TIFF documentary to screen at UTM

Maeve Doyle

The Centre for South Asian Civilizations launches its 2018-19 language and culture programming with a screening of the film Reason. Reason airs September 17 at 6 p.m. in the University of Toronto Mississauga’s MiST Theatre.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the UTM community to see, for free, right here on the Mississauga campus a film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival,” said Ajay Rao, director of the Centre for South Asian Civilizations.

A political documentary, Rao calls the screening of Reason an important cultural event. “The film is a searing examination of political oppression and attacks on intellectuals and the media in India. We really feel that with our diasporic student population, UTM is really the place in the GTA for this to air,” he said. “In terms of their relationship to South Asia, students can be made even more informed by having the chance to interact with the filmmaker.”

Renowned documentarian Anand Patwardhan will attend and participate in a question-and-answer session that follows the screening.

“People can go to the events page on the Centre’s website to get more information and to register to attend the screening, which is open to the public,” said Rao.

Centre for South Asian Civilizations

Established in 2013, the Centre has as part of its mandate the promotion of South Asian culture with a focus on the humanities. An initiative made possible with funds from numerous co-sponsors including the UTM/Jackman Humanities Institute Annual Seminar fund, Rao calls this year’s program ambitious.

“The funding is important but the support is critical. We want to raise the profile of South Asia at the University of Toronto. We have a cohort of faculty and students who are committed to our Centre but we want to grow this and we want to create programming that is of interest to everyone,” he said.

On September 20, Priyamvada Gopal, a scholar engaged in the history of left politics in South Asia, will lecture on the Sepoy Mutiny in India and its relationship to British dissident movements.

“There’s a graduate student workshop on the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and a lecture on Citra Kavya, pictorial poetry, by novelist Vikram Chandra, the author of Sacred Games. And a presentation of Qawwali, a devotional musical performance, which will be open to the public. We’ve got an exciting full schedule this year,” said Rao.

Schedule of events

September 17: Screening of Reason by Anand Patwardhan

September 20: Lecture by Priyamvada Gopal, Reader in Anglophone and Related Literature, University of Cambridge

September 30: Lecture by H. V. Nagaraja Rao, Vidvan, Oriental Research Institute Mysore (emeritus)

October 4-5: The Many Lives of Aurangzeb, Graduate Workshop

October 5: Lecture by Muzaffar Alam, Professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

November 12: Lecture by Vikram Chandra, Author of Sacred Games

January: Qawwali by Shahid Ali Khan

February 4: Lecture and Master Class by Farina Mir, Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan

March 13: Lecture by Yuko Yokochi, Professor of Sanskrit Literature at Kyoto University

April 1: Lecture by Ania Loomba, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania