Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Senior Researcher
Field of Specialization:	Film & Video
Name:	Mr. Pawel Wojtasik
Official Address:	Division of Technology and Arts, College of Arts and Letters, Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, New Jersey
Indian Host Institution:	Banaras Hindu University Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
Duration of Grant & Start Date :	Duration: 4.5 months January 2012

Brief Bio:

Paweł Wojtasik is a video artist and filmmaker, born in Lodz, Poland. At present he teaches at Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken. Mr. Wojtasik holds an M.F.A. degree from Yale University. His films are visionary and poetic reflections on the environment and culture. Most recently, his short film "Pigs" was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2011 Hong Kong International Film Festival. It was also shown at the New York Film Festival (2010) and at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. "Next Atlantis", Wojtasik's film about New Orleans, collaborating with composer Sebastian Currier, had its premiere at Carnegie Hall in January 2010. Wojtasik's films were shown at museums, such as PS1/MoMA in New York City, The Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain; Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT; the National Museum in Minsk, Belarus; His work has been screened also at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City; San Francisco Cinematheque; Oberhausen Short Film Festival; San Francisco International Film Festival; and Rotterdam International Film Festival. In 2009 he presented a groundbreaking 360° video cyclorama Below Sea Level, at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2010 he premiered "At the Still Point", a 5-screen presentation with footage shot in India. "The Village Voice", naming it "best in show" commented: "this five-channel project cycles through a series of startling images, shot in Wojtasik's long, mesmerizing takes." Paweł Wojtasik is a recipient of the New York State Council on the Arts individual artist grant in Film, Media& New Technology Production for 2007 and 2009. Mr. Wojtasik's Fulbright-Nehru research project is titled as "At Work: Video Project on the Theme of Labor in India in Times of Change". This project is a 90 minute film which will explore how work patterns change or remain the same in rapidly developing India. The locations for the film will have sites belonging to agricultural, industrial, and service sectors. In each of the sectors he will locate workplaces that are characterized by traditional, modernized or mixed styles of work, filming a wide spectrum of work situations. This research project is not to be mistaken for an analysis, but rather a careful observation of human beings at work, of their materials and tools - a portrait of a nation finding creative ways of dealing with the pressures of modernization.