Dreading Documentaries

Why are some people so outraged by the film?

In cultural and postcolonial studies, there is the notion of the ‘gaze’. Originally derived from the psychoanalytic ideas of Jacques Lacan*, the notion has been expanded to include many unequal ‘relationships’ in art, literature and the history of ideas, including the ‘male gaze’ that is also relevant to the matters we are discussing** (but let us set that aside for the moment). The publication of Edward Said’s “Orientalism” (1978), led to a sharper awareness of the ‘gaze’ that extends from the colonizer to the colonized. Here is a line from the Wikipedia entry:

“First referred to by Edward Said as "orientalism", the term "post-colonial gaze" is used to explain the relationship that colonial powers extended to people of colonized countries. Placing the colonized in a position of the "other" helped to shape and establish the colonial's identity as being the powerful conqueror, and acted as a constant reminder of this idea”.

It is this that rankles.

The point is that there is some justification for resisting this ‘gaze’. Sensational cases attract attention from artists, novelists, journalists, muckrakers and documentary filmmakers, all the way from “Leda and the Swan” to “Our Guys”. This is nothing new. It is to be expected. One could go a step further and agree that thoughtful criticism from any quarter is to be welcomed. After all, no one stopped an Indian filmmaker from making that documentary.

However, there are two points to remember here:

(1) No Indian filmmaker would have the worldwide distribution resources that the BBC has. It would be surprising if an Indian film were to attract that much attention.

(2) More irritating to critics, no Indian filmmaker could successfully make and distribute with equal impact, a comparable film on the egregious failings of say the US or the UK (the equivalent of the Steubenville rape case, the recent events in Ferguson, the Snowden revelations, legally sanctioned torture – you name it).

There is some combative journalism, some book writing and publishing that do take on the pieties of the west, but there is nothing indigenous with the sheer reach of western media. The Nobel prize can be pointedly awarded to Liu Xiaobo, with gay abandon to Kissinger, Arafat and Obama, but no award of comparable stature exists that may be given to Snowden to make a comparable political statement – Edward will never be a ‘dissident’, a category conceivable only within 'lesser' societies.

The gaze is all one way.

Notes:
*From Wikipedia:: Gaze is a term popularized by psychologist Jacques Lacan for the anxious state that comes with the awareness that one can be viewed. The psychological effect, Lacan argues, is that the subject loses a degree of autonomy upon realizing that he or she is a visible object.

* *From Wikipedia: John Berger, in his book Ways of Seeing, stated that "according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome — men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.". In Renaissance images nude women were painted almost exclusively for the male viewer. Women are often depicted with their bodies turned towards the viewer while their heads are turned away and gazing in a mirror. The woman is aware of being the object of the male gaze.

 

Yup, it is the democratic right of the citizens to watch the documentary. Just highlighting the fact that problems cropped up with the documentary during the tenure of UPA itself.

As I wrote I have not seen the documentary so cant comment on the content as yet.

 

I visited Berlin last year and saw all the nazi monuments and museums. We had as a guid a guy from UK (who was an historian and been living in Berlin for 7 years). He said a thing that made an impression. He said that the germans (the west part) made a complete effort to expose everything what the nazis did, everything was dicsussed, viewed and researched. In that way they were able to come to peace with their past.

And I think that open discussion is the key. Even if it includes very disgusting details. By exposing the evil the evil will go away.

This silly crap about the producer being from UK/BBC is making the film is ridiculous. BBC is one of the very few in the world having the resources to make high quality documentaries.

 

Only posting this link as something related to this thread:

‘I am standing my ground for this film,’ says maker of Indian rape documentary - The Washington Post

 

I haven't seen the documentary. I don't want to know anything about that animal. I am surprised why he is still alive and living at tax payer's expense. Why isn't supreme court worrying about bringing in efficiency in the judicial system itself instead of spending time in cleaning up ganga. If this animal was hanged to death in a month's time frame at that time, many rapes would have been stopped. If quick and efficient and serious punishment like capital punishment is made, then it will act as a deterrent. The problem is that the law takes it own time and in most of the cases, people can get acquitted for some stupid reason. In this case also, one of the perpetrators was let go as he was juvenile.

Such animals will attack even a fully clothed girl, irrespective of age, if he got a chance.

I heard that in one city in India, people stormed the jail and got a rape convict out and stoned him to death. I think those kind of treatment will stop such crimes in the future.

There have been growing number of incidents with auto drivers raping or attempting to rape child, girl and women in Mumbai these days. Again, a strong punishment (may be castration) would deter these people.

 

I do not share the cynicism.

No reason to be. We are doing all of the above and more, simultaneously, in parallel, in a multithreaded conversation. It is not always a good idea to abstract out an 'essence' in a complex conversation (I don't mean just this thread, I'm speaking in general).

I do not know 'Arnab' or 'Barkha'.

I am quite surprised to think that I see more positives in an evolving India than so many people here.

 

We Indians have been calling her India's daughter, before BBC came into the picture. This rape was so brutal, that people in all parts of the country are shaken after this. There has been agitation and protests all over the country, demanding justice for the poor girl. I think we Indians are personally affected by her tragedy too, and see her as India's daughter.