Views of Maharashtra is a 12-part series of short single-channel videos made from footage I shot during three separate trips to Maharashtra, India. I went on a grant from the University of Michigan’s Center for South Asian Studies to produce educational documentaries intended for elementary-school-aged American children. With the assumption that kids are inherently interested in watching what other kids are doing, I traveled all around the state, but mainly in rural areas, gaining access to schools and other institutions and simply filming children doing whatever it was they were doing. Much of the time, their activity included interacting with me, the tourist/cameraman. This series is my videographic attempt to deal with the issues surrounding that relationship between subject/camera – issues of transculturation, difference, tourism, objectification, distance, influence, authenticity, and performance – while using some leftover documentary footage I found visually compelling.

The full single-channel video runs about 55 minutes, with these chapters:

cameraman (1:05)
blacksmith w/ boy (3:13)
hello photo (12:35)
boy with plastic bag (8:53)
Mumbai cultural show (8:00)
girl with fruit (3:41)
jejure school (4:54)
by rote (4:20)
rickshaw (2:05)
Ajanta Village rickshaw (2:02)
Jejure school (4:53)
veranda ball game (2:52)
Pithalkora shuttlebus (1:21)
boy w/ stick (0:58)

I may get around to posting the rest of the series here, eventually. You can see some of the rest of them here.