For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will attempt to revisit the history of the documentary movement of India through the lens of gender, focusing on the first and, for a long time, the sole documentary producer, the Films Division of India. Through a feminist analysis of Films Division’s film praxis, it aims to foreground the invisibility of women’s work in the history of documentary film archives in India. The outcome of this project will be a feminist historiography of state-sponsored documentary film in early postcolonial India and an oral history resource focused on women’s film work in the Films Division (1948-80s). The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will be a written essay, recording of interviews, film DVDs, scanned copies of film posters, and other relevant para-texts obtained from Films Division and National Film Archive of India. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, hire of equipment, materials, purchase of books, and printing.
