Introduction - On the Fringe: Understanding Alternative and Subversive Media (original) (raw)
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The first decade of the new millennium saw an organic growth of independent and unregulated film collectives in many disparate places; Pedestrian Pictures in Bengaluru, Vikalp in Mumbai (which later spread to Delhi and Bengaluru), VIBGYOR in Thrissur, Cinema of Resistance in Gorakhpur (which later spread to other towns in Uttar Pradesh), Marupakkam in Madurai. In an age when the mode of digital film circulation had significantly dented the rationale of the older variant of film societies, the new variant of film collectives, through innovative screening practices, took films to a diverse range of new audiences. Such non-traditional screening practices were not entirely novel, particularly for documentary films. From its inception, the independent non-fiction film had to rely upon alternate modes of film circulation, as the traditional modes of film distribution were out of bounds in most cases. We would show, through the course of this essay, how the film collectives of the new millennium opened up avenues of critical engagement with the cinematic medium. Though the present is a vibrant and prolific time for the making and screening documentary films in India, but, writings and scholarship on the topic are few and far between. Besides a handful of insightful articles, occasional reviews and interviews, not many serious studies had hitherto been undertaken on the practice and growth of non-fiction cinema in our country. Only very recently, some scholars have begun to address that vacuum. In their recent book, K. P. Jayasankar and Anjali Monteiro (2016) have tried to map the growth and emergence of the independent documentary in India. They have shown how documentary films in India have challenged the commonly held notion of depicting the 'real' on the screen, by exploring complex relationships between the subjects, makers and spectators of the films. Peter Sutoris, in his important and critical work (Sutoris, 2016), has shown how there was both continuity and rupture from the colonial 'sarkari' documentary films to the films made under the banner of the Films Division of India; how films produced by the Films Division had tried to augment the statist logic of 'nation building' by othering crucial points of differences and disagreements that could upset the benevolent posturing of the State. The book also chronicles how some of the moments of protest and disjoint found its way, in the later part of 1960s, in some films