InKo Centre and Rough Edges present imprints Film Festival, bringing together a selection of films mentored and produced by Rough Edges, interactions with the filmmakers and conversations with experienced artists, practitioners and commentators, exploring diverse experiences, stories and creative reflections on gendered lives and living.
Participation at the Festival is by registration only. Since seats are limited, entry will be on a first come first served basis even for registered participants. To register, fill the Form here
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PROGRAMME
​04 FEBRUARY 2026 ┃WEDNESDAY
SESSION I
02:00 PM: SCREENING
Umbro by Prachee Bajania
The threshold of a home, the liminal space that speaks to the lives of women, including the filmmaker's mother and her friends who live in the small town of Dhrangadhra.
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03:00 PM: CONVERSATION
Fowzia Fathima and Prachee Bajania
Fowzia is a cinematographer, producer, academic and director, trained at the Film and Television Institute of India. The first independent woman cinematographer of the Malayalam film industry, she made her debut with Revathi’s Mitr, My Friend, and then went on to film Gulumaal: The Escape, Uyir, Water Station, Qadeesso, and most recently, Mysskin's Train. Fowzia was Professor and Head of Department of Cinematography at SRFTI and is a founding member of the pioneering Indian Women Cinematographers’ Collective and the revolutionary Women in Cinema Collective.
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​Prachee is a filmmaker, editor and writer based in Gujarat. An alumna of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, Prachee has been making films since 2011. Her documentary work has been supported by institutions such as India Foundation for the Arts, Charles Correa Foundation, Sahapedia, Rough Edges and more. Prachee has written and directed four short fiction films including The Spell of Purple, a distinguished entry in the Indian Panorama at the International Film Festival of India, Goa. Prachee's films have shown at many national and international film festivals and institutions.
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04:00 PM: SCREENING
Warm Shadows by Aakash Chhabra
A secret between a mother and a son that must be kept hidden, despite the yearning to break free.
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04:30 PM: CONVERSATION
Crossing the Threshold
A. Mangai and V. Geetha
A. Mangai is the pseudonym of Dr. V. Padma. She retired as Associate Professor in English from Stella Maris College, Chennai. She has been actively engaged in Tamil theatre as an actor, director and playwright for almost four decades, through which she has directed over forty plays, all of which deal with women–centred themes and characters. She hopes that her academic, activist and artistic selves can find a vibrant intersection. A bilingual writer, her fields of interest are theatre, gender and translation studies. Her Kaala Kanavu (A Dream of Time) is a docu- drama on the feminist history of Tamil Nadu scripted by the feminist historian V. Geetha. She is also interested in classical Tamil literature from a contemporary perspective of gender, ecology and culture. To make theatre the voice of the voiceless, the marginalised, is her passion. She has evolved eight plays with the Suriya Women’s Cultural Group in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, while her work with the transgender community over the past two decades has helped form Kannadi Kalai Kuzhu. Her Acting Up: Gender and Theatre in India 1979 Onwards has been published by LeftWord, New Delhi. She has also translated Sudhanva Deshpande’s Halla Bol, a memoir of Safdar Hashmi into Tamil. Her most recent translation is Volga to Ganges in Tamil for a people's edition.
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V. Geetha is an independent scholar, writer, translator and publisher, who has been with Indian women's movements for over three decades and more. She writes in English and Tamil on gender, labour, caste, education and civil rights. Her published work includes A University without Walls: Reimagining Education; Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Question of Socialism in India and Undoing Impunity: Speech after Sexual Violence.
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05 FEBRUARY 2026 ┃THURSDAY
SESSION I
10:30 AM: SCREENING
Making Space by Nikita Parikh
Alsana’'s drawings show signs of the society seeping in, as she grapples with her identity and conflicts closer to home.
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11:00 AM: SCREENING
Log Kya Kahenge/ What will People Say by Rafina Khatun
​The story of a young Muslim woman dreaming differently in a patriarchal society determined to silence her.
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11:40 AM: CONVERSATION
Uma Vangal with Rafina Khatun and V. Prabakaran
Uma teaches film writing, film production, film studies, journalism and media studies in India and the US. She is currently Professor at the International Institute of Film and Culture, Chennai, where she teaches Narratology, Popular Culture and Film and supervises scripts. As adjunct faculty at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, she teaches courses on Cinema and Culture. Her areas of specialisation are Gender and Film, Women and Media and Film Appreciation. A two time Fulbright scholar, she has taught Indian Popular Cinema, Women in Film in South Asia, Documentary, Writing the Short Fiction Film and Directing for Camera at Kenyon College, Ohio. Her documentary films include I am Akku, She is Leela; A Saga of Excellence; and more recently, In God we Trust, which has screened extensively. It was official selection at the Amsterdam Global Lift off Film Festival, the LA Independent Women's Film Festival Awards, nominated at the Faith in Film Festival and featured in the montage section of the second Eikoigi International Film Festival, Manipur. The Fitmus test - a framework formulated by her to analyse representation of South Asian women on screen, presented via a series of articles in The Newsminute and at a TedX talk, is being used by many doctoral scholars to study films. She is currently editing two of her documentary films and researching the global gaze.
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Rafina is a filmmaker and editor, dedicated to amplifying the voices of women through her work. With a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Calcutta University and pursuing Editing at SRFTI, she has honed her skills by assisting renowned filmmakers like Debalina, Susmita Sinha, Sankhajit Biswas, Farha Khatun and Baudhyan Mukherji on various documentary and fiction projects. In 2021, Rafina was awarded the prestigious Third Eye Fellowship by the Nirantar Trust, which enabled her to create her debut film A Journey to Home, which intimately explores the unfulfilled dreams of her family members. She has worked with Drishti in Ahmedabad, where she edited films and actively participated in community skill training programmes.
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Prabakaran is an accomplished media academician with over two decades of experience in communication, film and television. He currently serves as Professor and Head of the School of Media Studies at SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Ramapuram. Beginning his career in the Tamil film industry, Dr. Prabakaran has worked closely with renowned production houses such as K. S. Thanu'’s V Creations and Gautham Menon'’s Photon Factory. His professional experience also spans documentary filmmaking, television production and a range of creative audio-visual projects, demonstrating a strong synergy between artistic vision and technical expertise. He has published extensively on Tamil cinema, digital media culture and film promotion. Bridging academia and industry, Dr. Prabakaran has organised several international conferences on media and visual literacy and continues to guide Ph.D. scholars in cinema and communication studies. His teaching, research and creative practice reflect a deep commitment to fostering innovation, critical inquiry and cultural understanding in media education.
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12:15 PM: SCREENING
B25 by Raqeeb and Noor
Inside the walls of B25 is a sanctuary, where lives intersect, stories intertwine and people flourish.
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01:00 PM: CONVERSATION
Malini Jeevarathnam and Raqeeb Raza
​​​Malini is an Indian documentary filmmaker and actor, and queer activist from Paramakudi, Tamil Nadu. They hold a Master’s degree in Media Arts from Loyola College, Chennai, and began their career assisting filmmakers, including Pa. Ranjith. Malini is widely known for creating films centered on LGBTQ+ lives and social justice. Their documentary Ladies and Gentlewomen received international acclaim and awards, including at the Norway Tamil Film Festival. They later directed Why So Straight?, further exploring queer identity and acceptance. Malini is the founder of Veytikaari Productions and continues to work across film, activism and storytelling.
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Raqeeb is a writer, photographer, filmmaker and researcher from Kolkata, based in Delhi. Most of his work revolves around redefining masculinity in the Indian context, presenting an antithesis to existing representation, with a focus on queer intimacies and identities. Nominated twice as the LGTBQIA+ Voice of the Year at the Cosmo India Blogger Awards, he is currently pursuing his PhD on queerness, films and family. Raqeeb has exhibited his photographic work at several platforms, including Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai and Khoj Studios, Delhi. His films include the Our Satrangi Jahaan, produced by Lotus Visual Productions, which he co-directed.
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SESSION II
03:00 PM: REFLECTIONS ON PARI
Malini Jeevarathnam
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03:15 PM: SCREENING
Pari by Priya Sen
Pari attempts to describe an event in the days of Pari and Praveen, a violent rupture that allowed in a life held by desire and not duty.
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04:00 PM: PERFORMANCE
Marappachi presents Naan Oru Pen/ I am a Woman by Sowmiya
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04:30 PM: CONVERSATION
Uma Vangal with Harish Subramanian, Punitha D. and Sowmiya
Uma teaches film writing, film production, film studies, journalism and media studies in India and the US. She is currently Professor at the International Institute of Film and Culture, Chennai, where she teaches Narratology, Popular Culture and Film and supervises scripts. As adjunct faculty at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, she teaches courses on Cinema and Culture. Her areas of specialisation are Gender and Film, Women and Media and Film Appreciation. A two time Fulbright scholar, she has taught Indian Popular Cinema, Women in Film in South Asia, Documentary, Writing the Short Fiction Film and Directing for Camera at Kenyon College, Ohio. Her documentary films include I am Akku, She is Leela; A Saga of Excellence; and more recently, In God we Trust, which has screened extensively. It was official selection at the Amsterdam Global Lift off Film Festival, the LA Independent Women's Film Festival Awards, nominated at the Faith in Film Festival and featured in the montage section of the second Eikoigi International Film Festival, Manipur. The Fitmus test - a framework formulated by her to analyse representation of South Asian women on screen, presented via a series of articles in The Newsminute and at a TedX talk, is being used by many doctoral scholars to study films. She is currently editing two of her documentary films and researching the global gaze.
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Harish is Programme Coordinator at the Prakriti Foundation, a Chennai-based arts and culture non-profit organisation. He is involved in the planning and execution of literary, theatre and interdisciplinary arts programmes. He is the Festival Director of the Short+Sweet South India Theatre Festival and a curator of the Dayamma Theatre Festival, a queer-led performance arts festival.​​
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Punitha is Head and Associate Professor at the Post Graduate Department of Communication, and Dean, Centre for Women's Studies, at the Women’s Christian College, Chennai. She has twenty six years of teaching experience as well as three years of industry experience. Her doctoral thesis was on the Political Economy of Entertainment Television. She has been part of the curriculum revision committee for Journalism and Communication. Nominated by the University of Madras, she is a member of the Board of Studies in various colleges in the city. She has published chapters in books and presented papers in many national and international seminars and conferences, chairing several sessions. She is a certified trainer at FactShala, a news and information literacy programme launched by Internews in collaboration with DataLEADS with support from Google. Dr Punitha has delivered lectures on Films and Feminism, Gender and Caste, Media Economics and Media Research Methods and is the External Expert on the Gender Sensitisation Committee of the Madras High Court.
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06 FEBRUARY 2026 ┃FRIDAY
SESSION I
10:30 AM: SCREENING
Humare Beech Mein/ In Between Us by Rajkumari Prajapati and Ruchika Negi
How does one show the ordinary, viscerally? How do you use the camera to reveal structures of power and, maybe, even take back some power for ourselves?
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11:05 AM: CONVERSATION
Shalin Maria Lawrence with Ruchika Negi
Shalin is a prominent Indian author, columnist, intersectional feminist, Ambedkarite and social activist based in Chennai. Her intersectional activism focuses on fighting violence against dalits, manual scavenging deaths, injustices faced by indigenous and native people (including those forcibly displaced), transgender rights, women's everyday struggles and broader human rights abuses. She is the author of several Tamil books, including Vada Chenaikkaari, Sandaikkaarigal: Aangalai Punpaduththum Pakkanga, Jensy Ean Kuraivaaga Paadinaar and, most recently, Pombalainga Panchayathu. She is a columnist for publications like the Tamil weekly Kumudam, as well as English platforms BehanBox, The Quint, Print, The Gallerie and The South First. Shalin has a deep engagement with cinema and art, viewing them through an intersectional feminist and anti-caste lens. She frequently critiques Tamil cinema for its portrayal of gender, caste and social issues, while appreciating films that challenge dominant narratives.
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Ruchika is a filmmaker, educator, and visual artist with an interest in arts based pedagogical practices. Some of her films include Malegaon Times, Every Time you tell a Story and Two Autumns in Wyszogrod. She has been awarded artistic residencies at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; PAV Centre for Contemporary Art, Turin and Khoj Studios, Delhi. She is also a recipient of the Charles Wallace Short Term Grant and a Research and Documentation grant from the India Foundation for the Arts. Her works have been exhibited at various festivals and art platforms, the most recent being the Kochi Muziris Biennale. She has been teaching documentary cinema in various universities and informal spaces and currently leads the Learning Lab, an arts based pedagogical platform of the feminist think tank, The Third Eye.
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11:45 AM: SCREENING
Sab Kuchh Apna/ All that We Own by Aprajita Gupta
When a woman leaves her natal home after marriage, what does she carry with her and what gets left behind?
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12:15 PM: CONVERSATION
Uma Vengal with Aprajita Gupta and Dr Chitraa Venkey​​
Uma teaches film writing, film production, film studies, journalism and media studies in India and the US. She is currently Professor at the International Institute of Film and Culture, Chennai, where she teaches Narratology, Popular Culture and Film and supervises scripts. As adjunct faculty at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, she teaches courses on Cinema and Culture. Her areas of specialisation are Gender and Film, Women and Media and Film Appreciation. A two time Fulbright scholar, she has taught Indian Popular Cinema, Women in Film in South Asia, Documentary, Writing the Short Fiction Film and Directing for Camera at Kenyon College, Ohio. Her documentary films include I am Akku, She is Leela; A Saga of Excellence; and more recently, In God we Trust, which has screened extensively. It was official selection at the Amsterdam Global Lift off Film Festival, the LA Independent Women's Film Festival Awards, nominated at the Faith in Film Festival and featured in the montage section of the second Eikoigi International Film Festival, Manipur. The Fitmus test - a framework formulated by her to analyse representation of South Asian women on screen, presented via a series of articles in The Newsminute and at a TedX talk, is being used by many doctoral scholars to study films. She is currently editing two of her documentary films and researching the global gaze.​​​​​
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Aprajita is an independent filmmaker and artist driven by a curiosity for novel artistic expression. Her artistic practice is informed by her holistic approach, exploring skills and forms and narratives on women's lives intersecting with sexuality, identity and migration. She has directed three short films under the guidance and patronage of Creative Documentary Course (SACAC) and the reFrame genDeralities and Rough Edges Uncode Fellowships. Her films have screened at the International Documentary Short Film Festival of Kerala; Dharamsala International Film Festival; Seoul Women International Film Festival and Litchess Theatre, Germany, to name a few.
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Chitraa is retired Associate Professor of English from Ethiraj College for Women with 35 years of teaching experience. She has served as Chair of the Centre for Wellbeing at LIBA and is currently Faculty Director at Vetri Maaran’s International Institute of Film and Culture. In the past, she has been guest faculty at Loyola College, NIFT Chennai, IIT Madras and the University of Madras. She has written dialogues and lyrics for Tamil feature films Konjam Koffee Konjam Kaadhal and Koothan, and scripts and voice-overs for web series, documentaries and corporate films. Her areas of interest include Ecology, Native American Studies, Film Studies, Poetry and Zen Buddhism. She is also the Co-Founder of the storytelling app, Radio Room.​​
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