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The past year and a half has been an unparalleled experience for all of us, be it a good or a dreadful one. A year full of communicating through screens and virtual identities, has not held us back from still trying to maintain a connection with the world.
This human yearning to keep moving forward and find meaning in the most stagnant situations, has inspired and given birth to Chitrakatha once again. We channel this energy and the spirit of humankind to keep creating stories in the most adverse situations, in this edition of chitrakatha, by coming together and celebrating each other with the theme – ‘Everything Animated’.
Chitrakatha has a rich history of 14 years. Starting as an animation film festival, it has evolved into finding a newer, broader meaning to storytelling, and has developed into an inclusive space for people from all spheres of life to share their stories.
This year, with the 8th edition chitrakatha going online, we bring a new perspective, a newer approach to the festival.The student community is pumped-up, coming together and working towards making Chitrakatha’21 come to life, to make this experience a memorable one for all of us. Watch this space to know all about it!
In times like these, it is often comforting to find things in common with those around you, who you know are there, but can no longer see. We share roofs with pigeons and kitchen floors with ants. We share the practice of living in communities with bees, and mating practices with wolves and penguins. We share about 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees and also share our willingness to adapt.
We often find that life is cyclical, an end leads to a beginning, and the beginning leads to an end. The Earth spins on, the solar systems circle their suns, we keep going and changing and growing. In the end, everything we are and all we do tells a story. All us humans are in the same whirlwind of life as dolphins and birds, frogs and viruses and manta rays and moos, the only difference is how we interpret our lives. We have different battles and struggles, but we have two things in common- life goes on, and we adapt.
Chitrakatha ‘21 aims to embody this very human power of adaptation, and the festival poster tells the same story. The form, the various elements and representations are together an ode to the year gone by. As we stand at the threshold of another year, another Chitrakatha—it reminds us that sometimes all we need is hope.
A Blast From The Past
The corridors were milling with scurrying students till odd hours of the night. Paint splatters, cloth cuttings and stray scraps of paper lined the halls. Walls were painted, posters were hung and relentless preparations were made until finally, it was time.
Chitrakatha’19 Design Olympics was a five day long event, jam packed with d-talks, workshops, performances and screenings. With 25 international experts, numerous distinguished guests from the industry, design alumni and students, every room was bursting with creative energy.
There were workshops on dance, sound, virtual reality, creative writing, and print amongst many others! Studio El Palmeral conducted workshops and even built a unique tensegrity structure to chill under, on Shekar’s terrace. Local craftsmens were invited to put up stalls. Each day would culminate with film screenings or performances. Displayed were local dance forms, a performance that was the culmination of the dance workshop and a puppet show called ‘Tholu Bommalata’—an art form of Andhra Pradesh. The artisans set up a stall where the participants were allowed to paint pieces of the same leather and create pieces of jewellery.
The days flew by in a whirl of expression, design and art. The festival left remnants of itself behind—oceans painted on walls, a shed structure of dried palm leaves and immeasurable memories.
Glimpses into MOOvember
With Chitrakatha’21 around the corner, many people came together with a full force of positive energy to celebrate the festive challenge called Moovember.
The motive of this fest challenge was to make everyone know that #themooisback and get everyone to show their creativity on 6 different prompts held from 24 Oct to 6 Nov. Many Drawings, Illustrations, Animations were submitted by people on Instagram with hashtag #moovember. Check out Moovember prompt list on Instagram
As entrancing as the prompts sound, the submissions made by people were captivating too. With Chitrakatha only a few days away, Moovember has given a good, cheerful fresh start to the joyous festival.
Animation by: Shaheen Sheriff, Ghost Animation
Registrations
Book your seat to fly into the world of Chitrakatha!
Chitrakatha has numerous events for attendees to choose from- workshops, talks, movie screenings and much more. Chitrakatha’21 will be hosting and streaming these events online this year.
While most events are open to all, few of them will have limited seats. Want to be a part of these exclusive events? You can grab your seat by registering in advance for these events on the website. Keep an eye out for registrations starting this week!
Don't miss out on Radiowada!
The community radio, Radiowada has been revived and will be running throughout the festival. So far, 3 Chitrakatha specials have been aired. Starting with the episode Mootopia which opened the ground for talks on Chitrakatha’21 followed with another episode It Stories, which featured personal stories and experiences of students of NID AP. Spooki Halloween was released with content focused on the theme of Halloween.
Recently Chatney, a Radiowada exclusive which features interviews with design experts was released featuring Mr. Bhaskar Rao, a professional sound designer. Check out the latest episode.
What's cooking behind the scenes?!
With only 10 days left till Chitrakatha 21 kicks off, the NID AP community is working hard towards bringing the festival to life. As everyone is not in the same space, all interactions within the community are happening virtually, and the community has figured out ways to keep the excitement going.
The events team are in the process of organising a final lineup of workshops, Dtalks, and many more surprises to come. The outreach team, along with our director Sekhar Mukherjee has been in connection with the delegates and guests attending this year’s Chitrakatha. Among the guests, there will be some old, familiar faces as well as new people, bringing fresh new perspectives to the festival.
The creative headquarters of the festival has been cooking some crazy fun stuff for everyone to look out for. The illustrators of the team will be putting out comics, zines, and more.
For the attendees to mix and mingle with each other, discord servers will be put up where all the guests, attendees and even the student community can hangout and have a chat together.
The animation team is once again working on the official festival promo which will be released soon. Check out Chitraktha’19 promo if you’ve missed out on it-
Contributors
Writers: Dwit, Kritika, Rati, Suhani, Simran, Sreelakshmi
Editors: Namrata, Simran
Illustrators: Meenakshee, Nachiket, Priyanka
