This presentation explores the short film and documentary as a global form that is used to engage and instruct audiences. The history of the genre is inflected by the logics of colonial power, nationalist mobilization, developmental and consumer imaginaries, and cold war agenda. Taking India as a focus, the lecture examines connected and comparative histories, referring to colonial film units and the ‘official’ films of the nation-state period in Africa, South-East Asia, and East Asia, as well as the role of international institutions such as UNESCO and the Technical Cooperation Mission of the USA.
Ravi Vasudevan is a film and media historian. His recent publications include Documentary Now (ed.: 2018) and Media and the Constitution of the Political: South Asia and Beyond (ed.: 2021). He co-founded the screen studies journal Bioscope and, with Ravi Sundaram, directs Sarai, the media research programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
This lecture will take place as a hybrid event at the GHIL and online via Zoom. In order to attend this event, please register via Eventbrite to take part in person or online.
17:30 Uhr