An allied event at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala is close to my heart. It is a program of 'Films-On-Theatre'. Theatre and Film are often kept divorced as mediums and identities, but their histories intertwine in more ways than one. An emerging interest in film-making has attempted to document performance practices by initiating a fresh dialogue between theatre and film, and in doing so, pushes the boundary of both mediums. In curating this, I wanted to address the desperate need to archive performance practices across India. Not only the forms of theatre which have become vulnerable amidst forces of urbanisation, and as a consequence are struggling to sustain themselves, but also theatres of modern India which were led by iconic artists, but ones that find themselves discontinued and lost posthumously. This program screens a selection of eight films for the festival audience, so we may access radical forms of theatre that are otherwise inaccessible, and also nurture our love for the theatre archive. Much gratitude to supporters, directors and producers for lending their films for screening at ITFoK 2020.
