[Reader-list] Screening of 'Doon School Chronicles' on Mon, Feb 22, Prithvi House, Mumbai

[Chintan]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chandni Parekh
Date: Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 12:07 PM

From: "Vikalp at Prithvi - Mumbai" <vikalp.prithvi at gmail.com>

VIKALP @ PRITHVI invites you to the screening of

DOON SCHOOL CHRONICLES

Directed by David MacDougall
143 min |1997/2000
Monday 22nd Feb 2010 / 7pm / Prithvi House, Opp Prithvi Theatre, Janki
Kutir, Juhu Church Road, Mumbai – 49.

Admission Free, On a First Come – First Seated Basis.

The screening will be followed by a discussion on issues related to
education.

About The Film

This intimate and groundbreaking study of India's most prestigious boys'
boarding school is the most recent work of renowned ethnographic filmmaker
David MacDougall. In this original and beautifully photographed film
MacDougall examines not only the life of the boys in the school and the
culture associated with that life; he also inquires into the school's
"social aesthetics," the qualities of place, material objects, and social
interaction that provides a distinctive backdrop for the everyday life of
this community.

Sometimes called "the Eton of India," Doon School has nevertheless developed
its own characteristic style and presents a curious mixture of privilege and
egalitarianism. The school was established by a group of Indian nationalists
in the 1930s to produce a new generation of leaders who would guide the
nation after Independence. Since then it has become highly influential in
the creation of the new Indian elites and has come to epitomize many aspects
of Indian postcoloniality.

Shot over a two-year period, the film explores the social aesthetics and
ideology of the school through its rituals, the physical environment it has
created, and its effects upon several boys of different ages and
temperaments. The film is divided into ten "chapters," each headed by a text
taken from school documents. This narrative structure lends great
cohesiveness to the film and at the same time facilitates classroom use and
helps focus discussion on the key themes and issues explored.


Reviews


"An extraordinarily insightful and intimate exploration of the social and
cultural landscape of India's most elite boys' boarding school. In following
the boys' daily routines and dramas, the film also affords us a rare glimpse
at processes of postcolonial Indian identity formation. This is a wonderful
teaching tool that will enhance any course dealing with issues of
adolescence, education, institutional structure and 'habitus,' or
postcolonial elites. My students were stupefied by the eloquence,
independence, and maturity of the Doon School boys." -- Lucien Taylor, Asst.
Prof. of Anthropology, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder


"The Doon School Project in India by David MacDougall is perhaps the most
noteworthy digital ethnographic film project." -- Jay Ruby, Prof. Emeritus
of Anthropology, Temple University, in The Last 20 Years of Visual
Anthropology - A Critical Review (2005)

"Without doubt the Doon Project will provide plentiful material for
discussion of such matters as the place of such a school in a democratic
society; the acculturation of children; identity in the old sense versus
'identity' in its new sense of national or cultural conformism; how an élite
perpetuate its values; or, at a more experiential level, how we may each
position ourselves in relation to the machineries of social constraint.
Nevertheless, simply to call these anthropological films would, while true,
be a little like calling Things Fall Apart [by Chinua Achebe] an
anthropological novel. They are a major contribution to our screen culture,
and deserve to be seen well beyond the confines of the discipline." -- Dai
Vaughan, film editor, novelist, and author of For Documentary (University of
California Press, 1999), in Visual Anthropology (Vol. 18, 2005)


"Doon School Chronicles will take its place among the classics of
ethnographic cinema. It is essential viewing for a wide array of classes in
cultural anthropology, Asian and Indian studies, visual anthropology,
education and childhood studies, and post-colonial studies. An excellent
accompaniment to the film is the book, 'Constructing Post-Colonial India:
National Character and the Doon School,' by anthropologist Sanjay Srivastava
(Routledge, 1998)." -- http://www.berkeleymedia.com


Awards


Margaret Mead Film Festival honoree
Assn. for Asian Studies honoree
American Anthropological Assn. selection
Society for Visual Anthropology selection
Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival honoree
Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, honoree
Gottingen Intl. Ethnographic Film Festival honoree

This screening is brought to you by Vikalp: Films for Freedom in association
with Prithvi Theatre

For more information on Vikalp at Prithvi activities, contact: Anand Patwardhan
@ 9819882244

Or log onto www.prithvitheatre.org
Please send us your comments and feedback at vikalp.prithvi at gmail.com