JONATHAN TORGOVNIK

BOLLYWOOD DREAMS is the first book by the emerging and award-winning photographer, Jonathan Torgovnik. This expansive portfolio features over 100 new color photographs, which document the phenomenon of Indias film industry affectionately known around the world as Bollywood.

Deriving its name from its American equivalent, Bollywood is the highly successful Indian movie industry predominantly based in Bombay and Madras. Every day more than 14 million people go to the cinema across India to watch films produced by this massive and powerful industry. In India, movies are not just a form of entertainment, it is practically a religion. Streets in major Indian cities are lined with colourful posters of Indian movies and their stars. Movie stars are treated like demi-gods, no match even for American standards of celebrity obsession. More than any other cultural or political institution of the 20th century, the cinema has captured the hearts and minds of India`s growing population of almost one billion even against the stark backdrop of the vast country`s struggle with poverty and hunger and often tense Muslim-Hindu relations. The experience of actually going to the movies in India is as much a part of the Bollywood phenomenon as are the stars themselves and Bollywood Dreams documents this important aspect of understanding the important role Bollywood plays in contemporary Indian culture. 'Going to the cinema,' Torgovnik says 'is about going to see the actors larger-than-life. It is about living the glamorous life for a few hours and leaving your daily hardships behind.' Once inside the movie theatres, the audience can expect at least three hours of entertainment including several song and dance numbers, love scenes, action sequences, and most surely a happy ending. Each film includes the necessary ingredients for success: action, violence, music, dance, romance, and morals. The themes of the movies are often social issues like communalism, ethnicity, religion, and caste, and the movie theatres themselves are often fill of lively interaction between viewer and star. Cheers and boos pervade the atmosphere: the audience becomes a part of the film, and likewise, the film becomes a part of them. Bollywood Dreams begins with a vignette of the touring caravans that bring Bollywood on the big screen to India`s villages in portable tents. We then follow the Indian film from its creation on the movie set, to the larger-than-life stars, directors, and character actors, to the editing chamber, to the city streets where ubiquitous promotional posters abound, and finally, to the multitude of movie theatres that abound in India.

El relato más cruel del genocidio ruandés contado en primera persona por sus víctimas. La lucha de las mujeres de Ruanda por criar a los niños fruto de la violación sufrida. Cuarenta entrevistas a cuarenta mujeres, la mayoría de las cuales no había revelado, hasta entonces, su historia ni a sus hijos ni a la comunidad. En 1993 el presidente Habyarimana firma un acuerdo de poder compartido con los tutsis en el que se señalaba el final de la guerra civil. En abril de 1994, Habyarimana y el presidente de Burundi son asesinados al ser derribado su avión sobre Kigali; el FPR lanza una gran ofensiva; milicias extremistas hutu y elementos de las fuerzas militares ruandesas inician una masacre sistemática de tutsis. En cien días mueren unos 800.000 tutsis y hutus moderados; las milicias hutu huyen al Zaire, llevando con ellos a unos dos millones de refugiados hutu. Los campos de refugiados de Zaire caen bajo el control de las milicias hutu, responsables del genocidio de Ruanda. Veinte mil niños nacieron de las violaciones cometidas durante el genocidio. Este libro constituye una extensión del trabajo del autor en la fundación que él mismo creó, Foundation Rwanda, y tiene el propósito de ofrecer un espacio donde las voces de estas madres puedan oírse. Una obra que no sólo trata de las mujeres y los niños de Ruanda. Muchos de los mismos milicianos hutu que mataron, violaron y mutilaron en Ruanda huyeron al Congo y a países vecinos. Estos milicianos están continuando el ciclo de violencia, violando a chicas jóvenes y a mujeres a enorme escala en ese país. Es increíble que el mundo no tome medidas en esa región.