In the black-and-white film "Blastogenesis X" Conrad Veit and Charlotte Maria Kätzl stage an animal documentary set in stone quarries in which hybrid creatures deconstruct all boundaries between humans and animals and masculinity and femininity. The film transports viewers on a journey to the early days of silent films that reveals itself as a utopian vision in which all forms of life are equal.

In a series of workshops, children with motor disabilities experiment with various dance techniques and virtual reality glasses to see what dancers see.

Jury Declaration:

The film is an artistic depiction of alternative therapy sessions for children with motor disabilities. Experimental projects involving volnerable people cannot escape from various moral and ethical challenges and this project is no exception. Nevertheless the viewers will be captivated by uniquely beautiful atmosphere that is created by children and therapists.

In 1969, Mani Kaul made his debut feature film ‘Uski Roti’ (A Day’s Bread) which brought in radically fresher environment in Indian cinema that was much burdened by theatricality and realism. He drew aspects of Indian (both Buddhist and Hindu) philosophical texts, e.g. the Vaisheshika school of Hinduism that like Buddhism accepted two reliable means of knowledge - perception and inference. Could absence be perceived in or through presence? Could time be perceptibly felt? These were some of the ideas that Kaul grappled with. For Kaul, cinematography was temporal. Fifty years later, through my ‘Prayoga’ film ‘The Falling Fruit. The Frozen Time. And the Five Variations on Mani Kaul’s Uski Roti,’ I am revisiting Kaul’s film, creating five variations from its key inaugural shot which has become my basic note. Here, time suspends itself and makes the ‘absence’ felt. These five variations have given rise to different experiences by retaining Mani Kaul’s thoughts. The film is made over the course of six months with regular mobile phones and homemade equipment. These are the elements of ‘The Rigour of Austerity’ which is the core principle of film theorist Amrit Gangar’s concept of ‘Cinema of Prayoga.’

Jury Declaration:

Chances, probabilities and permutations traditionally engage their qualifications in term of mathematics, in the mean time, they' re wisely employed by Jay Kholia to serve narrative function in story-telling. The potentiality of a very simple incident like a fruit that falling from the tree might lead the audiences to imagine different out-comes, also beyond suggested expectations.

Director Declaration:

It gives me great pleasure to accept the ‘Night Award’ at the 19th International Festival Signs of the Night, Bangkok edition. From the title of my film, it is clear that my work has its roots in Mani Kaul’s groundbreaking film ‘Uski Roti’ (1969). Exploring Mani Kaul’s film along with the ideas and concepts of my guru Amrit Gangar, allows us to feel ‘time’ in a unique way - through the absence of ‘time’ itself! These ‘Five Vatiations’ not only keep the original arguments of Mani Kaul intact, but also takes them further to create different ‘feelings’ of time. In this ‘Prayoga’ film, stillness is movement, silence is sound and most importantly, absence itself is presence. This film is shot during the complete and the partial lockdowns imposed in India during the Covid-19 outbreak – during May to December 2020. Amrit Gangar’s theory of ‘Cinema of Prayoga’ and its core ‘The Rigour of Austerity’ motivates filmmakers to utilize the available resources at their maximum potential rather than depending upon expensive gear. Hence, in these limitations which resulted from the Covid-19 lockdowns, the restraints of not having resources turned into the highest freedom a filmmaker could ever have. Absence is presence and unfreedom is freedom! My deepest gratitude towards my family members as well, who supported me throughout.