I just said what I felt: Swara Bhaskar

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

New Delhi, Apr 7: Actor Disha Patani on Tuesday extended her warm wishes to legendary martial artist and actor Jackie Chan on his birthday.

The 'Baaghi 2' took to Instagram to share a throwback picture of herself with the Hong Kong-based actor and reminisced the times when she got the opportunity to work with him.

"Happiest b'day taguuu this was the first time I met you, I remember being so nervous but It turned out to be the best day of my life, getting an opportunity to work with my "superhero" is the best thing that has ever happened to me," she wrote in the caption.

"You teach people to be giving, loving and hardworking, thank you for blessing the world with your unreal performances and the most unforgettable life risking action sequences. Nobody can ever be "jackie chan" love you the most @jackiechan," she added.

Disha Patani and Jackie Chan worked together in a Chinese adventure comic film 'Kung Fu Yoga'.

The film was released worldwide in 2017 and it later became the highest-grossing film of Jackie Chan in China.

Besides Disha, the film also had two other Bollywood actors - Sonu Sood and Amyra Dastur.

Jackie Chan turned 66 today. He was many laurels to his name including the prestigious Oscar Award which was handed over to him in 2016 for his extraordinary achievements in the cinema industry.

Kochi, Jun 27: The Kerala government on Friday submitted an application in a local court requesting to stop the prosecution of ivory possession case against Malayalam film actor Mohanlal.

In the application for withdrawal of prosecution, the government has requested the court to stop the prosecution "immediately for the interest of justice".

''The legality of the possession of two elephant tusks by Mohanlal was accepted by the competent authority under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 by issuing him a certificate of ownership. The possession and custody of the elephant tusks thus become legal after the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) issued him the certificate," the state government said.

"Further conduct of the criminal trial may go against the good faith amongst the parties as far as the certificate of ownership issued to Mohanlal is concerned. One cannot go back from that ownership certificate and it was stopped from contradicting, deny or declare to be false the previous statement made by the actor in the court," it added.

"The government should not be allowed to revert from its promises in order to keep the faith of the people and in the interest of good governance," the government further said.

The case was registered by the forest department in 2012. The state government submitted the application in Kuruppampady Judicial Magistrate Court, which will hear the matter on July 24.