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Abstract
Films showing industrial processes or crafts were popular topics in early cinema. However in the case of British India, these films were part of a larger discourse in which India was admired for its traditional crafts, while for the development of modern industries the initiative and management of the British were considered necessary. Craft films of India are therefore always constructed as album films – giving a glimpse of what is involved in the making of the object, but not showing much of the larger process. However, modern industries in India were filmed as process films, which gave ample space to understand the production process. The rhythm of the factory is thus mirrored in the rhythm of the film sequences, making the industrial films more attractive to watch than the craft films. Using the examples of a film showing crafts in Kashmir and a film showing a rope factory in Calcutta, the article argues that the differences in the films’ structures endorse the contrast between traditional crafts and modern industries found in British discourses on India.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professor Frank Kessler for his willingness to read and comment on earlier drafts of this paper as well as the reviewers for their helpful comments.
Notes
1. Pathé 1909. All filmographic information for the Pathé productions has been taken from the filmography on the ‘Fondation Jerome Seydoux’ website. http://filmographie.fondation-jeromeseydoux-pathe.com.
2. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/711,535/index.html or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SwVK8nQqqY, accessed 21 January 2014.
3. For the towns and cities mentioned in this article, I will use the names in use at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, whenever I mention a town for the first time I will add the current name in brackets, if it has changed at all.
4. For my research I also study postcards of this period and images of important buildings formed a significant part of these. See also Mathur Citation2007.
5. The Pathé title states Malaysia for the tobacco, but the island of Sumatra mentioned in the résumé was part of the Dutch Indies. Some stills, indicating that the snake skin processing did probably not take place in a factory, are available at http://www.gaumontpathearchives.com/index.php?urlaction=docListe searching for ‘peau’ and ‘serpent’ or ‘Java’ in 1909. Accessed 29 January 2014.
6. The list of films is based on catalogues, trade journals and surviving prints in several archives in Europe and Australia. The films were all produced by European or American film companies. I do not wish to suggest, however, that this list is exhaustive, considering the fragmented nature of early film production.
7. I have been able to watch about 10% of the titles I have found, mostly in European archives.
8. It is not meant to define ‘experientially a distinct sensory environment created by new technologies of space and time’ (Peterson Citation2013, 5), which has extensively been debated in early cinema studies.
9. One is Panorama of Calcutta (Warwick Company, 1899), which can be watched at http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1,321,364/ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4MaWb1BwBQ.
10. The areas comprising today’s Pakistan and Bangladesh nonetheless feature very seldom in non-fiction film during this period.
11. Delhi was announced as the new capital during the Delhi Durbar in 1912.
12. In Usai. Citation1992, 56, there is a reference to a film entitled ‘Petit métiers’ in December 1912, which was probably this film.
13. A word-search of several volumes of Moving Picture World (MPW) reveals the use of the term industry for anything made by people, while ‘craft’ most often signifies a ship or, less often, a specific skill.
14. It can be watched at http://www.cncaff.fr/internet_cnc/Internet/ARemplir/parcours/Tourisme/pages/film_Cachemire.html,
accessed 15 January 2014.
15. The English title in The Bioscope is ‘In fair Kashmir’, but the description is exactly the same as the one for ‘Dans l’état de Cachemire’ (11 June Citation1914, XIII). The making of silk embroidery is absent from the film at CNC. It is mentioned in MPW as produced by Eclectic under the title ‘Kashmir, British India’, 12 September Citation1914, 21 (11): 1513.
16. A print of the film can be watched at the BFI.
17. An added reason for the length of tea-industry scenes is probably the permission Urban had received from the planter, who is thanked by name in the catalogue (Urban Citation1909, 318).
18. http://www.tatasteel100.com/story-of-steel/index.asp, accessed 15 March 2014.
19. Translated from the French original on http://filmographie.fondation-jeromeseydoux-pathe.com.
20. It is difficult to assess how aware the British in Britain were of the fact that this steel plant was an Indian project made with Indian money, and built by an American.
21. The Pathé website has no further information on this film.
22. See Sen Citation1999 for a discussion of the presence of women in the jute industry.