[Reader-list] shared material on Gujarat

[Monica Narula]

>From: "gurpal" <yahoogurpal at hotmail.com>
>To: "gurpal gujarat" <gurpalforpeace at hotmail.com>
>Subject: shared footage mail no. 3
>Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 17:59:04 +0530
>
>note from neeraj:
>
>hi all,
>
>for those of you who missed our first two mails on the shared 
>footage idea....a small group of us came here to ahmedabad in the 
>middle of may, with a view to create a bank of footage about the 
>pogrom. the idea was that this footage could be used by like minded 
>filmmakers to make several films which would cover all the aspects 
>of the genocide in gujarat. we also tried to assist the legal effort 
>by recording testimonies or visual evidence where necessary. this is 
>an effort of a group of individuals funded by themselves and some 
>friends. in terms of people coming in to chip in with their time and 
>effort, we were a little lacking...we hope that the 'shramdaan' of 
>those who came will bear fruit and many films will be made from this 
>footage, which, if sensibly distributed, will go some way in 
>stemming the growing tide of fundamentalism
>
>
>
>we're now entering the last leg of our stay in ahmedabad. there has 
>been quite a bit we've managed to do (thanks to everyone) and some 
>things that we have not been able to do. below is a summary of both, 
>and what the shape of our current plans are. the important thing in 
>this phase, we think, is to close the many individual stories we've 
>begun which can be seen by themselves, or strung with other things 
>to address larger issues/ canvasses. also there are some stories 
>which we haven't begun shooting, but have lined up, which are very 
>important which we've to shoot start to finish. looking at these 
>lists here is what we plan:
>
>
>4 manweeks of shoot to wind up in ahmedabad.
>consists of
>
>1. documents illustrative of :
>-police atrocities/ role of police in 'riots'
>-criminal injustice practiced and supported by the state
>-pain on loss of life/ property/ livelihood
>-apathy in relief camps
>-inhuman compensation
>-token rehabilitation
>-sustained threat and discrimination
>-ghettoisation
>-spread of violence to 'well off' people as well
>-secular valor in the face of adversity
>-islands of sanity
>
>2. interviews to contextualise the situation in gujarat (not 
>necessarily of the victims themselves, but those that have been 
>engaged with gujarat for a long time, in various fields):
>-general history of class/ caste forces in realpolitik
>-specific history/events of the last decade
>-the socio economic context of this carnage in general, and the main 
>massacres in specific.
>-the role of media
>-the debate of riots vs. carnage/ pogrom/ genocide
>-the participation of women, dalits and adivasis
>-processes and strategies of struggle for justice in a belligerent state
>
>the above are just things that are still hanging open. i think we've 
>done substantially more than that, which is the kind of work that 
>requires breadth of coverage (e.g. the situation of people with the 
>closing of camps, both in urban and rural areas; the rath yatra and 
>associated things etc.). and we also have 'closed' quite a number of 
>stories. which meditate one or the other aspect of the whole thing.
>
>with more resources and hands in here, we could also do the 
>following, which we have not been able to:
>
>1. not been specifically able to cover illustrative cases on (though 
>we have leads and access):
>-brutality specific to women
>-violence through medical intervention/ -communalisation of health care
>-processes initiated with witnesses of the main carnages
>-the debate on the participation of women, dalits and adivasis
>
>2. cover the situation in rural gujarat with adequate breadth and 
>select aspects of it in depth.
>
>we're also suffering from a lack of versatile hands for:
>-logging, transferring, capturing, production back up.
>
>i feel the most crucial stage of this project is to do a decent 
>logging, with cross indexing etc. in some form which is easily 
>accessible and open to data manipulation (in the sense of sorting by 
>areas, or keywords, or incidents etc.). we're working on it, but the 
>base of it will remain a thorough and commented log. its crucial for 
>the whole thing to work to have each and every interview/ vox pop/ 
>group interview etc. transcripted and available in electronic form. 
>this is the thing going on parallel with the wind up shooting. so we 
>need people to come here and help us wind up the shooting. and we 
>now really also need people everywhere to chip in from wherever they 
>are and do transcripting/ rough logging. we can provide cd's, vhs, 
>audio tape or whatever form they can work with, along with some kind 
>of instructions (numbering, classifying etc.) and who to co-ordinate 
>with and how.
>
>we have been working with cameras lent by people and often these are 
>not in the best shape. we have ended up spending a packet on repairs 
>and servicing. we also require tapes(hi 8, minidv, vhs-c, vhs), 
>mikes, batteries, blank cd's and any equipment that you think could 
>be useful to us. look forward to your help in this regard.
>
>keep us going, do write in, love and regards, neeraj.
>n_sahay at hotmail.com
>
>note from gurpal:
>
>just wanted to add a note of thanks to all friends who have chipped 
>in with money...we are keeping an account of where it is being spent 
>and shortly it will be posted to all....
>
>and we are also looking for articles, books, still photos, news 
>clippings from now or earlier, which may be in any way relevant to a 
>study of the current situation in ahmedabad/gujarat....
>
>please be in touch
>regards,gurpal
>gurpalforpeace at hotmail.com
-- 
Monica Narula
Sarai:The New Media Initiative
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net