in the other’s enlightenment.

Film & Video (Film & Video)

Making Fantasies animates scenes based upon photographs by Nan Goldin, Larry Sultan, Richard Billingham, Yasuyoshi Chiba and famous photojournalism images such as Jeff Widener’s photograph of Tiananmen Square and Kevin Carter’s photograph of a Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture. By fabricating narrative and aesthetic connections between the images on three channels, Pei-Shih questions the objectivity and truth telling of photography.

Film & Video (Film & Video)

Memory: Record/Erase is a stop-motion animation by Nalini Malani based on ‘The Job,’ a short story by celebrated German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht. Brecht’s story follows a poverty-stricken family during the German depression, as the central character, Frau Hausmann, is forced to impersonate her late husband to procure his job as a nightwatchman to support her two children. Despite her exceptional performance during the job, and even after receiving public commendation for catching a thief, when eventually her identity is discovered during a factory accident she is forced into a precarious existence where she resorts to selling herself to get by.