King, Lucia (2012) Performance on screen in India: methods and relationships in non‐fiction film production, 1991‐2011. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/15861 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Performance on screen in India Methods and relationships in non-fiction film production, 1991-2011 Lucia King Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD ‘Research with Practice’ category Year: 2012 Department: Centre for Media and Film Studies School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________ 2 ‘Performance on screen in India; methods and relationships in non-fiction film production, 1991-2011’ Lucia King Abstract This thesis, written by a filmmaker is motivated to discover why a relatively high proportion of filmmakers from India since the 1990’s, have chosen ‘marginal traditional performance cultures’ as a documentary film topic. Examples of the cultures being investigated in the films are the (African-Indian) Sidis of Gujarat, the Punjabi Sufi musicians, the poet-saint Kabir’s followers and the Baul bards of Bengal. Being foremost an examination of the methods and strategies of authorship applied by the filmmakers, it reviews works by Rahul Roy, R.V. Ramani, Nirmal Chander, Madhusree Dutta, Rajula Shah, Shabnam Virmani and Ajay Bhardwaj. A wider scope of filmmakers is called upon to indicate key developments in Indian experimental non-fiction cinema from the 1960’s to the present. The thesis is simultaneously an auto-ethnography of my own methods as a filmmaker when producing a film based on a Maharashtran pilgrimage of the Warkari (pilgrims) included with this document on DVD. Here, I sought a similar topic and set of working conditions as my Indian peers, the project becoming a comparator to their experience. Whilst my research informants and their contextual history lie in the field of documentary, my position in writing this text is an artist-filmmaker who is learning from, and critically appraising their practices. Textual analysis, the practical experience of filming in India and the gathering of testimonies from the filmmakers are the main modes of inquiry, each offering unique possibilities of discovery. This project forges an interdisciplinary discourse between film studies, performance and cultural theory pertaining to India. The encounter on the film set 3 between filmmakers and filmed subjects is taken as a key nexus of observation, assessing how the social relationships and agents in production contribute to film genre. Also questioned is the value being attributed to the ‘traditional’ cultural groups by the filmmakers. Filmmaking is considered holistically through a complex prism of religious, political and social motivations that dovetail with creative industry demands. Specific modes of filmmaking are identified as revealing how their authors situate both themselves and the traditional artists within cultural and film discourses of the last two decades. Synopsis and viewing instructions of the enclosed DVDs Synopsis of The Warkari Cycle (2011) Shot, directed and edited by the author, this video installation was originally designed for art gallery exhibition. It is also the practical component of this thesis. It is a music and dance driven work consisting of one 48-minute film (see The Warkari Cycle, Disc 1 enclosed) and three short films Tukaram’s Dance, Pandharpur Photo Booth and Vitthal’s Line (on Disc 2). It documents the Warkari, a community of around one million citizens of Maharashtra (and beyond) during their annual pilgrimage in 2010 across the rural Solapur district, celebrating the 800 year-old legacy of medieval Bhakti (Hindu) saints. Rather than offering an informational commentary, the films immerse the viewer into the event itself. Each of the eight vignettes in the long film explores one environment of the pilgrimage as a living choreography, sensing out locations that bind the pilgrims to this re-enactment. From the mass dances at the temple of the saint, Tukaram, to the small gatherings around singing bards (or vaghyas) dedicated to the cult of Khandoba, the pilgrimage is traced in many diverse tributaries. The short films show individual testimonies of pilgrims speaking about the significance of this event in their own words. 4 Viewing conditions Since viewers are likely to view this work on a desktop or home video device, the following describes its planned screening design. The main element of the installation (the 48-minute film) is projected onto a screen of 3.75m by 2.80m set at 25cm above floor level (lending the effect of being able to walk into the screen). The blacked-out room is furnished with minimal bench seating. The film was shot in 3:4 (aspect ratio) to accommodate the possibility of screening it in galleries in India or the UK where no wide-screen projection equipment is available. The projection runs on a continuous loop from a DVD player or laptop. The screening room has an entrance- exit whereby viewers may remain present with the video installation in their own time, either viewing all eight of the vignettes (before the cycle repeats) or just one or two. The short films have been designed to be screened at the same time in a corridor or anteroom leading into the main projection room (as above). Each film plays back on a wall-mounted monitor running on a loop, equipped with its own sets of headphones. The rationale behind these two distinct screening formats is that the longer film has an epic quality: we see the pilgrimage as a compilation of mass dances and ritual activities mostly framed in slow, wide angle shots. The sort films are presented in an intimate fashion where the viewer has a one-to-one relationship with the subjects on screen (listening to their testimonies on the headphones). The installation also has the potential of being presented in other site-specific forms. For example, a film festival screening of The Warkari Cycle was tested out at SOAS (University of London) in November 2011. I have commented on this in Chapter 5 (page 232). I also intend returning in future to screen this project at the pilgrimage in Maharashtra itself, projecting it onto the side of a truck that the pilgrims 5 use to transport their supplies. The Warkari are accustomed to seeing large-scale photographic posters of religious themes on the side of their vehicles, so a film screening would not seem alien in this context and would be instructive from an audience perspective. These examples are important to mention as some of the many ways in which The Warkari Cycle can be re-imagined. 6 Acknowledgements I will begin with the many filmmakers that I would like to thank for sharing their films and providing vital interviews and ongoing conversations that have formed the main spine of this research. They have also been personally generous in offering copies of their works and extending invitations to screenings and conferences within this vibrant professional community. These filmmakers are Paromita Vohra, Madhusree Dutta, Surabhi Sharma, Pankaj Rishi Kumar, Sankalp Meshram, Anjali Punjabi, Kumar Shahani, Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar (all based in Mumbai). Also Gurvinder Singh (in Pune), Deepa Dhanraj and Shabnam Virmani (Bangalore), Ajay Bhardwaj, Rahul Roy, Saba Dewan, Shikha Jhingan and Nirmal Chander (Delhi) and R.V. Ramani (Chennai). Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasanker were in addition my institutional hosts during a short residency at the Tata Institute, Centre for Media and Cultural Studies in 2010. I am particularly grateful to the filmmakers Rajula Shah and Arghya Basu based in Pune with whom a more sustained connection also led to a production partnership during my shooting of the video installation, The Warkari Cycle. Under moments of considerable pressure, they have been generous in sharing networks, professional advice and defending artistic concerns. The film distributor of Magic Lantern (New Delhi), Gargi Sen offered a valuable opportunity to showcase my work during the Persistence/Resistance; Documentary Practices from India Conference/Festival in November 2011, bringing together working partnerships with colleagues across four London universities. Some additional people to thank are the folklorist Dr. Molly Kaushal, the film historian, Gayatri Chatterjee, the musician Mukhtiyar Ali, and the curator and film studies scholar, Nicole Wolf. 7 I warmly thank my film production team in India, Uma Tanuku (Production Manager), Ketaki Desai (Marathi to English Translator), Prem Mishra (Camera Assistant) and Sushant Arora (2nd Camera Assistant) and in the UK, Morgan Davies (Sound Editor) and Margaret Dickinson (Editing Consultant). For financial support towards the fieldwork and film, I thank the Central Research Fund, University of London and The British Council in India.