Peacock pilgrimage: an ode to India Penny Fowler-Smith Master of Fine Arts by research 2008 College of Fine Arts School of Media Arts University of New South Wales I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the text. I also declare that the intellectual content of this paper is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. ……………………………………………… Penelope Fowler-Smith ………………………………….. Date - 1 - ABSTRACT The project entitled PEACOCK PILGRIMAGE comprises two components: the screenplay for a feature film, entitled Peacock Angel, and an exegesis, which explores the underlying influences on the screenplay. Peacock Angel is the story of a young girl, Deva, who grew up in India with a fascination for peacocks, especially the fictional peacock angel. After a time of isolation as a teenager in the West, she returns to India to reconcile with a tragic past and reconnect with her true longings. India is the place that mends her wounded heart. Within the symbolic realms of the screenplay Deva, as the central character, becomes the peacock ‘goddess’. Her journey allows us to explore layers within the themes of identity, memory and fantasy. The project holds an East/West theme, of disillusionment with Western material values and appreciation of the depth of Indian culture, of “the land where the heart is king”. Field research on the peacock, the key motif of the project, has led me on a journey through India that has been full of synchronicity and given me a particularly rich taste of her timeless culture. The exegesis elaborates on aspects of my journey, on the concepts of synchronicity and pilgrimage, and on the motif of peacock – highlighting its symbolic and mythical meanings. It also situates Peacock Angel within the field of world cinema, in the category of Western films made in India and the genre of magic realism. - 2 - ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project has taken several stops and turns, in particular an extended break for the pregnancy, birth and early life of my daughter, Pia. During that time we also moved to The Netherlands and, later, India. Many thanks to those at COFA who supported this process, especially to my constantly equanimous and cheerful supervisor, Phillip George. Thanks also to those of my family and friends who read my work at various stages, above all to my sister Louise for arranging its printing and many other things back in Sydney. And to my partner, Rob, who remained calm as I tore my hair out in the juggling act of mothering and writing. My deep gratitude goes to the land and heart of India, which has provided the ongoing inspiration and a constant welcome. - 3 - CONTENTS Introduction 5 Synopsis of Peacock Angel 10 Chapter 1 The Peacock Woman 12 Chapter 2 Peacock 28 Chapter 3 Synchronicity, pilgrimage, 36 and the heart Chapter 4 Background to the field 46 Short case study Chapter 5 The script 60 Conclusion 70 Appendix 1 Selected filmography 76 Appendix 2 Peacock & India anecdotes 79 Bibliography 86 - 4 - Introduction - 5 - INTRODUCTION The project entitled PEACOCK PILGRIMAGE comprises two components: the studio art consisting of the screenplay for a feature film, entitled Peacock Angel, and this exegesis, which explores the underlying influences on the screenplay and why I feel committed to make it. The Peacock Angel screenplay has evolved through numerous storyline ideas, but its essence has remained the same since the beginning: Peacock Angel: As an Australian girl growing up in India, Deva forged an uncanny relationship with the peacock, in particular with a fantasy peacock angel. Now nineteen, and after an absence of 7 years, she returns to India to reconcile with her father and a tragic past. Once there her memories and visions, guilt and grief, collide to redefine her identity and mend her wounded heart1. The Peacock Angel project has had a long gestation. The screenplay is set mainly in India. It was the peacock, as symbol and motif, that initiated this project, and thus I devote much of the exegesis to it in one form or another. Much of what has inspired this project has come from my travels and researches in India, what I now call my peacock pilgrimage, and my subjective interpretation of events. For that reason this paper is both self-reflexive and an exploration of the key motif and creative processes. I am a film and video maker. My independent short films and documentaries have covered subjects that range from environmental issues, to domestic violence, to subjects of death and grief, to sexual taboos like female masturbation, bondage and 1 Terms such as ‘heart’ are used loosely in a large variety of texts, and also have multiple meanings. In the context of this exegesis I use the term as follows: heart - one's inmost being; the depths of the soul; the soul, the spirit. (Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edn, 1989) - 6 - discipline and amputee devotees.2 Peacock Angel marks my transition as a writer/director from documentaries and short films to feature films. The scope of this paper is foremost to give insight into the underlying ideas and events that led to the creative project, and not to go into debate about what is current knowledge in the various fields it touches upon. I will not give the background to every concept I introduce, except in cases where I think there is much dispute. For this reason I present some background to the idea of synchronicity in Chapter 3, but, for instance, do not go into Westerners’ projections on India, orientalism, post- colonial theory and the like. There is simply not room here for that. While the peacock is the primary focus of this project, the subject matter also includes representations of India and some of her unique devotional spirituality. What has struck me particularly about this project and its creative process has been the number of cases of ‘synchronicity’, or meaningful coincidences, I have experienced in its research and development. I have also had these types of experiences in creating earlier work, especially At Sea. But never before in my work or life have I experienced quite this frequency of uncanny coincidences, to the point that early on in the research I started to consider that there must be some sort of divine3 intervention, or ‘grace’ at work. For this reason I have devoted the first chapter to a description of the series of experiences and events that have to date fuelled my Peacock Pilgrimage research and development. This first chapter is autobiographical in nature, and thus subjective and personal. I feel all that I have written here is essential as a way of understanding both my 2 See Appendix 1, my reduced filmography, for details on my films mentioned in this paper. As my independent film and video productions rely on obtaining funding from various sources they have been just a part of my work. I’ve also worked extensively as a freelancer in various roles on other film and video projects, and for television as a producer/director. 3 I use the term divine as follows: (D)divine - that which is believed to be the underlying creative and sustaining force in the universe. (Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989) - 7 - ongoing drive to realise this project, and how the more personal trajectories within it have in their own way shaped it. It is a chronicle of connections to the peacock that have occurred in my life with no apparent reason or conscious prompting. They have repeatedly fed my curiosity and kept this project alive. They have also prompted me to explore subjects such as pilgrimage, synchronicity, and a variety of religious and spiritual traditions. The second chapter covers the peacock as symbol. It is the selective result of my research on the peacock as represented in the visual and performing arts, as well as in stories and common beliefs, mostly in India. In it I focus on what has most interested me in terms of writing the Peacock Angel screenplay. The third chapter looks briefly at the concept of synchronicity with the aim of understanding why the sequence of events described in Chapter 1 might have occurred; whether there was something I did unconsciously, or consciously, to set it up, or whether there is simply no explanation to it, scientific or otherwise. Concepts like synchronicity point at the belief in oneness, that all is connected. The chapter leads into a short discussion on pilgrimage, and on India as the “land of the heart”. Chapter 4 looks at where Peacock Angel fits within the field of world cinema. Western films made in India are the focus here, along with the genre of magic realism and a few other categories. Chapter 5 explores issues regarding the screenplay of Peacock Angel. Research on this project, especially on the peacock, has taken many forms. My field research in India resulted in a large variety of references and material, gathered orally. Library research was disappointing, as there is little of value published on the peacock relating to arts and culture. Internet searches also turned up no one who had explored the peacock to the extent that I had.