The Asian 'Committed' Documentary
"Why do documentary filmmakers keep trying to change the world?", asks Jane Gaines, and suggests that the opposite question may well be equally, why do people who want to change the world keep making documentaries?
This lecture is a walk-through using as a catalyst the work of three major Asian filmmakers, all women: Singapore's Tan Pin Pin, India's Deepa Dhanraj and Hong Kong's Tammy Cheung. We will use their work, and their concerns, as a springboard to explore the way the concept of the 'committed' documentary has developed in recent years in Asia. we shall explore a form sometimes turns the famous 'observational mode' of documentary cinema on its head, to produce what Gaines has called a 'political mimesis'.
Texts to read:
Deepa Dhanraj, Geetanjali Misra and Srilatha Batliwala, 'An Action Framework for South Asia'or South Asia', in Joanna Kerr, Ellen Sprenger and Alison Symngton (eds.) The Future of Women's Rights: Global Visions and Strategies, London/New York: Zed Books, 2004, pgs 80-96)
Jane Gaines, 'Political Mimesis', in Jane M. Gaines and Michael Renov (eds), Collecting Visible Evidence, Minneapolis" university of Minnesota Press, 1999, pgs 84-102
Videos to see:
Tammy Cheung, July (2004, 70 minutes)
Tan Pin Pin, To Singapore, With Love (2014, 70 minutes)
Deepa Dhanraj, Something Like a War (2003, 63 minutes)
Extras:
Chris Berry, 'Hong Kong Watcher: Tammy Cheung and the Hong Kong Documentary', in Kam Louie et al (ed) Hong Kong Culture: Word and Image, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010, pgs 213-228
Tan Pin Pin, 'Singapore Ga Ga Tours Singapore', in Tilman Baumgartel ed. Southeast Independent Cinema, Hong Kong: Kong Kong University Press, 2012, pgs 131-139.
Extras:
Chris Berry, 'Hong Kong Watcher: Tammy Cheung and the Hong Kong Documentary', in Kam Louie et al (ed) Hong Kong Culture: Word and Image, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010, pgs 213-228
Tan Pin Pin, 'Singapore Ga Ga Tours Singapore', in Tilman Baumgartel ed. Southeast Independent Cinema, Hong Kong: Kong Kong University Press, 2012, pgs 131-139.
Ashish RAJADHYAKSHA is an independent film and arts scholar and curator. He co-authored the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (with Paul Willemen) in 1994/1999, has written Indian Cinema in the Time of Celluloid: From Bollywood to the Emergency (2009), and curated the film festival You Don't Belong of Indian experimental video, documentary and film (2011).
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