India
India Delegation
March 25–April 12
Delegate Expert: Tom White
Filmmaker: Tom Shepard
Cities: Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai
Delegate Report
by Tom Shepard
Executive Summary
Everywhere we traveled, we saw signs of a country on the move, on the build. Often, this life force stands in stark contrast to the extreme poverty and strain on resources that can jar middle class or affluent Western eyes. From Delhi and Kolkata (two enormous and extraordinarily populated cities) to the information and technology-rich Hyderabad to the intellectual and academic hub of Pune, the pace of life in India spins the heads of its first-time visitors. But the enthusiasm we encountered, particularly among students, faculty, and journalists, was hugely stimulating and inspiring. Using documentary as an occasion for dialogue on a number of issues—education, science, religion, gender, class, poverty, censorship, and access to funding and distribution of film and art—we were able to dig deeply below the surface and speak candidly, often intimately, with each other. I hope our visits added to the resources of information that Indians are utilizing in their own filmmaking and journalism. I know their participation left me with new and invaluable knowledge on many topics, not to mention heaps of goodwill, which will surely inform my perspective not only as a filmmaker but also as a world citizen.
March 25–31: Delhi
Bengal Post
The first smells and tastes of India’s capital city (good and bad) begin to heighten all the senses. As an American who has traveled mostly in Europe and Latin America, I’m keenly aware of how new and different this environment feels. We couldn’t help but notice the security detail at our hotels. Since the Mumbai bombings in 2008, hotels that cater to Western visitors have, in some ways, come to resemble the American Green Zone in Iraq. One challenge of this heightened security was getting ourselves off the grid and into the streets to experience life more locally. Fortunately, our colleagues at the American Center helped by organizing workshops and trips to schools off the beaten path and to community centers doing grassroots work, as well as screenings at local theaters and venues.
Our visit to Delhi happened to coincide with the World Cup of Cricket semifinal match between India and Pakistan (and later in Kolkata, the final between India and Sri Lanka in which India prevailed as world champions.) Our instant immersion into the game of cricket, not to mention “cricket diplomacy (the Prime Minister of India invited the Pakistani Prime Minister to sit in his box to watch the ten-hour game),” allowed us to quickly plug into India’s cultural psyche. Many taxi drivers, waiters, journalists and new friends helped us understand the importance of cricket in unifying India’s enormous populace.
Unfortunately, though, between India’s passion for cricket and the frequent tendency for Indians to go on strike, some of our audiences in Delhi and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) were subdued. At one school, the Asian Academy of Film and Television, the entire student body went on strike the morning of our arrival—in large part because our visit had been scheduled well in advance of the India-Pakistan cricket match that was happening at the same time. In their stead, the school’s faculty hosted an immersive workshop with us on filmmaking and documentary, which received regional press.
Tom Shepard and Tom White speak at the Asian School of Media Studies organized by American Center Deputy Director Lydia Barazza
At another film and technology institute, the Madhubala Institute for Communication and Electronic Media, we screened my film Whiz Kids to students of film and video and fielded a number of questions about documentary filmmaking, fundraising, and the state of science education in India and the United States.
Perhaps most interestingly, though, was the beginning of a conversation we would have throughout our travels in India: “What kind of censorship do we face as documentary filmmakers in the US?” As we probed this discussion, it became clear: the issue of censorship is fraught in India, especially among younger students and filmmakers, who are beginning to see documentary as a means of questioning public policies and challenging the status quo. While we discussed how some films might be more or less difficult to fund in the US, our Indian colleagues underscored how in India, documentary has historically been primarily a bullhorn for the government, which capitulates to the style and form of the dry, boring, newsreel program.
India’s fear of and distaste for controversy can often lead to overt censorship of films and books, as evidenced by the recent American biography of Mohandas Gandhi, Joseph Lelyveld’s Great Soul, which the government banned when we were there. These conversations were invigorating as we discussed how one form of social issue documentary filmmaking in the US has a history of representing minority viewpoints and how the form has directly helped effect social and political change in the US.
Middle School Students in Delhi attend an ADS screening of Whiz Kids
One private secondary school we visited, Modern School, Barakhamba, had some technical problems with its projector, so rather than screen work, Tom White and I used the time to engage the students directly and discuss how to make a documentary film. The timing was perfect as the student body was about to go into production on its first documentary, about 100 years of Delhi history. Though shy at first, the students began shouting out answers and questions by the end.
The following day, we presented Whiz Kids at the American Center in Delhi to approximately 200 middle-school students, many of whom expressed interests in science and math. The Q&A was engaging and focused largely on the aspirations of the three Whiz Kids subjects, how they overcame their obstacles and what they are doing today. The energy of these Indian youngsters was infectious. We felt invigorated as we boarded our plane (flying within India is superbly easy and cheap) to our second stop, Kolkata.
March 31–April 3: Kolkata
Local Bengalis sometimes take offence to Kolkata’s overriding reputation as a “ground zero” for poverty, hunger, and homelessness in South Asia. This is the community in which the famed Mother Theresa set up a convent to feed and house those in extreme need.
Beyond this notoriety, Kolkata prides itself on being one of the intellectually advanced regions of India. Bengalis have a long tradition of academic, artistic, and scientific advancement. Tom and I stayed downtown on Park Street, which was accessible to all the local charms and challenges: the myriad street vendors, office workers, auto-rickshaw taxis and homeless people, among many others. Walking down the street was a kaleidoscopic experience, like a constantly changing AM radio dial, transmitting the blare of voices, accents, and languages. Almost everything is adorned with religious iconography in India, whether you are in a church or post office. Kolkata was a cogent reminder of how much religion is intertwined with the intense rhythms of everyday life.
Our first screening at a historic downtown theatre—the Eastern Zonal Cultural Center—was a bust, with no more than 25 attendees despite much promotion and publicity. The discussion we had with our colleagues at the American Center underscored how difficult it is to capture the public’s attention around documentary film in India. The perception of documentary as “good for you,” or flat-out government propaganda, is only now slowly giving way to exciting new trends of documentary as engaging in content and narrative in form. Fortunately, our other visits in Kolkata revealed the latter.
Our workshop at the NSHM Institute of Media & Communication in southern Kolkata allowed us to screen clips from a number of American documentaries, including Whiz Kids and my other films (Scout’s Honor, Knocking and The Grove) as well as other AmDoc Showcase films such as Which Way Home, and clips from non-Showcase films (Under Our Skin, Lion in the House, etc.) The class of nearly 100 was intensely engaged. Several students discussed their own documentary in progress about sexual harassment in their neighborhood. Together, we strategized about ways of capturing multiple perspectives, including filming male police officers and officials who declined to participate. Once again, questions about content and censorship provoked our discussions. Dozens of students came up after our workshop bubbling with questions and ideas about their own projects, some of which clearly tackled controversial and socially radioactive issues. Our hosts then gave us a tour of the impressive TV and film facilities and adorned us with flowers, gifts, and sweets. This type of hospitality was always first-rate and genuine. Tom and I often turned to each other in, somewhat humbled over how undeserving we felt of such regal treatment.
Tom White with Indian Journalists in Kolkata
One of our most engaging sessions was at the American Center, where our colleagues organized a salon with about 30 Indian journalists and local filmmakers. Perhaps the most poignant memory of the sessions was a screening of a documentary by two Indian brothers entitled In For Motion, an arresting visual essay about the impact of information technology on India and the tension between modernity and tradition. Though In For Motion received numerous accolades at film festivals abroad, it has barely found an audience in its own backyard. The discussion afterwards allowed us to hear directly from Indian filmmakers who are largely choosing documentary as a career and the supreme challenges they have in funding and exhibiting their films in India. The screening led to a discussion of how US documentary filmmakers have time and time again banded together into groups and cooperatives (like New Day Films, an organization I’ve been part of for 12 years and which has brought together documentary makers for 40 years) to help move the form forward. Discussing alternatives to government funding and broadcast led to a robust dialog about how filmmakers can join forces, demanding the attention of distributors and commissioning editors locally and abroad, much the way independent documentary makers came together and inspired the creation of ITVS (Independent Television Service) in the US.
Feeling invigorated and more educated about the state of affairs for documentary makers in Kolkata, we boarded a flight to Hyderabad, home of one of India’s “Silicon Valleys.”
April 3–7: Hyderabad
Our workshops and screenings in Hyderabad were diverse, engaged, and extremely well attended. The visit went off like gangbusters. Our audiences included middle-class students from a local science and math high school, working-class men attending a vocational film institute as they pursue a second career, arts and media devotees, and journalists interested in environmental issues.
Screening WHIZ KIDS at a Science/Math High School in Hyderabad
I was personally thrilled to present Whiz Kids to Kendriya Vidyalaya, a science and math-focused high school; I was curious to hear the thoughts and feelings of young students in India about their own aspirations as young scientists. Indeed, the film led to a wonderful and intimate conversation about education, mentors, and passion for science and education. At one point, I couldn’t contain my tears as I heard students share their own passions for their school while observing the respectful and nourishing relationships between teachers and students. The superintendent of the school district and the school’s principal attended the screening and brought a lot of wisdom to our discussion, reiterating the school’s goals of nurturing passion as well as specific analytical skills. Tom and I felt a bit like rock stars at the end as students bombarded us with requests for photos and autographs, gave us gifts, and asked questions about our beauty secrets and hair styles. Would that more Americans idolized documentary filmmakers (and their beauty) in this way!
Equally moving was a workshop we did at Telugu University for 25 working-class men seeking new careers in film and video. While Hindi and English are spoken throughout India, these men spoke the local language, Telugu. I know our English must have seemed fast and furious to these men, yet they sat on the edges of their seats absorbing every word they could decipher. We gave an abbreviated version of our workshop: how to develop, fund, produce, shoot, edit, and distribute documentaries. At the end, these students and their teacher, a recent resident of Los Angeles returning home to Hyderabad, chatted for a long time about their interests in film and the possibilities for supporting each other in making documentaries.
Tom and I presented the AmDoc Showcase titles King Corn and Big River at the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce to an audience of journalists interested in environmental issues. The issue of water contamination in the region is enormous, as local industry has been polluting aquifers in an all-out surge of development in the area. Journalists ranted about how difficult it is to broadcast stories about environmental degradation to a wide audience and how few people know about the intense harms being inflicted on the land and its inhabitants. We discussed the increasing number of American documentaries dealing with health and the environment, from blockbusters such as Super Size Me and An Inconvenient Truth, to lesser known films about mountaintop removal, water rights, and soil erosion.
Our final night in Hyderabad was a salon held at a charming outdoor facility attended by mostly devotees of the arts. Tom and I showed a number of clips of American documentaries, giving a taste of diverse films and documentary approaches to various issues. Then for more than an hour and a half, we participated in a Q&A with the audience members, answering their questions about American and Indian documentaries. Afterwards, we exchanged business cards and made connections, as did the various filmmakers and artists with each other, something I found very heartening. One young man opened up his laptop on the spot and showed me gorgeous footage he had shot this past year. Having little business experience, he asked how he could plug into larger projects. I introduced him to Salil Kader, Cultural Affairs Specialist from the American Center, and several other filmmakers who’d approached me after our workshop. He e-mailed me several days later to say he’d connected with some of these more experienced filmmakers. His enthusiasm, talents, and genuine warmth were typical of so many individuals whom we met in India and gave real meaning to every one of our visits.
April 7–10: Pune
The oldest and most prestigious film school - The Film and Television Institute of India - in Pune
Our last stop. This visit was organized by the American Center in Mumbai, but rather than organizing screenings and workshops its own city, the center chose Pune, a city three hours away that boasts the largest and oldest film school and archives in the country. We thought this was a great choice, especially given that more resources for documentary already exist in Mumbai. This was an unusual opportunity to engage with film students, faculty, and journalists in one of India’s academic hubs.
First off, we held a press conference at the office of the Pune Union of Working Journalists. I couldn’t believe it, but more than 25 journalists—mostly newspaper reporters— attended to cover the visit of a documentary filmmaker and expert in India. This coverage also generated great publicity for screenings of Whiz Kids, No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos, Bronx Princess, Body and Soul: Diana and Kathy, and A Village Called Versailles, all AmDoc Showcase titles that were presented at the Film and Television Institute of India (the oldest and possibly most prestigious film school in the country), the National Film Archive of India, and the Maharashtra Cultural Center, a community facility.
A film student splices on a Moviola at the Film and Television Institute in India
The films were a hit, and attendance increased at every screening. No Subtitles Necessary was a favorite of young film students who related to the film’s subjects—talented Hollywood cinematographers—and their creative impulses to buck tradition. Serendipitously, a young first-generation African-American woman raised in the Bronx of New York—an exchange student from State University of New York, Purchase— happened to attend the screening of Bronx Princess. We invited her to participate in the Q&A, since the film’s subject largely mirrored her own life and experiences. Surreally, the audience was able to engage the subject through this young woman’s stories. It couldn’t have been a better Q&A as the film also raised a number of issues about Indians who immigrate to the U.S. (and about those who then return to India). The following day, our screening of A Village Called Versailles equally inspired the audience to discuss the complications of democracy in the US and the power of community to empower itself through the political process. At all three sites, we were also given tours of the film school, film labs and archives as part of our visit.
Thank You and Final Thoughts
Tom White with the staff of the American Center in Mumbai in Pune
I’ve never been treated so warmly, respectfully, and with such thoughtful and gracious hospitality as I was on my visit to India as part of the American Documentary Showcase. The folks at the American Centers—Lydia Barazza, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer, Ayesha Gideon, Program Manager, Anne Seshadri, American Center Director and their colleagues in Delhi; in Kolkata: Sameek Ghosh, Cultural Affairs Assistant, and Scott Hartmann, Deputy Director, and their colleagues; in Hyderabad: Salil Kader, Cultural Affairs Specialist, Phalguna Hari Jandhyala, Media Advisor, and Liz Jones, Deputy Public Affairs Officer; and in Mumbai: Swati Patel, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer, Ajmal Palakal, Cultural Affairs Specialist, and Ketan Vaidya, Press Advisor—all did an outstanding job of coordinating our trips but even more importantly, building partnerships with local schools, universities, film organizations, and community groups to make these visits meaningful for all parties.
Tom Shepard and Tom White are thanked by the Director of the Asian School of Media Studies in Delhi
It was especially exciting to feel the infectious energy, talent and enthusiasm of younger Indian film students who—we could intuit—were giving the prospect of documentary filmmaking a real chance. Given the tall shadow that Bollywood casts on Indian society, this nascent interest and passion for documentary filmmaking is being seeded in an exciting way right now in the nation. By creating venues and events in which young aspiring filmmakers and their friends, faculty, and colleagues can connect with each other, the American Centers have created something even more valuable than the actual workshops and screenings Tom and I presented: They have helped foster a growing community of documentary filmmakers and documentary-minded filmgoers and journalists.
Finally, the chance to use documentary as a way to converse and interact with each other about issues that our countries face, alone and together, really inspired me and ignited my own intellectual curiosity. I can’t wait to return with new and fresh ideas.
Thank you to the AmDocs staff—Joan Von Herrmann and Betsy McLane, in particular for your help in the US. Also thanks to Peter Eisenhauer, First Secretary, Cultural Affairs, and Rajinder Chopra in Delhi for making these visits possible. Lastly, thanks to Tom White. What a great travel-mate you were. I enjoyed the experience, the meals, the co-presenting, and most of all, the riotous laughing at the end of long days.
Delegate Report
By Tom White
Executive Summary
India is one-third the size of the United States, yet its population is more than four times greater. Such a staggering disproportion calls into question how such a nation could sustain itself. But India is full of conundrums, contradictions, and complications: Its history is steeped in both spirituality and sectarian violence. It has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, yet 37 percent of its citizenry lives below the poverty line. Modernity and tradition make for strange bedfellows, but this ongoing friction propels India forward as a major player on the global stage.
I cannot begin to succinctly describe India, but imagine a crowded street in any of India’s bursting-out-of-the-seams cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata)—teeming with SUVs, rickshaw taxis, bicycle carts, horse-drawn carts, pedestrians, elephants and cows vying for position, seemingly oblivious of traffic lanes, or even traffic laws. For a foreigner, happening upon this urban intensity for the first time is akin to landing in the middle of multidimensional, high-octane video game.
India also boasts the largest cinema industry in the world, but Bollywood has not spread its largesse around—particularly to the documentary community, which, despite attracting the attention of international commissioning editors and festival programmers, has not been strongly nurtured in its own country. The usual channels for distribution—theaters, television and home video—have shown little interest in showcasing nonfiction at a consistent, high-profile level. Until the 1980s, theaters would screen newsreel-type, government-sponsored documentaries prior to commercial fare, and that’s how mainstream Indian audiences perceive nonfiction media today. With regard to television, there is no Indian equivalent to PBS or HBO that demonstrates a firm commitment to the documentary form, although Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and BBC do have a presence. But despite the rich tradition of Indian cinema, from Satyajit Ray to Aswan Patwardan, documentaries in India have borne the unfortunate stigma of being medicinal and boring—not cinematic, entertaining, educational, or illuminating.
Nonetheless, there is a small, but passionate and progressive legion of documentary makers and aficionados in India who are energized about their work—and committed to keeping it going, getting it out there and, in the process, maintaining a livelihood.
Over the course of 19 days, traveling to five cities, filmmaker Tom Shepard and I conducted workshops, presented screenings, led discussions, and engaged in conversations with a multicultural and multigenerational cross-section of students (representing a range that extended from middle schools to continuing education facilities), filmmakers, educators, archivists, and journalists. To make this all possible, the indefatigable staffs at the American Centers in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Mumbai created dynamic programs that helped to forge partnerships with various constituents.
The range of documentaries that we screened enabled us to discuss not only the art and business of nonfiction media but also a variety of subjects, from democracy and the environment to poverty and racial and cultural identity. From the contacts that Tom and I made, we believe that we reinforced what we’ve always believed: that documentaries can make a difference, as art and as journalism, and above all as a means of cultural diplomacy.
Detailed Report
March 25–31: Delhi
We arrived at the stately Le Meridien hotel, which was surrounded by barbed wire and concrete barriers and highlighted by security checks for both cars and pedestrians (the reality of the post-Mumbai attacks—commonly referred to as 26-11).
Every night over dinner, Tom and I would prepare for the series of workshops and presentations that lay ahead of us. Our first stop: the Madhubala Institute of Communication and Electronic Media. Our guides were Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer Lydia Barraza and Program Manager Ayesha Gideon. We screened Tom’s Whiz Kids, which follows a trio of high school students as they prepare for the Intel Science Competition. The film provoked a lively discussion about the filmmaking process, funding, and science education in the US.
Although technical difficulties at the Modern School (a middle school) thwarted the screening the next day, this glitch opened up an opportunity for Tom and me to tailor our discussion of documentaries to a younger age group. We talked about the different genres of documentaries and the process of making them, but, as we always stated before every group we worked with, we wanted to learn as much from the students as they could learn from us. And, given that they were in the process of making a documentary about the 100th anniversary of Delhi as the capital of India, we had many questions: Where were they conducting research? Who were they interviewing? What kind of questions were they asking? What will the film look like? What kind of music will they use? This was a young audience, and a very engaged one.
Cricket is the national passion of India, second only to Bollywood, and during our trip, that passion was at a fever pitch because India was hosting the sport’s World Cup. But first it had to get past Pakistan in the semifinals—a match with obvious political resonance in the lingering wake of the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. But “cricket diplomacy” carried the day; the Prime Minister of India invited his Pakistani counterpart to attend the match, and they sat side by side to watch India win its semifinal.
I mention cricket because the India-Pakistan match happened to coincide with our scheduled screening and discussion at the Asian Academy of Film and Television, and the students, not about to miss out on a history-making match, opted to go on strike. Undaunted, we presented our program to the faculty, many of whom had made documentaries. We screened clips from Whiz Kids and devoted a major part of our discussion to fundraising, distribution, and marketing.
We spent our last day in Delhi at the American Center, screening Whiz Kids to an auditorium full of middle-school students, who steered the discussion toward education, and particularly science and math. They especially wanted to know about the characters in the film and what they were doing now. But Tom and I were particularly struck by the generous reception we received from the kids, who afterwards surrounded us for our autographs, and the adults, who showered us with flowers and gifts. All this for talking about what we loved to do! The American Center staff also expressed its gratitude for having documentaries as part of its offerings, to complement the mainstream Hollywood fare that draws the crowds.
March 31–April 3: Kolkata (formerly Calcutta)
Kolkata preceded Delhi as the capital of India; it’s now the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Our colleagues at the American Center—Program Manager Sameek Ghosh and Deputy Director Scott Hartmann—explained to us that Kolkata is renowned as the cultural, literary, and intellectual center of India.
Our first event, the inauguration of the American Documentary Film Festival at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Center (actually, a stately old theater despite its bureaucratic-sounding name), drew a scant 25 people for a screening of Whiz Kids. But for Tom and me, this was another opportunity to engage in a more intimate conversation about the state of documentary in India.
Many of the journalists and filmmakers in attendance at the theater joined us the next day at the American Center—a total of 30 showed up—where we continued the discussion and showed clips from various films. The morning took an unexpected turn when two Indian brothers, Anirban and Amian Datta, presented their film in for motion, a cinematic essay about the struggle between rapid growth and modernity and the sociocultural traditions that have defined and grounded India. We were impressed with the film, which has garnered awards, accolades, and funding outside of India, but in their home country, the filmmakers can’t get people to see it, much less air it or screen it.
We talked about the power of social networking to mobilize a community, and cited such tools as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as cost-efficient means to harness that energy. We also discussed Kickstarter, which hasn’t reached India yet, and how crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing are now givens in a filmmaker’s fundraising strategy.
In addition, we cited online communities for documentary filmmakers, such as DocuLink, The D-Word and the International Documentary Association. Tom touted New Day Films, which formed in the 1970s as a collective when general interest in and support for documentary was not sufficient to sustain a distribution and marketing infrastructure. The passion for growing a documentary movement is there, and hopefully, the audience at the American Center and elsewhere appreciated our suggestions enough to take action. As evident from the e-mail and Facebook messages we received in the wake of our various visits, we were making a small difference.
That evening, we visited the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute—named, of course, for India’s greatest filmmaker—and we screened the unofficial world premiere of Tom’s latest film, The Grove, which he produced. The Grove focuses on the debate that arose in San Francisco about creating a memorial to the victims in the AIDS pandemic. The students responded to the cinematography and storytelling, but also to the democratic process intrinsic in the film, and how it can be messy and contentious, but, in the end, sensible.
We presented a four-hour workshop at the NSHM Institute of Media & Communication, in which we took the students through the process of filmmaking, showing clips from Whiz Kids and Which Way Home, as well as from other non-AmDoc Showcase films such as Lion in the House, Under Our Skin, Scout’s Honor and Knocking. We also talked about the business side of production, as well as a subject that came up often on our journey: Censorship, which, depending on how you look at it, can be an obstacle or a boon. One of the teachers pointed out that Arnan Patwardan’s films are always banned by the government—and consequently everybody wants to see them. Tom and I differed a bit on the extent of censorship in the U.S., but we both agreed that, by and large, criticism of government policy and actions prevails in the spirit of free expression. The students shared their ideas for documentaries they were working on, some of which were potentially controversial in challenging the status quo.
We were energized by this dialogue, and although we could have stayed another four hours—the workshop was originally slated for a full day—cricket trumped all: The World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka would captivate the nation for the next ten hours. And India prevailed.
April 3–7: Hyderabad
A center for both film and computer technology, Hyderabad is a relatively small city, compared to Delhi and Kolkata; its population of 4 million would make it the second largest city in the U.S.
The American Center representatives—Acting Public Affairs Officer Elizabeth Jones, Cultural Affairs Specialist Salil Kader, and Media Advisor Phalguna Hari Jandhyala—created and organized a diversified program, in which we interacted with students from high school, university, and an adult education facility, as well as with journalists and independent filmmakers.
First stop: the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce, where an audience of 30 filmmakers and journalists gathered to watch and discuss King Corn and its sequel, Big River, both of which address environmental issues such as sustainability and the downside of agribusiness. A spirited discussion followed about how these issues play out in India, and how social-issue documentaries can be effective in bringing about change. But mainly we were continuing to spread the gospel about documentary: that it is entertaining, artful and, yes, educational.
This spirit carried over the next day—to the University of Hyderabad School of Performing Arts and Communication, where, in presenting our now well-honed workshop, we provoked talks about censorship and other topics such as ethics.
I have to differ from my esteemed colleague, Tom, about the outcome of our second workshop of the day, at Telegu University. Our friends at the American Center had briefed us that this would be their first official visit to this facility, that they were at first skeptical that this was the right audience—working-class men attending a continuing education class in film—for an AmDoc Showcase program. Well, we soldiered through our workshop, despite a series of technological mishaps, a language barrier—the participants’ primary language was Telegu—and the fact that the students’ teacher—and our de facto intermediary—arrived an hour late. I wasn’t sure if we were reaching the students, or if we should have been a bit more rudimentary in our delivery, but the participants seemed to appreciate what we offered, and by the end, with the help of their teacher, we were all engaged in a reasonably lively conversation.
The next day, we screened Whiz Kids to an eager group of science teachers and their students at Kendriya Vidyalayas—a high school under the auspices of the Ministry of Human Resources Development. The experience was moving and inspiring for all of us; the post-screening discussion focused not only on science and environmental issues, but also on the value of education, teachers and mentors, and of maintaining a passion and drive to achieve one’s goals. While I doubt that many of the students there would pursue nonfiction filmmaking as a career, the documentary form was an effective catalyst for a meaningful dialogue about larger issues.
Our final stop in Hyderabad was a multi-disciplinary outdoor arts facility that attracted what I sensed was the hipper element of Hyderabad—filmmakers, festival programmers, composers, writers, journalists, and painters. At this vital event, we touched on many of the themes of our workshops—fundraising, social media, crowd-funding, censorship, and distribution. But mainly we sensed that this was the constituent—young, passionate, driven, creative, progressive—that could mobilize the documentary community in India in a vibrant, 21st century way.
April 7–11: Pune, Mumbai
Pune, located about three hours east of Mumbai, is probably the most manageable and accessible of the cities we visited, with its tree-lined, less densely populated streets. Its distance from Mumbai—home of the legendary Bollywood—is close enough to feel its influence, yet far enough away for Pune to forge its own identity as a center for cinematic study and production training. The Film and Television Institute of India is renowned throughout Asia as well as in Europe, and the National Film Archive of India preserves the country’s cinematic treasures and acts as the primary disseminator of film culture throughout the country.
Our colleagues at the American Center in Mumbai—Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer Swati Patel, Cultural Affairs Specialist Ajmal Palakal and Press Advisor Ketan Vaidya—joined us in Pune, where they set up a press conference for Tom and me at the Pune Union of Working Journalists. The well-attended conference generated significant press in the local and national newspapers, which was a pleasant surprise for a cultural diplomacy program.
The publicity helped bring in audiences for screenings at the aforementioned Institute and Archive, as well as the Maharashtra Cultural Center; we screened Whiz Kids, No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos, Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy, Bronx Princess and A Village Called Versailles. Each screening generated discussions that veered off in pleasantly surprising directions.
For No Subtitles Necessary, which addresses the immigrant experience in the US through the perspectives of cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmund, the conversation at the Institute focused on the art of cinematography, which, through the ample clips and incisive commentary in the film, inspired many in the audience to rethink their craft. Bronx Princess, which tells the story of a young African-American woman born of Ghanaian parents and her struggles to reconcile her African heritage with her American identity, piqued the interest of one audience member—an African-American woman from the Bronx, born of Caribbean parents. Who would have imagined that 9,000 miles from home, she would have happened upon a film that, as she put it, told her story? We invited her up on stage, as well as Swati Patel, who was born in India, but who spent most of her life in the US. Soon enough, we had a lively impromptu panel about heritage, identity, and multiculturalism in the US and the sociocultural differences between American-born or raised Indians and native Indians.
From there, we flew back to Mumbai, and the next day I embarked on a 24-hour odyssey back to the US.
Closing Thoughts
Documentary is under-supported and under-appreciated in India, yet, in a nation of 1.2 billion, the small but passionate community of documentary makers has the potential to harness their energy and creativity and, through the social media mechanisms that continue to make this world smaller and faster, share their work with the international community. The best documentaries that I saw exuded that frenzied clash between modernity and tradition and resonated like the best contemporary Indian novels, such as The White Tiger and The God of Small Things.
Through our work with the American Documentary Showcase, we reached a diverse cross-section of audiences, and we believe that they came away with a deeper appreciation for documentary as art and as an instigative tool for social change. That said, I salute the dedicated and gracious staffs at the American Centers in Delhi (especially Peter Eisenhauer and Rajinder Chopra for coordinating the delegation with their colleagues around India), Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, who created such a dynamic itinerary for Tom and me; and Susan Cohen at the US State Department and Betsy McLane and Joan Von Herrmann at the AmDoc Showcase for managing logistics and administrative matters from on high.
The interactions we had with filmmakers, journalists, and students fortified my commitment to the documentary form. We were there to share our knowledge, wisdom and experience, but we were there to listen and learn as well.
Finally, thanks to Tom Shepard. To make a project like this work, it takes a great team, one that is adaptable, willing to improvise and able to play off each other’s strengths. Through our rigorous planning and development sessions, we created a robust inventory of material from which to draw on our tour. But it was really our shared passion for the form that made a difference in all of our interchanges.