A day-long programme of films on industry and labour, selected by artists Madhuban Mitra and Manas Bhattacharya. Conceived in close dialogue with and as a response to At Work, this programme extends motifs from Ahmed Ali’s photographs into a wider history of lens-based practices engaging with industry, labour and modernity. The programme examines how cinema has both shaped and documented perceptions of the industrial world as one of the quintessential emblems of modernity, from the silent era to the 1970s, and spanning avant-garde, documentary, advertising, propaganda and experimental films. Several films, like Ali’s industrial work, began as commissions or commercial assignments engendered by specific institutional requirements. Beyond their original, often utilitarian contexts, these works endure as both historical documents and works of art.

Spanning the silent era to the 1970s, the screenings include recently rediscovered, restored and rarely seen works by twentieth-century masters such as Bimal Roy, Ebrahim Golestan and Walter Ruttmann. The screenings are arranged in clusters, with breaks for discussion and reflection between sessions.

2.50 pm - 3.55 pm:
Coalface, dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, UK, 1935

Surfarara / Sulphur Mines, dir. Vittorio De Seta, Italy, 1955

Tudzhi / Cast Iron, dir. Otar Iosseliani, USSR, 1964

Glass, dir. Bert Haanstra, Netherlands, 1958

Le Chant du Styrene / Song of Styrene, dir. Alain Resnais, France, 1958

4.15 pm - 5.35 pm:
I Am Twenty, dir. S.N.S. Sastry, India, 1967

Fabryka / Factory, dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland, 1971

Sobre horas extras y trabajo voluntario / About Extra Hours and Voluntary Work, dir. Sara Gomez, Cuba, 1973

This Bit of That India, dir. S.N.S. Sastry, India, 1972

Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper, dir. David Rimmer, Canada, 1970

6 pm - 6.40 pm:
Waves, Coral and Rock, dir. Ebrahim Golestan & Alan Pendry, Iran, 1958-1961

6.40 pm:
Final discussion & closing remarks