[Reader-list] Announcing a video archive

[majlis]

The Cultural Centre, of Majlis, Bombay, announces the beginnings of Godaam- a video archive of 'political' footage, and a viewing library where the images that surround us and seek to make our politics, can be interrogated, and contextualised.

 We are beginning with collections of footage around these themes-

1.Kashmir- looking at the mainstream images ( often news) that are often the source of our ideas of Kashmir. We are also collecting other material- alternative representations, and also amateur videos, and institutional footage shot by people who have lived or are still living there, holiday footage, government of militant propaganda footage... What could add to layering our understanding of the situation there and to suggest to us, what the everyday of people who are living with that situation might be like. 

 2.Mapping Bombay starting with-

-Mapping the 1992 as a defining moment in the city's history. How were they  represented, as news, as fiction film, as alternative documentary? What led to the riots, how has it remade peoples' lives since? What of these aspects is recorded, as memory, as Sena propaganda, as documentary film, as police propaganda? 

-Mapping the mill area, once the nerve centre of this metropolis. How has the story of its decline and takeover by commercial establishments been recorded as image? How has the struggle of the workers been preserved as visual or audio memory? How might the 'other side'- the owners, the government, the new establishments that have taken over, have represented the same area. 

We also plan to start a film club showing films from the world over which have sought to remake existing images- to make propaganda footage from Nazi Germany reveal the truths of its times, or home videos from Russia speak up for the conditions the people were living with. 

We hope to get the library started by October.

Meanwhile, we hope to hear from you at Majlis.com

Suggestions, critiques, criticisms,and very importantly, leads to locate footage, or films you think could be relevant

Hoping to hear from you,

Hansa

On behalf of Godaam, Majlis

 

  
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