[Reader-list] film on sonagachi wins oscar

[Aarti]

Dear All,

Thank you for ensuing discussion on this film which none of us have 
seen, but seems to excite much debate nonetheless..

A few more questions:

I am not sure if the analogy between anthropologists who plundered 
civilisations of artefacts, and filmmakers representing a culture 
diffrent from theirs, is very useful. In this I am not saying that there 
cannot be 'orientalist' represetations of cultures, or that films, like 
other representational forms, are innocent of historical baggage. But 
there are good representations, indifferent representations and bad 
representations. This is not to say that any representational attempt 
is, in and of itself, one or the other. And I would certianly be very 
uncomfortable with a position that said only 'authentic' subjects are 
allowed to represent themselves. You can make a film about what you damn 
well please. Whether it is a good or bad film (both in style and in 
content etc) is a totally different question. How you make the film is 
again a different question.

Secondly, there seems to some issue about the film 'not making their 
lives better'. or it 'only changing the director's life'. I'm not sure 
why this is problem. Why should it make anyone's life better? And if in 
the process of making this film, the filmmaker discovered new 
provocations, why is this process of discovery in any way questionable?


best
Aarti






Amit Basu wrote:

> Sudesh, I agree with you that visual anthropologists who visit India 
> for their documentaries are not self-conscious of their "orientalist" 
> attitude and it is a part of their 'professional' activity to adopt 
> local customs. Regarding the Oscar winning film on Sonagachhi, 
> protests were audible in Kolkata and Partha Bandopadhyay (who worked 
> in the film) wrote a critical letter in a leading Bengali daily before 
> it had own the award. If the film only changes the life of the 
> director and the characters remain as 'object of research' then it 
> needs to be reviewed critically. Regards, Amit
>
> */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
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