Screening of Two Flags | directed by Pankaj Rishi Kumar

Program

– The screening of the film ‘TWO FLAGS‘ directed by Pankaj Rishi Kumar

– Followed by an interactive session between the director and the audience

‘Two Flags‘ chronicles the life and politics of a quaint French town: Pondicherry.

As the 4600 Tamil French people belonging to the Tamil ethnic community, gear up for the French Presidential elections (2017) the film explores the idea of identity, citizenship and home in the post colonial era.

‘Two Flags’ is the outcome of the filmmaker’s interaction with the Tamil French people over 5 years.

It’s a chronicle of a legacy that is not easily evident, but manages to shine through ordinary events and occasional mishaps, and which brings together this tiny population in celebration, in grief, in anxiety and in serene acceptance.

After graduating from the Film and Television Institute, Pune, India, in 1992, with a specialisation in Film Editing, Pankaj Rishi Kumar became the assistant editor of Sekhar Kapur’s ‘Bandit Queen’.

After editing numerous documentaries and TV serials, he made his first film KUMAR TALKIES. Subsequently, Pankaj has become a one man crew producing, directing, shooting and editing his own films.His films have been screened at various film festivals all over the world. He has won grants from Hubert Bals, IFA, Jan Vrijman, Goteborg, AND (Korea), Banff, Majlis, Sarai and Pad.ma. Pankaj was awarded an Asia Society fellowship at Harvard Asia Centre (2003). He was a TA at the first Asian Film Academy (Pusan). He is Alumni of Berlin Talents (2016).

Pankaj also curates and teaches and was a regular curator at FD Zone Mumbai. In addition to weekly documentary screenings, in 2013 he curated a festival of films on ‘Kashmir’, ‘Indian Experimental films’ and ‘Personal Cinema’. Pankaj has just finished his maiden screenplay.