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The Faculty of Art of the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) will present a screening and lecture with New Delhi filmmaker and scholar Shohini Ghosh.

On Thursday, September 25, a 4:30 p.m. screening of her film, Tales of the Night Fairies, will be followed with a lecture entitled “Shadows in the Clear Light of Day: Making Tales of the Night Fairies.”

Tales of the Night Fairies
Five sex workers — four women and one man — along with the filmmaker/narrator embark on a journey of storytelling. Tales of the Night Fairies explores the power of collective organizing and resistance while reflecting upon contemporary debates around sex work. The expansive and labyrinthine city of Calcutta, India, forms the backdrop for the personal and musical journeys of storytelling.

The film attempts to represent the struggles and aspirations of thousands of sex workers who constitute the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (or ‘Durbar', which in Bengali means un-stoppable or indomitable), a forum of 65 000 sex workers based in West Bengal, India. A collective of men, women and transgendered sex workers, Durbar demands decriminalization of adult sex work and the right to form a trade union. Tales of the Night Fairies was made with support from the New Delhi-based Centre for Feminist Legal Research and the Amsterdam-based Mama Cash, an international women’s fund that supports pioneering and innovative women's initiatives around the world.

Shohini Ghosh is Zakir Hussain Professor at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University) in New Delhi. Ghosh writes extensively on popular culture and the media for both academic journals and the popular press. A major part of her current work involves theoretical interventions in public debates around issues of sexuality, speech and censorship.

Ontario College of Art & Design
Central Hall (Room 230), Level 2, 100 McCaul Street, Toronto
www.ocad.ca | 416-977-6000

All are welcome; admission is free.
Limited seating available. Guests are advised to arrive early.

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