Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates how and why colonial films matter to examine sensorial aspects of filmmaking in contemporary documentary practices in India. Drawing on concepts of ‘cultural performance’ (Singer 1972) and ‘film event’ (Hughes 2010), I investigate the performative way in which ‘factual’ films entered colonial India. In doing this, I will connect the colonial film experience to the way contemporary filmmakers are (re)thinking of the sensorial aspects of filmmaking and the way this ‘rethinking’ is overlapping with emerging debate in anthropology about art and film.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates how and why colonial films matter to examine sensorial aspects of filmmaking in contemporary documentary practices in India. Drawing on concepts of 'cultural performance' (Singer 1972) and 'film event' (Hughes 2010), I investigate the performative way in which 'factual' films entered colonial India. In doing this, I will connect the colonial film experience to the way contemporary filmmakers are (re)thinking of the sensorial aspects of filmmaking and the way this 'rethinking' is overlapping with emerging debate in anthropology about art and film (see Schneider and Wright 2010, Banks and Ruby 2011).

In this paper I will present one aspect of a historical ethnography of documentary film practices in India, written for my PhD. My research is the result of twenty months of multi-sited fieldwork (conducted between October 2007 and June 2009), and a combination of ethnographic methodologies with archival material. Based on ethnographic experience and historical analyses, I will argue that documentary filmmaking in India should be regarded as a performative media practice which connects different practitioners and audiences. Furthermore, I will demonstrate that a critical examination of history is necessary to analyse the texture of documentary filmmakers' practice in contemporary India.