Film Screening: Not Just Roads
The University of Manchester's Global Urban Futures research group present a rare UK screening of the award-winning ethnographic documentary film "Not Just Roads", followed by a Q&A with directors Nitin Bathla and Klearjos Papanicolaou.
Not Just Roads tells the story of the massive urban transformation underway in India. Highways are being constructed at an unprecedented rate of 23 kilometers per day under the Indian government's Bharatmala ('Garland of Limitless Roads') program, which will add a total of 65,400 kilometres of highways to the existing network in India. While the highways aim to open new territories for the emerging Indian middle class, the territory is currently inhabited by villages, working class communities, and nomadic herders, and is criss-crossed by native trails and vital ecological commons. This film captures the story of one such highway, the Dwarka Expressway outside Delhi, from the perspective of human and non-human actors. It presents the story of working class neighbourhoods that were demolished to make way for the highway, the construction workers that will never be able to afford living in the gated communities, protests against the unbridled road-making, and the persuasive pitches by the real estate salesmen trying to piece a living through selling dream homes.
A?wards and nominations for Not Just Roads
Winner - Film and Video Award - S?ociety for Architectural Historians, 2022
Nominee - International Film Competition - Architecture Film Festival London, 2021
N?ominee - Beyond the Screen competition - DocAviv International Documentary Festival, 2021
For more information: https://www.nitinbathla.com/films
About the organiser
This screening is organised by the University of Manchester's Global Urban Futures research group, with the support of the Global Development Institute and Manchester Urban Institute.
For more information: https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/research/groups/global-urban-futures/
Speakers
Nitin Bathla
Role: Senior Lecturer and coordinator of the Doctoral Programme in Landscape and Urban Studies
Organisation: ETH Zurich
Biography: Nitin Bathla is a Senior Lecturer and the coordinator of the Doctoral Programme in Landscape and Urban Studies at ETH Zurich. Nitin teaches urban studies, political ecology, and sociology and works as part of the transdisciplinary project on agri-urbanisms at the Chair of Sociology. In his research practice, Nitin actively combines academic research with artistic practices of filmmaking, and socially-engaged art.
Klearjos Papanicolaou
Role: Filmmaker
Organisation: ETH Zurich
Biography: Klearjos Papanicolaou is a filmmaker and researcher born in Mexico City and raised in Chile and the United States. His film works include ‘The Seven Sisters Indoor Market’ (2016, with Marios Kleftakis), 'The Disappearance of Robin Hood' (2018, with Urban-Think Tank) and 'Not Just Roads' (2020, with Nitin Bathla). Klearjos teaches urban ethnographic filmmaking to architecture students at ETH Zurich.
Travel and Contact Information
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