It was a screening held in solidarity. Six years ago, at a closed jute mill in the Kolkata neighbourhood of Naihati, former workers were holding a protest, demanding their provident fund and gratuity dues. That’s when they were shown a film: Anand Patwardhan’s Occupation: Mill Worker (1996). More than 350 people watched the documentary and animated discussions followed. It was quite a successful first outing for the People’s Film Collective (PFC), encouraging the group to approach various trade unions for future screenings.
Based in Kolkata, this cultural-political collective sees cinema as a powerful tool to reach and inform the oppressed, and seeks to build an alternative grassroots media. It has been influenced by the Third Cinema movement, which swept through Latin America in the 60s and 70s as a protest against what was seen as capitalist and entertainment-oriented cinema.
Since that first screening in 2013, the collective has shown socially relevant, non-mainstream films in some of West Bengal’s remotest locations, in venues ranging from factory compounds to village squares to primary schools. The idea is to provoke discussion and awareness around people’s rights and socio-cultural issues in an audience that otherwise has limited or no access to such media.
Targeted screenings
All screenings are carefully curated, with the location’s history, demographics and politics determining the choice of film. Dwaipayan Banerjee, one of the founding members, says, “Cinema mediates meanings. It matters where and how it is being shown. In the screenings we organise, we have seen that the act of viewing in itself can be transformative because the viewers are often people who can relate to the reality of the film more than their city counterparts.” Feedback forms are regularly distributed afterwards; responses have ranged from short poems to doodles to scribbles.
Though some feature films have been shown, PFC mainly concentrates on documentaries. Kasturi Basu, another founding member, explains, “The films we screen are related to the people and provoke conversations among them about things not easily seen or heard. Also, documentaries are perceived as being primarily for an urban audience. That is a misconception.”
The team at Kolkata People’s Film Festival.
Lively gatherings
There are also monthly screenings in Kolkata, with a conversation with the filmmaker after each screening. The shows — and the discussions — attract academics, activists and students.
When they began in 2014, the monthly screenings would draw an audience of around 40 people; it’s several times that number now. Publicity drives have played their part, with thousands of emails being sent out along with social media messages and posters.
Through Little Cinema, the group also now holds workshops and screenings for children.
PFC has been organising the Kolkata People’s Film Festival since 2014. It’s quite a democratic event, with no entry fees — audience members can donate as they wish — and no awards. Films are submitted on a digital platform with no charges.
There aren’t any big names on the selection committee either; the collective’s members themselves choose the films based on factors such as their relevance to the current socio-political scenario. In 2019, they received more than 1,600 submissions.
In 2017, the collective made its first foray into filmmaking with Timeline Bhangar, a documentary about the events that led to the recent peasant uprising in Bhangar in Bengal.
PFC has around 30 members now, from various walks of life. Sayantani Khan teaches journalism and her students regularly volunteer at the festival. Dilip Majumdar is a schoolteacher and auto driver who says the collective is the most egalitarian place he knows. Shayan Sanyal works in advertising and learnt about the group’s activities through social media.
Resistance in print
The collective doesn’t accept sponsorships, acccepting donations before the annual festival. It brings out a Bengali periodical called Protirodher Cinema (Cinema of Resistance), which sells around 600-800 copies. In addition, it publishes a series of booklets on socio-cultural issues through its sister organisation, the People’s Study Circle.
Recent publications have addressed topics such as the National Register of Citizens in Assam, the RSS and the independence movement, and the economic policies of the Modi government.
Basu sums it up: “We may not be directly mobilising people but we are working on the level of consciousness. There are no immediate gains. This is long-term work and we are dealing with the politics of everyday life.”
The writer teaches literary & cultural studies at FLAME University, Pune.
