Frame Works (Amit Mahanti, Ruchika Negi) (India)
Frame Works is a New Delhi-based collective whose practice lies at the intersections of film, research and art. The collective comprises filmmakers/visual artists – Amit Mahanti and Ruchika Negi. Their works are centered around questions of ecological transformation and sustainability, development and cultural practice. Their research interests lie in investigating the relationship between social ecologies, landscapes and the environmental changes caused by human intervention.
Their films include ML 05 B 6055, a biographical portrait of a bazaar bus that is the lifeline of villages in the East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya (North East India); Malegaon Times, that looks at the idea of performance within the working-class cinema culture of Malegaon in Maharashtra (Western India) and Every Time You Tell A Story, a film on the Tsungkotepsu shawl-making tradition in Nagaland (North East India.) They have also individually and collectively been a part of several art and film residency programs which include RESO International Art Residency Programme at Parco Arte Vivente Centre of Contemporary Art, Turin; Kran Film Residency at Kran Film Collective, Brussels; In Context: Public Art Ecology-Food Edition I Residency at Khoj Studios, New Delhi; Negotiating Routes-Ecologies of the Byways Public Art Programme at Khoj Studios, New Delhi. Their film, video installation and sound-based work has been exhibited at Khoj Studios and Persistence Resistance Film Festival (New Delhi), Urban Lens Film Festival (Bangalore), Parco Arte Vivente (Turin), IAWRT Film Festival (New Delhi), Dharamshala International Film Festival (Dharamshala), Transmissions 3 Festival of Independent Cinema (New Delhi); Rooting India - The Knowledge Project, a collateral event at the Kochi Muziris Biennale (Kochi), International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (Trivandrum), International Film Festival of India (Goa) and Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (Kathmandu). In addition, they have also executed several community art and media projects in various parts of India.
