Televisual Memories

I am starting to think about my postdoctoral project, part of an international study of post-broadcast television. My end looks at the development of broadcast, and then satellite TV in India. This is undoubtedly a huge field (especially given the sheer number of channels hovering over South Asian skies), hence I will most likely focus on three news and current affairs channels in English. I may branch out to the Hindu networks depending on the scope and outcomes of the project.

Reading the introduction to Shanti Kumar and Lisa Park's edited collection titled 'Planet TV', I began to wonder about my own televisual memories and journeys. I distinctly recall watching my first Bollywood film in a proper cinema hall at the age of seven, but my memory is far more ambivalent when it comes to television in my early years. There were the videotapes of Mogli in 'Jungle Book' that marked after-school afternoons, the vaguely opulent costumes of the Hindu epics on Sunday mornings, the 'Chitrahaar' that the domestic help regularly watched on Wednesday evenings, and also a lot of black-and-white visuals of everything from foreign film exports to beauty contests late into the night.

My televisual memories become more vivid in the post-1992 era when the satellite dish on our rooftop stood for a marked shift in terms of technology, content and the overall social fabric. There were game shows like 'Snakes and Ladders' as well as soap operas with independent female characters on ZEE TV; a slew of  American shows such as 'I Dream of Jeannie', 'Bewitched' and 'Different Strokes' on Sony Entertainment Television; and sitcoms like 'Friends' whose popularity was emblematic of an Indian urban youth culture that increasingly embraced western modernity. As for the news and current affairs media, this too emerged from the shadows on state-controlled Doordarshan to welcome greater degrees of independence and commercialisation at the same time. I am interested in seeing how this juggling act of global and local, indie and commercial is currently playing out in the news-focussed televisual mediasphere. 

cfp for 'Crossover Cinema' Anthology

Crossover Cinema Anthology

Publisher: In preparation for Palgrave (‘Global Cinema’ series)

Provisional Title: ‘Crossover Cinema: Resetting the Film Frame/work’

Editor: Sukhmani Khorana (PhD Adelaide)

cfp

This volume of related essays is based on the notion that cinematic products (especially in the twenty-first century) emerge from, engage with, and are consumed in cross-cultural settings. These films exhibit genre hybridity, and also problematise the ideological tendencies of national(ist) cinemas. They are often conceived and produced by creative individuals/groups on the margins of society, such as diasporic citizens. Their multiple influences are manifested in the content and form of the films themselves. In terms of distribution channels and marketing discourses, these in turn cross (and work across) varying platforms and commercial/arthouse distinctions. The crossover is eventually epitomised in the watching of these films by a wide range of audience groups, thereby disturbing ethno-cultural and generic marketing categories.

Proposals (200 to 300 words) are sought for full papers (5,000 to 8,000 words) that could take the form of a) textual analysis of relevant films; b) interviews with crossover filmmakers; c) reflective essays by film scholars/practitioners; d) analysis of publicity material such as film posters; d) audience demographic studies; or e) contextualised film reviews. These could fit one of the following themes/questions, but are not limited to:

1. The re-conceptualisation of nation-based cinema (as an industry) in the wake of both unprecedented global migration, and the growing economic and cultural capital accrued to the non-west.
2. The impact of cross-cultural productions (involving collaboration of finances and/or talent) on the content of the films being produced. What does this mean for the discipline of film studies and for text-based film scholarship?
3. Crossover films often have successful runs in arthouse cinemas and on film festival circuits, but this rarely translates to box office numbers or wider audience appeal. What is the role of film marketing and publicity where successful audience crossovers have occurred?
4. Not only are digital technologies being used for producing and marketing cutting-edge crossover films in all genres, but the online world is also a haven for film reviews. Can this enable a transcultural approach to film reviewing?

Please email proposals and a short bio (in a single word document).

Contact: sukhmani.khorana@adelaide.edu.au

Deadline: 14th March 2011

Blog Revival

Well, not just a revival, but a rejuvenation of sorts. A new name, a more vibrant design, and research-oriented content.

Why did I decide to revive/rejuvenate it? A couple of compelling reasons come to mind - a) I was surprised when a colleague mentioned to me last year, soon after the 'Moving On' post, that she missed reading my blog; and b) With my post-PhD job hunt out of the way, and my new position at the University of Queensland about to commence, I feel research thoughts creeping back into my head.

So here it is, like the sizzling brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce that I shared with my family this new year's eve. It was full of textural and temperature contradictions, but yummy as sin. Hence I hope this blog traverses its way through seemingly unfathomable questions and amalgamates the personal and the political for some time to come.

Moving on...

It is with a heavy heart (and an over-stimulated mind) that I prepare to bid farewell to this blog. My PhD project, the starting point of this creative laboratory, is all done and dusted. The endless thesis corrections and revisions are out of the way, and the documentary is set for a couple more public screenings. My life too, has moved on from first gear. I'm happy to be be able to drive under better visibility conditions.

Since submitting, I realised I didn't need a break from writing. Academic writing, maybe, but not all writing. It also dawned on me that as my path became more visible, I wanted to be more visible too. Without hazard lights on that is. So I began contributing to independent publications, online and offline. Here is a sample of what I wrote:

Musings on a Coloured (Not Classic) France: The Alliance Française French Film Festival

From Solitaire isolation to Facebook education

Race and Hyperbole

And I want to continue contributing to portals such as Kill Your Darlings and On Line Opinion, to add to the diversity of voices that often get submerged in the ratings rat-race of mainstream media. There is so much I still want to learn and express, experience and ascertain. There is not an iota of doubt that I will be using my pen, or key strokes, or even iPad-esque key touch in the future to inscribe and prescribe.

There is another matter that is becoming more visible. And that is the potential for another major writing project. One that is unapologetic and sarcastic, serious and funny, yours and mine. I am adding layers of detail to its bare bones as I type, and hence cannot bare its fledgling self to the world yet. But you will be the first to know and read. Rest assured, I will treasure this over-exposed image as long as I live and write, and use its deep hues and abundant light to etch another story.

I Journey Like a Paisley (Now on Vimeo)

I Journey Like a Paisley

Roles, Models and Role Models

I accidentally saw one of my favourite authors, Chilean-born Isabel Allende, being interviewed by Andrew Denton on the ABC tonight. It reminded me of another time - two years ago, on the last day of my Indian holiday, I spotted author-activist Arundhati Roy at a restaurant in New Delhi. 

It was a time when I was wondering about the intersection of life and career choices, about the entangling of emotional and creative selves. What have I been sent on this earth to do? There was no better cliche to frame my dilemma. In the lead up to this day, I was also beginning to realise I could not live without imagining, without writing, without capturing the essence of life in the poetics of word and image. However, having completed umpteen courses in film and literature, researched numerous literary geniuses and arrived at the mid-point of my own PhD in a state of spiritual melancholy, I feared that the creative path was lined with bricks that were carved out of a beautiful stone, albeit so finely that they became sharp and painful. Roy's appearance therefore seemed like a sign - I could be a writer (not one living in an ivory tower, but politically and socially engaged), and yet be able to enjoy a plate of dosa with loved ones. 

Now that my doctoral project is making a line for the printers, similar questions about the creative impulse and its place in a potentially academic future are arising. Other thoughts surface and my soon-to-be-postdoctoral self dismisses them. They concern aesthetics, and crossovers. Can I wear purple nail paint to class? What if I pen a memoir about my love life? Will the academy still take me seriously? As I ponder over these questions, 67-year old Allende, wearing make-up, gold and a devil-may-care attitude, flashes on the television screen. She is a woman who has seen wars, military coups, the death of her young daughter, and countess other personal and social upheavals. She says when her daughter died, she lost her fear of death; and when her granddaughter was born, she lost her fear of life. Allende is often criticised by Chilean intellectuals for being too prolific a writer, and being adored by the masses. 

Who would mind such criticism? Not the writer in me who is trying to be an academic. Not the academic in me who wants to cross over to the mainstream. Whichever role I choose, or life chooses for me, I know that it will be modelled on a love of engaged and engaging writing. It will be its own role model. 

Another year ends, but this time it feels like a beginning

This blog began in 2007, which coincided with the start of my PhD. It also marked the beginning of a difficult few years of understanding myself beyond the academic label which had stuck since primary school, as well as independent of parental-societal-cultural expectations.

I have now been through a research trip to Canada to meet Deepa Mehta, conferences around Australia, invigorating trips to India, multiple visits to the library, numerous undergraduate essays and films, many thesis drafts, long hours of film editing and countless intellectual stimulants around the clock. This has been accompanied by the development of a self that is more self-assured, more poetic and also more forgiving of its own and others' mortal shortcomings. In addition to scholarly journals and books in my field, I have also taken to style blogs, street photography, bright nail paint, sequined berets, peep toe shoes, pencil skirts, retro dresses, statement necklaces, paisley scarves, fresh scents, orange tulips, cooking laksa, shopping in Chinatown, enjoying driving and most importantly, being unapologetic about all of the above. I have been through a fair share of admiration and heartache in a relatively short period, and find my feet moving to a new beat (yes, love is more likely a musical journey rather than a happy ending, but then I don't claim to be an expert). 

Then there is the likelihood that I may not be in Adelaide for very long. The past seven years, almost my entire adult life has been spent here, and for that I feel fortunate - as much for the great people I have met and befriended as for the education and work experience I have acquired. If and when I move, I know I will miss the Cibo aromas in winter, the jacaranda carpets in spring, the festival fever in summer, and the long weekends in autumn. Here's to 2010, wherever it may be!

Thinking Design

It fascinated me that during the assessment of my ten selected images from the entire term, it is my sense of design that drew the most attention. I am glad that this evolving instinct, this attunement to forms and textures in the environment is a) not confined to my growing love of vintage fashion, and b) has been recognized by professional photographers. There is certainly still a long way to go in learning photographic concepts, as well as mastering the darkroom, but I feel encouraged. Nerdy days begone, this academic girl thinks design!

Darkroom Zen

Working is the darkroom was challenging at first, but taught me a great deal about image tones (and that method, discipline and patience go hand-in-hand with art). As one of my fellow students put it, it is a rather zen-like experience. Only difference is that instead of incense sticks, you smell developers and fixers. But it grows on you.

Image-Birthing

After years of itching to learn the 'craft', I finally undertook and completed the nine-week Introduction to Film Photography course at the Centre for Creative Photography.