Activism through Aesthetics: A Study of Dissent through Cinematic Apparatus in Selected Documentary Films

• Main Author: Ishan Sharma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sarat Centenary College 2017-07-01
• Series: PostScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies
• Subjects: dissent; montage; thick description
• Online Access: http://postscriptum.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pS2.iiIshan.pdf

The genre of documentary films, though closely related with factuality is often a medium that represents an alternative way to articulate the voices which borders on margins. S. Sukhdev’s Nine months to Freedom: The Story of Bangladesh (1971) and Pramod Pati’s Explorer (1968) belong to a selected category of documentary films which presents a divergence in representing the subject as well as the cinematic technique. This paper focuses on a close analysis of the selected films and attempts to highlight the dissent at multiple levels such as representation of the subject and the use of cinematic technique in the representation of the subject. The films selected for the study belongs to two different genres. Nine Months to Freedom resembles a political documentary; Explorer is an experimental film with plethora of subjects. Through the help of Clifford Geertz’s ‘Thick Description’ the paper attempts to study dissent and dialogue in the film through the help of cinematic apparatus.