27 September, 2010

Aamir Khan Talks Indian Cinema & his Career

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan ("the Indian Tom Cruise", I heard from one of my colleagues) was in our midst last week. He sat in conversation with Dr. Rajinder Dudrah, Hindi Cinema expert from the University of Manchester. Fans flocked to the Museum to meet their hero, and filled our Pictureville auditorium to hear his words.

I'm sorry to say I missed the event, but I asked my favourite guest blogger - Tom Vincent, Film programmer here at the Museum, to fill you in:

Wednesday evening was a huge amount of fun. A short delay built up the anticipation, and at just after 8pm, Mr. Aamir Khan appeared on Pictureville stairs to rousing applause, cheers, even screams from younger fans. Aamir is a true star; a thoughtful, honest and generous guy with much to say about Indian cinema.

During an hour's conversation, Dr. Rajinder Dudrah did a sterling job of gathering Aamir's thoughts on Indian film past and present, his own industry beginnings, and Hollywood's interest in the Mumbai industry. Wednesday was very much a fans' event, and Rajinder gave a sizable part of the interview over to moderating questions from an audience made up of all generations.

At certain points it seemed that almost everyone had their hand up, and Aamir got through quite a range of topics, from Method acting, to his thoughts on potential collaborations and future possibilities for Indian film.

At 9pm, with several questions still waiting to be asked, Aamir himself requested that we extend the conversation a little to consider a few more – a really generous touch. Then, after a final few minutes on Peepli [Live], Aamir's new film as producer, and with some regrets from the man himself, Aamir was away into the night, with a few keen fans at the front treated to a final goodbye handshake.

Aamir and Rajinder could likely have continued talking for longer, had time allowed, but for me the best thing about the event was that so many people got to speak with Mr. Khan. I think this made everyone's night. This morning I caught up with Rajinder to gather his own impressions:

"Mr. Aamir Khan was a real gentleman. He listened to all the questions carefully and responded to the audience's Q&A in detail and with sincerity. The Bradford fans were especially pleased when upon Aamir's own request we extended the Q&A by an extra 10+ minutes. An exciting and memorable evening was had by all and gauging by the enthusiastic reaction, Peepli [Live] was a success too".

A great big thank you to everyone who came, and who helped make it so enjoyable.

Peepli [Live] will be showing at the National Media Museum from Sunday 10 October 2010.

If you missed it, the podcast is now available to download from our podcasts page.

Were you there? What did you think of the evening, and the man himself?

10 September, 2010

Simon Roberts: We English Exhibition on Tour

Our temporary exhibition galleries are now closed while we prepare for two brand new exhibitions to open on 15 October.
Robbie Cooper's Immersion will be replaced by Land: Revisited, to mark the 25th anniversary of Fay Godwin's Land, a celebration of the British landscape.
Simon Roberts' We English will be replaced by From Back Home, a body of work by contemporary Swedish photographers Anders Petersen and JH Engström, which became an award-winning book and is being exhibited in this country for the first time in our Gallery One space.
If you enjoyed We English, you'll have another opportunity to view the work when it tours to Croyden Clock Tower - not the only National Media Museum exhibition to go on tour...
Ruth Haycock, our Senior Exhibitions and Partnerships Organiser, has developed a Touring Exhibitions strand whose aim is to increase public access to our Collections both here and abroad, develop cultural partnerships, boost the profile of the Museum and champion our world-class Collections.
We English and three other exhibitions taken from our photography Collections are available to tour: Lives of the Great Photographers, The British Landscape and The Art of Arrangement: Still Life and the Photographic Tradition.
Our exhibition and design teams will create a graphics and identity package for the exhibition, and while we provide core pieces, the host venue may extend and compliment the exhibition with work from their own collections to make it their own - we can work with the host venue to develop layered interpretations to meet their requirements and the needs of their audiences.
If you're interested in hosting a National Media Museum exhibition, or would like to find out more about our Touring Exhibitions programme, talk to Ruth Haycock:
Tel: 01274 203 343
Email: ruth.haycock@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk.