This series of short single-channel videos was made with footage I shot during three separate trips I made to Maharashtra, India to produce educational documentaries intended for elementary-school-aged American children for the University of Michigan’s Center for South Asian Studies. With the assumption that kids are inherently interested in seeing what other kids are doing, I traveled all around the state gaining access to schools and other institutions and simply filming children doing whatever it was they were doing. Much of the time, that activity included interacting with me, the tourist/cameraman. The Views of Maharashtra 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.
Click on the images below to view videos.
cameraman (1:15)
blacksmith w/ boy (3:14)
hello photo (12:35)
boy w/ bag (8:53)
bombay (8:00)
boy w/ stick (0:58)
rickshaw (2:05)
school (4:54)
paddleball (2:52)
by rote (4:20)
cold drink (1:21)
girl w/ fruit (3:41)
with:
Walter Spink
University of Michigan Center for South Asian Studies
Sadik Shaikh
Jawed Shaikh
Nana Bhika Mahala
Ashraf Ali
Tahir Ali
and the people of:
Fardapur
Lenapur
Thane
Ajanta Village
Sawarekhed
Pipaldari