PSBT counts down to its twentieth anniversary with its annual Open Frame Film Festival, presenting a selection of its documentary films. Organised in partnership with Doordarshan (that funds and broadcasts PSBT’s films) and the India International Centre, the Festival will showcase some of PSBT’s recent films and a retrospective of its unique and remarkable legacy.

Open Frame 2019 will explore myriad themes: the love for cinema and storytelling; stories of the earth and water bodies and their people; the unique efforts of those fighting to preserve them; the histories and memories of cities and their metamorphoses; stories of migration, separation and loss – of people, places, stories and the self; forgotten histories and newer relationships with the past; the engagements of artistic practices with social processes; the experiences and aspirations of those living with disability; understanding inequality, disempowerment and violence; survival on the margins; the power of solidarity across real and imagined boundaries and the human impulse for freedom and creation. The Festival will engage with the documentary form, the stories they tell, the artistic and political impulses that shape them and ways in which they impact their creators and viewers.

Festival highlights include a retrospective of our celebrated films from earlier years, including National Award winners; Rang Mahal by Prantik Basu – the only Indian film at the Berlinale Competition 2019; winners of the Best Long Documentary Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala, now contending for the Oscars – Moti Bagh by Nirmal Chander and Janani’s Juliet by Pankaj Rishi Kumar; a film on the iconic Sharmila Tagore by Umang Sabarwal; the story of the small town of Guler, in Notes on Guler by Amit Dutta and other exciting and compelling new stories from experienced and starting-out filmmakers.