Indian-occupied Kashmir (using the wording preferred by Kashmiris) is the most militarized piece of territory in the world. Given recent events in Kashmir, especially the Pulwama attack in February of this year, and the possibility of war between the two nuclear armed nations of  India and Pakistan that has resulted, understanding Kashmir is vital. This film presents the Kashmiri viewpoint. Professor Susan Wadley of SU will introduce the film with a brief historical context. A discussion will follow. Free and open to the Public.

The conflict in Kashmir is among the long-standing political conflicts in the world. It has taken a heavy toll on lives, on sanity and on the idea of normalcy. The film Khoon Diy Baarav made over nine years, enters the vexed political scenario in Kashmir through the lives of families of the victims of enforced disappearances. It explores memory as a mode of resistance, constantly confronting reality and morphing from the personal to the political, the individual to the collective. Struggling to find new ways of expression – storytelling, art, symbol and ritual – sometimes spilling out on to the streets, it looks at the ways in which those affected by violence have no choice but to remember.  The chain of memory, often non-linear, is both their defense as well as their act of defiance against powerful instruments of the state that try to erase their individuality.