Sen @ 100: A Centennial Celebration of Mrinal Sen’s Life and Work

Mrinal Sen (1923 – 2018) is one of the giants of world cinema. For the centenary of his birth, this conference brings scholars together with participants in Sen’s life and work to reflect on his radical remaking of film practice. Born in colonial India, Sen emerged as a central figure of Indian independent cinema in the 1960s and pursued a highly productive career in film until the 2000s. He is widely acknowledged as one of the founders of the New Indian Cinema (or Parallel Cinema) movement as well as a participant in the current of global Third Cinema. Sen’s work and life were inextricably entangled in the social and political turbulence and transformations of postcolonial India. His films are a unique experiment in multilayered representations of social difference and political turmoil that move far beyond a simplistic colonizer/colonized divide.

This day-long conference will include scholarly discussions of Sen’s cinema, reflections on his work and milieu by those who knew and worked with him, and two film screenings. This event has been organized in collaboration with Yale University.