[Reader-list] Our response to police action against Jashn-e - Azadi

Sun Aug 12 12:12:47 IST 2007

dear yousuf, shuddha, fff in mumbai and elsewhere,
(apologies for cross posting to sarai)

yousuf wrote:

the moment you formally invite people for a screening, it
is taxable, even if one person turns up. (Even an
email counts as an invitation). And this comes under
the Entertainment and Betting Tax Act. So, we don't
even know what all violations we have been doing in
the past.  Although we have been talking about it in the past, we
probably should work towards preparing a comprehensive
memorandum for the ministry/lawmakers to suggest that
certain kinds of screenings should be exempt from
censor certificate and entertainment tax etc.
Meanwhile, we can continue to get amused with our
little experiments of nitch viewing.

I'm not sure that a comprehensive memorandum to the lawmakers - defining the
'certain' kinds of  screenings which should be exempt from censor certs and
entertainment tax is a rational option at all.

how would we qualify jashn-e-azadi to be that certain film?  i'm trying to
imagine a text in this memorandum that would make this allowance-would it
exempt films from  certification for smaller screenings that 'might create a
law and order problem' or films that contain inflammatory and provocative
scenes on based on terrorism in kashmir', given that these are the purported
reasons (and language) law enforcers throw at us. This film was never made
to be cleared by the censor board, yet we all agree it was made to be shown,
to be talked about...

Knowing the law to be clearer about the violations we've been doing in the
past is  important, but we don't want to start our day with the premise that
we're doing something illegal, screening something uncensored- this would
either result in our own 'self-censorships' or add untoward romance to our
'struggle'

As for amusement with experiments of 'nitch' viewing, heres one that worked.
Jashn-e-azadi was screened a few days after the aborted screenings in mumbai
for 25-30 people at Majlis--and yes, they were invited by email and sms.
The audience was surprisingly diverse, apart from a couple of documentary
filmmakers, some artists and journos, there were mainly young students, and
non-film people who had been following the blog. The film ended at 9:30,
after which we had a lengthy post-film discussion with sanjay kak--( having
left bombay and now back in delhi... this was via video skype.--no high tech
ostrich gear here- just a very normal speed internet connection) Whats
important in all of this was the quality of conversation - members of the
audience called sanjay over the phone and he responded on the screen for all
to hear. There were the questions about not showing pakistans role, skirting
the KP issue by just using statistics and a poem, but no images, -a
discussion about the indian tourist in Kashmir, about august 15th and
curfew.   One filmmaker argued that while she was credulous of all the found
footage, the struggle and protest, she was a little troubled by his
portrayal of 'leadership'- geelani in particular. A wide debate, addressing
a whole range of viewpoints. Sanjays engaging  responses to these questions
and the video of the conversation can be downloaded shortly. will post the
link soon.

 I think what shuddha was trying to convey was that there are certainly
other ways to do things.--and the internet is more public than we on this
list think. Where do we find porn when we need it?  How many are on
facebook?  How many students in your class pour their lives out on orkut?

 We can recall the yahoogroups list from manipur that was blocked years ago,
resulting in all of yahoogroups being blocked. Or blogspot in recent times.
This list, the sarai list and many others have been a crucial source of
'alternate' news and information for a lot of us.
http://kashmirfilm.wordpress.com is a telling example...its not only a forum
about the film, but the related tags and depth of related material is
providing the alternate media and discourse on kashmir so needed.

Beyond this there are literally hundreds of file sharing and movie sharing
archives, sites and repositories for political and radical films on the
internet. Uploading your own film is a matter of your own proprietary zeal.
I get the feeling a lot of filmmakers don't believe in making their films
available online (or allow dvd's to be copied) If students could share the
media, download this film- and many other documentaries- watch them alone,
or with family or with friends or bring it to class for a screening---surely
we must consider the possibilities...infact flip it around...imagine the
internet as the mainstream, with the same access base and viewership of say
mumbai mirror. To watch the film at home alone or with 10 friends, post
comments on a blog or to attend a public/private screening are the choices,
the many freedoms for access to this 'information' that we could have.

To come back to this film and shuddha's idea of a jashn of sorts with
simultaneously 'private' screenings on I-day...count us in. I would be happy
to facilitate copies of the films for groups in bombay, (provided the
audience is a minimum of 15!! and we try to share our feedback and
responses)

till then, happy downloading, happy writing,
shaina

On 8/11/07, shaina a <kalakamra at gmail.com > wrote:
>
> dear yousuf, shuddha,  fff in mumbai and elsewhere,
>
> yousuf wrote:
>
> the moment you formally invite people for a screening, it
> is taxable, even if one person turns up. (Even an
> email counts as an invitation). And this comes under
> the Entertainment and Betting Tax Act. So, we don't
> even know what all violations we have been doing in
> the past.  Although we have been talking about it in the past, we
> probably should work towards preparing a comprehensive
> memorandum for the ministry/lawmakers to suggest that
> certain kinds of screenings should be exempt from
> censor certificate and entertainment tax etc.
> Meanwhile, we can continue to get amused with our
> little experiments of nitch viewing.
>
> I'm not sure that a comprehensive memorandum to the lawmakers - defining
> the 'certain' kinds of
> screenings which should be exempt from censor certs and entertainment tax
> is a rational option at all.
>
> how would we qualify jashn-e-azadi to be that certain film?  i'm trying to
> imagine a text in this memorandum that would make this allowance-would it
> include films without certification that 'might create a law and order
> problem' or include 'films that contain inflammatory and provocative scenes
> on based on terrorism in kashmir', given that these are the purported reason
> (and language) law enforcers throw at us. This film was never made to be
> cleared by the censor board, yet we all agree it was made to be shown, to be
> talked about...
>
> Knowing the law to be clearer about the violations we've been doing in the
> past...is important, but we don't want to start our day with the premise
> that we're doing something illegal, screening something uncensored- this
> would either result in our own 'self-censorships' or add untoward romance to
> our 'struggle'.
>
> as for amusement with experiments of 'nitch' viewing, heres one that
> worked. Jashn-e-azadi was screened a few days after the aborted screenings
> in mumbai for 25-30 people at Majlis. and yes, they were invited by email.
> the audience was surprisingly diverse, apart from a couple of documentary
> filmmakers and some journos, there were mainly young students, and non-film
> people who had been following the blog. The film ended at 9:30, after which
> we had a lengthy post-film discussion with sanjay kak--( having left bombay
> and now back in delhi... this was via video skype.--no high tech ostrich
> gear here- just a very normal speed internet connection) Whats important in
> all of this was the quality of conversation - members of the audience called
> sanjay over the phone and he responded on the screen for all to hear. There
> were the questions about not showing pakistans role, skirting the KP issue
> by just using statistics and a poem, but no images, -a discussion about the
> indian tourist in kashmir about august 15th.  One filmmaker argued that
> while she was credulous of all the found footage and protest slogans, she
> was a little troubled by his portrayal of 'leadership'- geelani in
> particular. A wide debate, addressing a whole range of viewpoints. Sanjays
> engaging  responses to these questions and the video of the conversation can
> be downloaded here:
>
> I think what shuddha was trying to convey was that there are certainly
> other ways to do things.--and the internet is a free zone and more public
> than we on this list think. where do we find porn when we need it?  How many
> are on facebook?  How many students in your class pore their lives out on
> orkut?
>
> But beyond that there are literally hundreds of file sharing and movie
> sharing archives, sites and repositories for political and radical films on
> the internet. Uploading your own film is a matter of your own proprietary
> zeal. A filmmaker recently argued with me when i asked her if she would be
> happy her if students copied the  DVD of her film they so love and want to
> see again...she said they should buy it from her and she would make it
> available at a discount. If students could download this film- and many
> other documentaries- watch them alone, or with family or with
> friends---surely we must consider the possibilities...infact flip it
> around...imagine the internet as the mainstream, with the same access base
> and viewership of mumbai mirror...then lets imagine the possibilities... to
> watch the film at home alone or with 10 friends, post comments on a blog or
> to attend a public/private screening are the choices, the many freedoms for
> this 'information' that we could have.
>
> Internet and its use has never elitist. we can recall the yahoogroups list
> from manipur that was firewalled years ago, resulting in all of yahoogroups
> being firewalled. Or blogspot in recent times. This list, the sarai list and
> many others have been a crucial source of 'alternate' news and information
> for a lot of us. http://kashmirfilm.wordpress.com is a telling
> example...its not only a forum about the film, but the related tags and
> depth of related material is providing the alternate media and discourse on
> kashmir so needed.
>
> To come back to this film and shuddha's idea of a jashn of sorts with
> simultaneously 'private' screenings on I-day...count us in. I would be happy
> to facilitate copies of the films for groups in bombay, (provided the
> audience is a minimum of 15!!.)
>
> till then, happy downloading, happy writing...
>
> shaina
>
>
>
>
>
> On 8/10/07, Yousuf < ysaeed7 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >   Dear Shuddha
> > Yes these are exciting possibilities of watching films
> > or multimedia in several smaller groups, and we should
> > try something like this in our midst. Although one
> > would have to do something about the interference of
> > so many different soundtracks playing at the same time
> > in a space (unless you syncronise all of them). But I
> > guess one would always tend to keep a big screen show
> > (with everyone's attention together) as a reference
> > point when weighing the pros and cons of such
> > alternatives.
> >
> > I need to know what is the definition of a public
> > screening in the books of censor/govt. Until few weeks
> > ago some friends were trying to run a film club in the
> > heart of Delhi. Suddently one day, one guy from the
> > enterntainment tax department came and asked us to
> > close the screenings since we had not paid the
> > entertainment tax! According to him we ought to pay
> > this tax whether we charge the audience or not. The
> > moment you formally invite people for a screening, it
> > is taxable, even if one person turns up. (Even an
> > email counts as an invitation). And this comes under
> > the Entertainment and Betting Tax Act. So, we don't
> > even know what all violations we have been doing in
> > the past.
> > Although we have been talking about it in the past, we
> > probably should work towards preparing a comprehensive
> > memorandum for the ministry/lawmakers to suggest that
> > certain kinds of screenings should be exempt from
> > censor certificate and entertainment tax etc.
> > Meanwhile, we can continue to get amused with our
> > little experiments of nitch viewing.
> >
> > Yousuf
> >
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> --
> shaina
> chitrakarkhana.net

-- 
shaina
chitrakarkhana.net