The Auroville Project, films by Heidrun Holzfeind and Christoph Draeger

The Auroville Project, films by Heidrun Holzfeind and Christoph Draeger

Presented by Assistant Professor Dr. Ella Raidel, School of Art, Design, and Media, and Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, NTU.

Venue: NTU CCA Singapore Screening Room, 38 Malan Road, #01-06, Gillman Barracks. 
Date: 21 April 2023, 7.00pm

Film Programme:
Three films on The Auroville Project (2017)
What is Auroville?, 55 min 
Auroville Archives, 12 min 
Nine Palms, 23 min

The three films by Heidrun Holzfeind and Christoph Draeger that are part of their Auroville Project explore the potential for an alternative way of living. These films showcase how engaging in alternative practices and thinking can foster conviviality, ultimately shaping human relations and transforming society into a more welcoming home.

Auroville is an ambitious intentional community located in Southeast India, founded in 1968 by French philosopher Mira Alfassa, who is also known as “The Mother”. The community is designed to bring people of all nationalities and creeds together to live in peace and harmony, making it an experiment in both self-knowledge and collective living. The project explores how the utopian ideals of the community— no private property, no money, no rules, and no religion, in short: divine anarchy—are being realized almost 50 years later.

It investigates how relationships between humans and nature, an ecological and sustainable lifestyle, spirituality, and political ideals of self-development and collectivism can be reimagined in the present day. Despite being one of the few alternative communes born in the 1960s, Auroville not only still exists, but is also growing and thriving.

What is Auroville?, 2018, 55 Min.
What is Auroville? is a film that explores how the utopian ideals of the community are being lived today, almost 50 years after its establishment. In the past, Auroville residents designed utopian living environments that embodied their visionary ideas. The film delves into how Auroville keeps promoting an ecological and sustainable lifestyle while also embracing spirituality and political ideals of self-development and collectivism. It offers insights into how these ideals can be applied in the present day, as we seek to navigate a rapidly changing world.

The Auroville Archives, 2017, 12 Min.
The Auroville Archives juxtaposes film footage produced by and about Auroville over the past decades with an interview with the archivist while giving a tour of the catacombs.

Nine Palms, 2018, 23 Min.
Nine Palms portrays two generations of a German family who settled in Auroville’s greenbelt in 1973. The parents’ radical lifestyle, which rejected the conveniences of modern life and technology, has strongly influenced their seven children in their life choices and their quest for living freely.

2023-04-21

The three films by Heidrun Holzfeind and Christoph Draeger that are part of their Auroville Project explore the potential for an alternative way of living. These films showcase how engaging in alternative practices and thinking can foster conviviality, ultimately shaping human relations and transforming society into a more welcoming home.

General

Onsite (CCA)

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