Between cultural performance and cultural activism: contemporary documentary film festivals in India

ABSTRACT

The twenty-first century has signalled the explosion of documentary film practices in India. Based on anthropological fieldwork conducted between 2007 and 2009, this article analyses contemporary documentary film festivals in India conceived as a combination of cultural performance and cultural activism. Through a combination of first person experience in the field and historical research, it argues for identifying a legacy of contemporary documentary film festivals not only in the most recent history of political activism and filmmaking, but also in early cinematic practices of film exhibition during the colonial period of the Indian subcontinent - that is, when documentary films were part of an already existing public entertainment.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian documentary film festivals
• cultural performance
• cultural activism
• colonial history
• Vikalp
• Vibgyor

Disclosure statement

A shorter version of this article, yet with a different argument, is available in a Palgrave edited volume called “Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 1: Methods, History, Politics” (https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030173197).

Notes

1. This movement emerged through media practices such as film, video and television. In this context, Ginsburg studies practices of ‘cultural activism’ as forms of resistance within the ‘field of cultural production’ as described by Bourdieu (1993, 1996).

2. To read more about the campaign, consult the 2004 report entitled Resisting Censorship: Celebrating Freedom of Expression.

3. Conversation with Anajali Monteiro 18/04/09.

4. The BBC’s article is available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3466691.stm (last accessed 21 December 2015). The article written by The Guardian is available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2004/feb/03/festivals/print (last accessed 21 December 2015). Aljazeera’s article can be found at: http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/02/20084913115164590.html (last accessed 21 December 2015).

5. Conversation with Reena Mohan 30/11/08.

6. The ICC Report is an historical document written by a committee appointed by the government of India in September 1927 to examine, and make recommendations about, several matters related to censorship, production and the exhibition of films across the country. The committee was composed of both English and Indian members and was chaired by a lawyer from Madras, T. Rangachariar (cf. also Shoesmith 1988).

7. For a more exhaustive debate about ‘performativity’ and documentary film practice in India see Battaglia (2018).

8. It is important to say again that in this article Vibgyor is used as an example to talk about a much wider phenomenon of cultural activism and cultural performance that can be applied to other Indian events-contexts and identified in different historical moments. I have discussed here the colonial moment but similar points can be extended to the moment in which film societies, people theatre activities – i.e. the historical Indian People’s Theater Association, IPTA – played an important role in Indian society (cf. Majumdar 2012). For an extended discussion on this topic see Battaglia (2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giulia Battaglia

Giulia Battaglia is a member of the laboratoire de recherche IRMECCEN, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle doing research in anthropology of visual/art/media practices. Her work is interdisciplinary and draws from a range of academic fields, including visual/media anthropology, documentary studies, visual and material cultures, art and anthropology, Indian cinema, cultural studies and film history. She has worked as a lecturer and researcher in various departments of anthropology, media, arts and social science as well as in cultural institutions in England and in France.