There are some disturbing, but really valid and important questions that people have been asking about the Groundwaterup Project. I think they bring up interesting points, and in trying to answer them I am going to raise some questions they raise for the entire project:
1. What do you suppose ANOTHER film on water has to ADD to the discussion on water?
1. “Water” is a 2/3 of the earth and our bodies-done.
Also, our film is an argument against globalization. Globalization says that the World Bank and other “experts” are the only people who can bring “solutions” to the water crisis. Our film is exploring various peoples’ solutions in Delhi- because experts don’t know what locals know.
Question raised by this question- Can we have peoples’ solutions to state problems?
(Kind of like the discussion with Sarah on our last blog post.)
2. Why don’t they show documentaries in cineplexes? LARGE theatres? To more diverse groups of people?
2. A LOT of people watch documentaries. Even in India the stigma created by boring old TV documentaries is fading away: (examples- Flow, Dirt, Know Your Mushrooms, Goodbye; How Are You, The City Beautiful, Anand Patwardhan and Paromita Vohra’s films, now Age of Stupid). While it would be great to have MORE people watching documentaries, more doesn’t always have to be better. Instead, everyone always has more to learn from and add to a discussion.
Discussions are in themselves useful, whether they’re had by two people or many more. You don’t have to have watched a documentary to discuss the ideas with a friend who has watched it.
Finally, I can imagine it being difficult to show a documentary about peoples’ struggles against a giant corporation in a big cinema, because it would go against the ideology of some documentary film makers. Imagine showing a film about peoples’s struggles against Coke in Plachimida in Kerela, while sipping a coke in a mall that is built over a violated ridge forest in Delhi. And no, even a mall with SOME trees around it cannot replace a forest that once recharged ground water- I don’t care how “developed” it makes us feel, a mall is not a positive change.
Instead, as Shohini Ghosh brought up at the PSBT Feminist Perspectives Film workshop- why not create new spaces for documentary films in Delhi and India, independent theatres, other venues?
I would add- why not reclaim old discussion halls instead of perpetuating globalization destruction by asking for films to be shown in malls?
Also, even if it is a question of money, then getting information of the nature we are hoping to circulate through the medium of film is probably more important than making money through the film in the longer run- although I can understand and empathise with needs and desires to earn a living wage.
Question raised by this question- Showing documentaries to more diverse people- yeah, still a question, but what defines diverse people and who’s struggle needs to be seen by whom and why?
3. Well documentaries are all ok, but what’s the point if the same group of people are going to watch your film?
3. The same small groups of people may watch the same types of films all the time- however-
———different people bring different things to the table…
———having the same group of people watching the same films can be fun because you make friends and create communities that exchange information- and so, why not?
Questions raised by this question- What if a different group of people do watch your film and get a message you didn’t intend to give? Isn’t it dangerous to tell someone about a peoples’ struggle if they are only going to pity the condition of struggle, rather than learn about the strengths of the people fighting it? Can we control perceptions though?
4. Films are just another form of consumption, and over consumption is what causes environmental destruction, so why make a film if you don’t like consumption?
4. I could buy a ticket to watch a documentary …and maybe not buy that kurta/dress I don’t need… I could take a flight to make a documentary…and maybe not take that flight to go on vacation? I can only do as much as I can do- and I will still be living with contradictions.
Questions raised by this question- Who’s to say anyone should either buy a kurta or watch a documentary when it all comes at the cost of people and the environment- if the kurta is in cotton, BT cotton is screwing people over because it’s more water intensive, no? And, don’t they use a lot of water to make cameras and computers?!
Also, who’s to say which option is better– the documentary, the kurta, either flight? What if the dress makes someone happier, and thereby less consumptive in the future? And what if the vacation is the only time someone has to spend with their family?
And finally, WHEN am I/are we going to stop justifying all types of consumption as “human nature”?
I think all I can do at this point is laugh a little at the irony of it all and think of what Saachi said-
“Half of life is figuring out which contradictions you’re willing to live with.” –Savyasaachi
Excellent post, excellent questions, excellent answers! I particularly liked Saachi’s quote.
I have a question about your use of the word ‘globalization’ – how do you define it? Is the film against the phenomenon of globalization in its entirety, or just the neo-liberal agenda/goals of economic globalization?
From my perspective, ‘globalization’ in and of itself is not a bad thing. In particular, I think the globalization/decentralization of communications and the ability to easily disseminate information worldwide is an incredible tool. In fact, an incredible tool to be used to strengthen solidarity, connect people/movements and prevent the silent tragedies wrought by isolated tyranny. While we are all very different people and have very different cultures around the world, many of our struggles are the same. While economic globalization has shrunk the world and screwed many people over, it has had the side effect of bringing us all closer together. We now have an unprecedented connectedness with our brothers and sisters around the globe. When we globally band together and topple the crippling forces of neo-liberal economic policy, I hope that we maintain our world-wide connectivity – our social globalization!
Arthur, I really like the way you explained that. Thanks for bringing it up- globalization in itself isn’t a bad thing- and not EVERYTHING is globalization (sometimes a cellphone is a cellphone, and not globalization- paraphrased, Oliver)…so we don’t need to credit or debit globalization for all good/bad…phew!
I have been a little bitter about how globalization brought me close to people at college, but then split up my world of people with thousands of miles…but it’s globalization when I can keep in touch with distant friends, or read about and meet people in physically distant movements, learn about struggles that would otherwise have been muted, exchange notes on water harvesting- esp. with the people you meet on your project, and as globalization all of these are quite liberating!
Arthur, your points about globalization are right on- all human efforts have their upsides (as Tarni and you point out) and their downsides. For me the issue of globilization as a downside has to do with who is doing it- the IMF, World Bank and other tools of capitalist control and use by those who want increased power over others and the riches of the parcel earth on which they live is the real problem of globalization. This is colonialism in the guise of globalization.
The questions about how to show and who will watch these documentaries is also interesting. We have had a lot experience in the past 5 years showinfgdocumentaries in our homes with small groups of people, some who are simpatico and knowledgable and some who are not yet. The sense of connection and community that is built at these events is invaluable. People often feel isolated and cut off from one another and helpless to know what to do about a problem once they identify it, or identify with it. Small, home based- group showings are very powerful. I can’t wait to have our first fvewing of your film.
We shouldn’t get hung up on numbers- change happens in the heart of each individual first and then…