Metabolisms of the feminist archive & the Nowness of Yugantar
A further research visit in 2017 concentrated on work in progress screenings of Yugantar films at Cividep Bangalore (to union activists), Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore (to film students of Rashmi Sawhney) and at the Women’s Studies Programme at Hyderabad University (to Women’s Studies students). Also further conversations in Bangalore with journalists Ammu Joseph and Srilatha Batliawal who had screened and written about the films during the early 80s, with the sound recordist of all four films G.V. Somashekhar and with members of Maraa: A Media & Arts Collective as well as with Chaya Datar in Mumbai whose research on the tobacco workers unionising had also informed Yugantar’s film work. There were also numerous informal conversations with e.g. diverse audiences of the Experimental Film Festival 2017. These screenings and conversations consolidated the need to restore and make available again Yugantar’s films, drawing on vivid memories of those who had seen the films during the early 80s and those seeing them for the first time or hearing about them and finding contemporary relevance.
The project “Archive ausser sich” (2017-2021) made the material restoration of all Yugantar films possible. Several screenings in Berlin, post-film discussions with Deepa Dhanraj and Abha Baiya and a work in progress presentation of the Yugantar website with Deepa Dhanraj and V Geetha focused on the contemporary relevance and possible future of Yugantar’s films, including reflections on the continuous need to forge solidarities, addressing power structures in movement politics, what it means to go ‘On Strike!’ and the need to take risks.
Metabolisms of the feminist archive and the Nowness of Yugantar (1980-1983)
In: Documentary Now, special issue of Marg, edited by Ravi Vasudevan, 70(1), 2018. pp. 42-49. [1]
“We will screen this to at least 400,000 workers.”
December 2017. A seminar room at Cividep (Bangalore): board members of the Bangalore Garment Labour Union, the Karnataka Domestic Workers Union, Munnade, and Cividep, the filmmaker Deepa Dhanraj and myself. All gathered to watch Tambakoo Chaakila Oob Ali (Tobacco Embers, by Yugantar, 1982, 30min). We struggle with the projector, then decide to watch the film on the small computer screen, 15 people aligning their chairs closely so they can see. The room is only semi dark. The film file is a low res video file attained from filming a 16mm film print, extensively screened in the early 80s, scratched and damaged, off the analog editing table. The atmosphere in the room is exceptionally concentrated for the entire duration of the film, and followed by enthusiastic discussions, astonishment and respect. Everyone expresses their deep admiration for the Nipani female tobacco workers, their dedication to the strike actions that Tambakoo Chaakila Oob Ali followed and enacted, the women’s endurance, the strength and determination in their speeches, the clarity of their demands – 8-hour shifts, regulated lunch breaks, paid overtime, bonus. At the same time, everyone is struck by the state of worker’s rights today: demands are considerably less radical, and it is a challenge to organise workers given the fragmentation of the work-force, composed of migrant labourers from diverse locations, speaking different languages, often under the age of 18, restricted to hostels with poor living conditions.
“Theirs was a traditional strike.”
Tambakoo Chaakila Oob Ali, made in 1982, is viewed like a manual for successful strike action: women workers stuck together day and night, they galvanized workers from close-by factories through physical presence and talking, they did not go home but ate and slept in public spaces for several days, sustained by water, food and blankets provided by the local community. No one questioned the relevance of re-screening this ‘old, scratched, black and white film from another era’; everyone present was keen to get their hands on a copy, preferably in multiple language versions.
“Going on strike! Friendship synergies and the Nowness of Yugantar”
With V. Geetha and Deepa Dhanraj, moderated by Nicole Wolf.
Screening, website presentation and discussion as part of final event of: “Archive ausser sich” as part of “The Whole Life. Archives and Imaginaries”, at House of World Cultures, March 2022
Audio recording of the event can be found here.
[1] In: Documentary Now, special issue of Marg, edited by Ravi Vasudevan, 70(1), 2018. pp. 42-49. PDF
- Solidarities, Restoring documents, Re-projecting past struggles, Collaboration, Nowness of feminist archives, Movement politics, Organizing - Unionising - Mobilizing, Labour struggles, Material demands of film prints
