[Reader-list] film on sonagachi wins oscar

[sudhesh]

rochelle

i have never said the film is bad or exploitative
that can only be said after seeing the film

my response was to a statement by the filmmakers that they would never
release the film in India

if you think this may be because we do not have a constructive
attitude towards sex workers how will that change if we keep self
censoring films on the subject

what would the response of the European media be if i made a film on
the same subject and told them that I would not release the film
there. They would not have like it at all.

Compare the making of the films Elizabeth and Gandhi. There was no
controversy in India for Gandhi - in fact we bent over double to help
the production but the British press said Shekhar Kappor was not
qualified to make the film and then they refused to promote it when it
 was finally made.

sudhesh


On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 07:42:31 +0530, sudhesh <sudhesh.unniraman at gmail.com> wrote:
> Reading danny's letter,   reminds me of the explorers and
> archeologists from Europe who would go to "investigate" and "study"
> ancient civilizations – Egypt and the Silk Route are two places where
> they went. They took away huge number of scrolls, books, artifacts,
> coins and even scrapped off paintings off the walls all the while
> pretending that they are civilized scientific secular people who are
> just studying ancient communities.
> 
> Like the filmmakers, they spent many years exploring these regions in
> some cases even adopting local attire, cuisine and customs. However
> the funny thing is that they never bothered to keep the artifacts in a
> museum in Asia or Africa. The natives could not see the artifacts
> created by their own civilization. The natives called it – "taking our
> soul away" and many people especially in China resisted. Of course
> some natives prospered due to these expeditions but for a large
> majority nothing changed. The explorers themselves were given awards
> and knighthoods back home.
> 
> These explorers were not deliberately cruel and never killed many
> people but they were product of a civilization that treated Asians and
> Africans as different. In not releasing the film in India the
> filmmakers are treating us the same way. Their claim is that the
> majority of the Indians do not have the sensibilities to understand
> the subject or something like that. Else if you think about it how
> could the film being seen in select places (as documentaries are) in
> India have a negative impact on the kids' lives?
> 
> aarti i am not comfortable with the subject or the film
> in any case the people at sonagachi are far more aware and organised
> and therefore they must have taken a concious decision to allow the
> project.
> 
> my arguement is only with an attitude which says-
> "Oh we cannot release the film there, you know those people will never
> understand the issues involved"
> 
> But we will have a 100 screen release in america
> and DVDs will be sold on the net
> 
> sudhesh
>