Thursday
22. January 2026 – City46 Cinema
Program
Two cinematic films await us on the big screen
Film 1 – Empathy for Concrete Things
Dr. Gregory Gan
Germany (Halle/Berlin), 2024, 61 Min.
This film is based on experiences living and working amongst Soviet-era concrete, panel-block apartments. Together with five visual artists, the filmmaker examines past and present attitudes towards their former homes. Combining compelling personal narrative with experimental research on the history of twentieth-century art and architecture, the film creates a contemporary aesthetic of panel-block mass housing. Based on original watercolors put into motion by stop-motion techniques and digital animation. As global and personal histories interweave, the film explores notions of moral and political responsibility as evinced in postsocialist urban spaces. It will be shown how modern architecture can become a showcase of utopian fantasy as if big catastrophes. Due to a new humanitarian and political crisis which former post socialist countries face, the film starts its own invoking against the destruction of these places. Thereby the stories will be shown from the point of concrete, panel-block apartments.
Gregory Gan was born in the former Soviet Union in 1984. His family relocated to France and then to Canada. There he received an education in visual anthropology. Following two successful films, “Empathy for Concrete Things” was released in 2024 as postdoctoral research for the “Affective Societies” by the Freie Universität Berlin.
Film 2 – Bride of Aravan
Lesley Branagan & Yatra Srinivassan
India, 2025, 48 Min.
In this film we follow trans woman Bhavadharin during the transgender festival Aravan in South India. Together with her community, she participates in the reenactment of an ancient myth in which they are elevated to goddess status. A big contrast to the prejudice they experience in real life. Bhavadharin guides us through her city, her home and takes us on a ritual journey full of grief and pain, caused by societal rejection.
Lesley Branagan is a social anthropologist with a PhD in anthropological research in India and an independent filmmaker, specialising in Indian culture and social issues. Her Film “A Life Exposed: Robyn Beeche” received various awards. She received a Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Endeavour Award for anthropological research in India. As an experienced storyteller, her work foregrounds the voices and experiences of her subjects. She currently works as an anthropologist post-doctoral scholar at Hamburg University, Germany.
Co-director Yatra Srinivassan holds a BA in Economics, and a diploma in film directing. He is the founder and director of Yatra Arts Media near Pondicherry city, which provides professional filmmaking services. He has already directed and produced dozens of documentary and drama films in Tamil and English. Among them a mix of independent passion projects, and commissions for international agencies like UNICEF and USAID. He has received multiple awards for his plays, including best director and best script. He is widely respected for his creative output which aims to bring positive social change to the region.
