Date: 9th September 2009
Venue: Mata Sundari College for Women, Mata Sundari Lane
New Delhi- 110002

Introduction:

The movie screening at Mata Sundari College was Different in many ways. The observations that came up during the screening and facilitation has been a great leaning experience in terms of our planning and Implementation of the whole Movie Screening Process. The Movie was screened in the computer lab of the college and it was encouraging to see that not only did the students turn out in large numbers but also one could see that there was active involvement of the teachers, admistrators and the members of Matasundari Movie Screening Society. The Movie screening started with a brief introduction of Pravah and Smilers and then we screened Skin Deep – “A documentary which reflects on the eternal search for Ideal Feminity and how it permeates the self image of women.”


Issues :

The Screening of the Movie could not complete due to a power cut, however the discussion was more or less Fruitful. A number of interesting perspectives relating to following issues were discussed and elaborated

FEMINISM IDENTITY

STEREOTYPES PORTRAITS

GENDER


Discussion :

• The discussion commences with the audiences expressing their views on the movie and the issues that were evident from the narratives of the characters who hold an integral part of the movie
• Once the discussion gathered momentum a small activity was undertaken o understand the stereotypes that are generally formed especially in context of the term Beauty/Beautiful
• The activity was basically a one word association, wherein each one of us tried to define beauty in one word and a few interesting question and viewpoints emerged
• What does the term Beautiful mean?
• Beauty is not all about physical appearances it is equally relevant to the inner self
• “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” – The way we look at things often influence on what is considered as beautiful
• Then the discussion was routed towards the stereotypes- Its Origin, Impact and personal experiences.
• Our society is male dominated and a lot of stereotypes have been formed by them
• Instances were quoted by the audiences to show both the sides of the gender discrimination



Summary:

The active involvement of the audiences intensified the discussion and gathered momentum at different times, in spite of the fact that the movie screening could not be completed due to frequent Obstructions such as power cuts which did lead to unforeseen delays. However, the fact that a lot of people were actually willing to carry forward the screening at a future date was very encouraging. One of the high points of the movie screening was that a number of students approached us and asked if in the future we can organize more of such event and even create spaces for students to discover. We have learnt our lessons from the screening and a quote by Mr. Clay P. Bedford top executive of Kaiser Industries in California sums up our experience.

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives”

We would like to thank the Teacher's for their support in carrying out this screening and also thank the students for showing so much interest by being an active part of the discussion.

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