Our Activities

We offer our members:
FOR THE CLASSROOM
- CDs and DVDs on loan
The 40 year old Chitrabani film archive has a collection of about a thousand films from all over the world – popular movies, art house films, educational films, documentaries and rare experimental films. A film buff can spend a lifetime delving through this rare collection and a school or college teacher can discover a wealth of useful material to expand the scope of his/her interest and subject.  These DVDs, even though not available for general circulation, can be loaned by members for special occasions like workshops, seminars etc. In addition to these, Bichitra Pathshala has put together a bank of DVDs of children’s fiction and non fiction films, which all institutional and individual members can borrow for a period of 15 days. 

- Lesson plans on a selection of films
A well made film may have the potential to trigger classroom discussions on various subjects – languages, sciences, history, mathematics, geography and life skills to name a few. To facilitate the teacher’s classroom transactions, we have prepared outline lesson plans for 50 films.
In our lesson plans we offer:
1. Synopses of the films and expert identified sequences for time slot viewing
2. Suggestions on the discussions and activities that may be generated from these sequences.
We are in the process of developing such lesson plans for 100 more films.
The school syllabi across various Boards has been kept in mind in selecting the films for the lesson plans.
Some of the shortlisted films are applicable to media, entrepreneurship and management courses at the undergraduate level.

ON REQUEST
- One to one consultancy between an expert and a teacher seeking guidance
A package of mere 50 films cannot be a comprehensive umbrella for covering all the requirements for all teachers. But until we develop a more comprehensive bank of lesson plans, our panel of experts will guide any teacher seeking our inputs. A teacher may consult our panel to identify an appropriate film and seek advice on using this film.
This consultancy may be done over telephone, email or face to face at Chitrabani on making an appointment at least two days in advance.

- Workshops on request
On request from our institutional members –formal and non formal schools and other educational institutions, we offer to design and conduct customised workshops for the teachers and students. We also offer guided screening of a package of films for  different occasions.

- Screenings and interactions
On request from schools, clubs and Govt. and non Govt. organizations engaged with education, we offer packages of age and content appropriate film screenings at a venue of their choice. Our resource persons will introduce the films and generate interactions after the screenings.

USE OF LIBRARYAll Bichitra Pathshala members will be eligible to use the Chitrabani media library (Reference only). This is the oldest media library in eastern India and has more than 1000 books and journals.
We have added a section on Education to this collection.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
- Recording television programmes and Youtube videos
TV  programmes and film clips from the Internet can make for topical and subject specific viewing. We offer to record such programmes customised as per request.

- Preparing AVs for class
We offer our assistance in putting together clippings of films from different sources, adding captions and voice over, cutting a DVD, or even making an advanced power point presentation.