Crossings - A Documentary Film Festival

Hosted by CeMIS (the Centre for Modern Indian Studies) at the University of Göttingen, Crossings is an online film festival about dreams and aspirations, crossings and journeys, movements and migration, performance and politics, and violence and resistance, in contemporary India. We present cutting edge films from India that blend and bridge the personal and the political in different modes of non-fiction storytelling to engage with the pressing themes, events and issues of our times.

The festival showcases the state of the art of the Indian documentary film through a series of significant journeys made by filmmakers using diverse and innovative forms of communication. The films traverse a range of topics including the politics of insurgency; the violence of state repression; the refashioning of caste and gender inequalities; migrant dislocations; religious majoritarianism; censorship, propaganda, and creative resistance.

Crossings will present a new documentary film every week, followed by a discussion between the filmmaker and discussant (an academic or practitioner), and a Q. and A. with an online audience. In the time period from October 11, 2021 till February 7, 2022, we will have online screenings of around twenty films. Audiences must pre-register for the festival in order to be able to view the films online.

Each film will be accessible for online viewing over five days, beginning on Friday at 2.00 PM, and extending until 2.00 PM on Tuesday. The conversations between the filmmakers and the discussants will take place on Mondays from 4.00 PM – 6.00 PM (CET). 

While all the films will be screened online, three of the films will also be screened ‘live’ or ‘offline’ at the Lumière cinema in Göttingen, and the screening will be followed by an audience interaction and a Q. and A. with the filmmakers. These in-person, interactive screening events at the Lumière are planned for the 1st November, 13th December, and 31st January, 2022.

In the first week of February 2022, the festival will culminate with a workshop called Visual Diaries showcasing video and photographic documentation of the 2019 national elections in India, and two online panel discussions with a focus on teaching practices, and the state of the art of the Indian documentary. 

Find more information on the  official website.

A cooperation of “DE/IN CeMIS” & NAMASTE+  

Funded by