For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that aims to study the Arabana Muttu in Malabar and examine how this ritualistic art form shapes ethical habits, collective emotions, and local subjectivities through embodied training, ritual, and performance. The project combines ethnography and filmmaking to document how Arabana Muttu moves between devotional and secular spaces, especially within the Kerala school Kalolsavam circuit. The outcomes of this project will be a full-length documentary film in Malayalam, a scholarly monograph in English, a curated digital archive of recorded performances and interviews, and a package of edited audio-visual clips, field notes, and contextual materials for public and scholarly use. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will include the documentary film, the monograph manuscript, the digital archive, and the accompanying metadata. Projects funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, hire of equipment, purchase of equipment, archive and library fees, printing, purchase of books, stationery and communication.
For a residential workshop over six days that will enable an exchange of knowledge and experiences between shadow puppeteers representing six traditional puppetry forms and contemporary projective shadow theatre practitioners. The artists will collaboratively explore contemporary approaches to conceptualising, devising and performing shadow puppetry through an in-depth inquiry into the narratives, aesthetics, techniques, and social contexts of puppetry. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be still and video documentation from the workshop and notes from the session on reflection and evaluation. Grant funds will pay for professional fees, venue hire, travel and living costs, honorarium, local conveyance, material costs, equipment hire, stationery and an accountant’s fee.
