When celluloid pornography went digital: class and race in the Bangladeshi cut-piece online

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the fate of celluloid pornography after the end of film. With the demise of celluloid filmmaking in Bangladesh and the rapid transitioning of film projection to digital forms, bits and pieces of stray sexually explicit celluloid have migrated to digital formats. In this article, I map the movement of so-called ‘cut-pieces’, locally produced strips of illegal celluloid pornography, onto online forums patronized by Bengali speakers. Exploring the reception of this sexually explicit material in its new digital environment, I ask the following questions: how are the traces of ‘locality’ that inflected the celluloid production of cut-pieces received within digital spaces of consumption; what happens to markers of class and race when celluloid forms of pornography move onto digital platforms; and what are the cultural and technological limits to the internationalization of the aesthetic of mainstream pornography?

KEYWORDS:

• Celluloid
• pornography
• online
• race
• class
• Bangladesh
• regional cinema

Acknowledgements

The author is very grateful for the encouragement and patience of Darshana Sreedhar Mini and Anirban Kapil Baishya as well as the helpful comments by Feona Attwood and two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 I have copied the Bengali wording of these citations as they appear online, without ‘correcting’ the transliteration of the Bengali as presented there.

2 For example, searching the internet for ‘Bangladesh’ and ‘Sex’ leads you to numerous non-governmental organizations and charities concerned with the health of Bangladeshi sex workers, the correlations between tuberculosis outbreaks and gender, as well as sex discrimination in birth rates.

3 Both the Mysore Mallige and the Nolbon sexually explicit home videos created a scandal in India, where they were made and distributed. These videos were purported to have been accidentally made public. Both videos have reached a certain cult status and continue to circulate online. See Baishya (2017).

4 The multivalent maal is difficult to translate. Meaning anything ranging from piece to load or cargo, it is often used to address a desired person in an objectifying way. In this case, ‘chicks’ seems to come closest to the implied meaning. See Ramaswami (2006).

5 The complex question of non-Bengali Bangladeshis and their identification with Bangladeshi cinema is beyond the scope of this article.