Atlas 343
Biography
(Ph.D. Purdue University) teaches a wide range of courses that听focus primarily on poetic cinema and the poetics of cinema,听drawing on the aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical contexts of听European and Asian film. Some of his courses include听Time, Memory,听Cinema, Cinema and Landscape, Cinema and the Poetics of Desire,听Cinema and Otherness, Cinema and Transgression, Cinema, Exile,听Nostalgia, and Cinema and Transcendence. He has also taught听interdisciplinary courses such as Film, Photography and Modernism,听and classes on international directors (Bergman, Kieslowski,听Bresson, Antonioni, Bertolucci, and Kurosawa). He is the recipient听of the Marinus Smith Teaching Award.听
Ganguly was chair of Film Studies from 2000 to 2005 and has also听served as interim chair. He is an affiliate faculty member in the听Humanities Department.
听Ganguly is the author of听Satyajit Ray: In Search of the Modern听(2000). His book on Adoor Gopalakrishnan, India's most听distinguished contemporary filmmaker, was published in 2015 by听Anthem Press, UK.听He has edited Stan Brakhage鈥檚 interviews for the听University Press of Mississippi and the book was published in听2017. His critical essays have appeared in听Sight and Sound, Film听Criticism, East-West Film Journal, The Journal of Commonwealth听Literature, South Asian Cinema Journal, and Asian Cinema.听
His speaking engagements--by invitation--include the University of听Chicago, University of California at Berkeley, Yale University,听New York University, Temple University, the Museum of Fine Arts,听Houston, and the Satyajit Ray听Film Institute. The Smithsonian has invited him multiple times, which included serving as moderator for retrospectives on Ray and Gopalakrishnan听respectively.
Ganguly created the Stan Brakhage Film Series--Celebrating Stan--in 2003 in memory of his close friend, colleague, and mentor. He听served as the director of the Brakhage Center from 2015-2020 and has been听actively involved in presenting the filmmaker鈥檚 work in the US and听abroad. He was invited to curate the three-part Unknown Brakhage听show at the Mus茅e National d'Art Moderne in Paris in 2010 and again in 2018 to present Brakhage鈥檚 work. He has also spoken on Brakhage and curated shows at major venues in London, Rome, Lisbon, Berlin, Dublin,听 Vienna, and Mexico City.
Since 2003, Ganguly has been offering summer courses in Paris and听Rome through the Study Abroad Programs at CU. These classes focus听on the relationships between film and art and allow students to听study the work of painters such as Caravaggio, Piero della听Francesca, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir in relation to films听inspired by their art.听
Originally from Calcutta, India, Ganguly studied at St. Xavier's听College and Jadavpur University before coming to the US. His PhD听dissertation was an interdisciplinary study of the work of听Satyajit Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Virginia Woolf.
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Achievements
Invited to speak on Stan Brakhage and curate a show entitled Stan Brakhage: Home and World at the FilmKoop in Vienna.
The event was in collaboration with the Film Museum. The program focused听on some of Brakhage鈥檚 self-portraits, drawing on films such as Dog Star Man, Confession and I鈥reaming, as well as work within a more public space, inspired by travel within and outside the US鈥�Marilyn鈥檚 Window, Visions in Meditation, Part 2 (Mesa Verde), and Chartres Series.听
Spoke on Stan Brakhage and curated a show at Spektrum, Berlin,听on June 24, 2018.
Films screened included听Cat鈥檚 Cradle,听Wedlock House: An Intercourse, I鈥reaming,听Dog Star Man Part 2,听Mothlight, and听The Persian Series.
Presented at听the Museum of Modern Art (Centre Pompidou), Paris
Presentation in Rome, Italy:听 Stan Brakhage:听Image, Rhythm, Vision - May 2017
Suranjan Ganguly was invited by the National Film Archives in Rome to speak on Brakhage and show his work at Cinema Trevi in May 2017. Some of the films screened included听Cat鈥檚 Cradle,听Window Water Baby Moving,听Dog Star Man Part听2,听Scenes From Under Childhood,听Section听1, Mothlight,听The Dante Quartet,听and听Yggdrasil Whose Roots Are Stars In The Human Mind.
Cinemateca Portuguesa in Lisbon, Portugal
Suranjan Ganguly was听invited by the Cinemateca Portuguesa in Lisbon, Portugal, to speak on Stan Brakhage听and show his work.
New Publication:听 Stan Brakhage Interviews - 2017
In this book, edited by Suranjan Ganguly and published by the University Press of Mississippi in March 2017, nine of Stan Brakhage鈥檚 most important interviews have been selected. Brakhage describes his conceptual frameworks, his theories of vision and sound, the importance of poetry, music, and the visual arts in relation to his work, his concept of the muse, and the key influences on his art-making. He discusses some of his iconic films, such as听Anticipation of the Night,听Dog Star Man,听Scenes from Under Childhood,听Mothlight, and听Text of Light.听 See review in听
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