Events: Be a Forensic Sleuth, Create Mailable Art and Indian Film
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Friday, March 4: I Am God (Naan Kadavul)
Director Bala has carved a name for himself by marching against all prevailing sensibilities in the Tamil film industry. His films speak of madness on the margins and the grotesque tragedy that accompanies it. The story is about Rudran, a fourteen-year-old boy, who is abandoned by his father to grow up amidst the madmen and mendicants in the holy city of Varanasi. He falls in with a tantric sect and becomes an aghori—not just a holy man but a ganja-devouring god in the flesh, able to mete out divine justice. His story becomes entwined with a group of lepers and wretches held captive by an evil ganglord. The story notches up its physical and emotional violence when Rudran goes head-to-head with the ganglord and ultimately shows that even the gods, in their infinite mercy, can be supremely cruel. Naan Kadavul won Bala the national award for best director in 2009. (dir.: Bala, India, 2009, 150 min., Tamil with English subtitles) Free, but seating is first come, first serve, Meyer Auditorium, Freer Gallery of Art, 7 PM.
Saturday, March 5: Drop-in Workshop: Make Mail Art
Did you know that there's a veritable art gallery hanging out in your mailbox? Drop by to create a postcard using the supplied arts and crafts materials and canceled international postage stamps, then send it on its way from the museum’s post office. Free. Postal Museum, 11:00 AM-3:00 PM.
Sunday, March 6: Forensic Anthropology Lab
The Forensic Anthropology Lab offers hands-on activities where visitors use real human bones to solve mysteries and learn that forensic fact is much more interesting than forensic fiction. Individuals are free to walk into the lab at any time. Children must be accompanied by an adult. School groups must make reservations three weeks in advance. For additional information and to make reservations, visit the Web at Forensic Lab or call 202-633-1085 or 202-633-9287 (TTY). Free, Natural History Museum, 11:00 AM-4:00 PM. From now until mid-June, the lab is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 1:00 and 5:00 PM and on Saturday and Sunday between 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM.
For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit our companion site goSmithsonian.com