Harkat is an international boutique arts studio with a passion for film, new media, community art spaces and contemporary art that was set up by filmmaker Karan Talwar and Michaela Talwar. Based in Mumbai and Berlin, Harkat takes many forms and identities across disciplines. As an alternative performance and arts space, they curate, programme and host shows in the mediums of theatre, film, music, community art projects and contemporary art.
The Harkat Film Lab is the first and only film lab in the South Asian subcontinent. With a vision to give artists, filmmakers, and tinkerers - tools, space, mentorship, and a knowledge bank. The Lab is an incubator for new thoughts and ideas. We alongside Harkat Studios intend to kickstart a movement with South Asian artists consolidating their own language of cinema; replacing western grammar of avant garde and experimental with ‘Cinema of Prayoga’. It explores Indian thought in film and infuses a new wave of ideas into the cinema world.
The Harkat Film Lab includes a Celluloid Darkroom which is especially fitted for the development and post-processing of celluloid film that is accessible to everyone. We also offer a mix of beginner to advanced workshops, on a bi-monthly basis. Most workshops, especially the advanced ones are outcome based and will have films being produced at the end. This also includes Harkat’s 'ek-minute' competition, where we put out a call for scripts and supply the best five with a film camera and film. People will be able to take regular long-term courses and masterclasses by some of the most-acclaimed filmmakers and technicians, through the lab.
We will also organize a residency at the lab, with participants coming in through open calls and through the workshops, to create specific works - expanding the scope of the medium to installs, artworks and of course, specific thematic films. This will function like an incubator of sorts. The films and works produced during workshops and the residency will be displayed in the Screening/Exhibition room which is also a part of The Harkat Film Lab.
Continuing on with Harkat Studio’s goal of facilitating new work on the celluloid medium we organized Celluloid Karigar - an advanced two-week film workshop from 1st-15th March 2021, which took participants through the entire process of shooting, hand-developing and projecting 16mm black and white film. We had participants from all over the country who attended our workshop and resulted in the creation of three new celluloid films.
In April 2021, The Harkat Lab was invited by the Oberhausen Film Festival (the oldest short film festival) to present a virtual talk with Karan Talwar introducing the lab and Harkat Studio’s practice. We will also be presenting three films at the festival. This is part of a special lab section which they've put together and we are one of four labs from Manila, Melbourne and Toronto presenting at the festival. Karan’s talk can be viewed on Oberhausen’s official channel - https://www.kurzfilmtage.de/en/channel/labs-online-harkat/
Starting July, we were happy to welcome collaborators Gavati and Moakshaa, and Sajid Wajid Shaikh as the first two residents for Celluloid Karigar, a residency opportunity at the Harkat lab, supported by the Gujral Foundation. We called them our monsoon residents. The essence of this residency was to give makers the tools, space and knowledge to make work on the celluloid medium. Spread over 45 days, the residency started off with an overview of the celluloid medium, after which the residents worked independently on their projects, with unlimited access to the lab, mentorship and guidance to see their films through to exhibition.
Starting in August, we were delighted to announce our Autumn Celluloid Karigars to the Harkat Lab. The lab’s intent is to explore Indian thought through moving images, and function as an incubator of sorts, infusing a new wave of ideas in the moving image vocabulary. Spread over 45 days, following the same format as our first residency, we were pleased to welcome Aliasger Dhariwala and Annette Jacob as our Autumn residents.
On 18th August, we presented a workshop titled Become A Film Projectionist – 101 at the Harkat Film Lab. Projecting film is an art and a projectionist, the artist. A projector is a beautifully complex piece of equipment, rare to witness, with almost none in operation. But we’re blessed to have a few working ones and being one of the only spaces in the country to still be screening from film prints. We took participants through the entire chain on how to prep a film for screening, splicing, threading, optical sound and how it works and ending with all the good wisdom a projectionist must have.
From 3rd – 5th September, we organized a workshop titled Experimental Practices Workshop at the lab. This workshop was an introduction to hand working on film, exploring many techniques. On day one, participants learnt various techniques. The remainder of the workshop was designated to developing their own pieces, 1- 2 minutes in length. All films made during the course of the workshop were scanned and made available online, after which participants kept their films.
We came back with another Advanced Celluloid workshop from 4th to 18th October at the Harkat Film Lab. The workshop took participants through the entire process of shooting, hand-developing and projecting 16mm black and white reversal film. This was an intimate workshop, designed to be with a small group of 8 participants. Each maker was given 100ft of film to work on their independent projects. The workshop was conducted over a period of two weeks, which ended with a screening of all the works made, with the artist playing projectionists for their own work.
From 3rd - 6th December 2021, we hosted the Ek Minute film competition, where selected filmmakers got a chance to execute their film ideas on 50ft of 16mm colour stock and got to shoot on a Bolex H16 or K3 16mm camera. Participants came in with a fantastic and simplistic but engaging 1 minute film idea and Harkat gave them 50ft colour film stock and a camera. The participants developed, scanned and finally screened their film at the 16mm film festival 2021.
The 16mm Celluloid workshop titled ‘Love sequence’ took the form of a filmmaking relay of sorts, where participants each got a turn to direct and shoot a small sequence with two models in our studio. We explored the workings of a 16mm camera, film, developing, and hand-editing processes and strung together a “love sequence”. Filmmaking has always been a community driven art form. In most cases you need a team to make a film come to life. The aim of this workshop was to channel that and create something with a larger, joint thought in mind -- a film of communal making. This workshop ran in conjunction with our 16mm Film Festival 2021 from 10th - 12th December.