Alternative Indian documentary is booming. There is a whole lot of creative output coming out of a wide range of film-makers, who have the skills and courage to tell the truth bluntly, just as it is. Films are becoming easier to shoot, the technology is reaching the hands of those who can use it.

But there is one crucial part of this jigsaw that is missing. There is simply no distribution channel. India is still state-controlled. Long-dominant television network, Doordarshan has little space to portray the reality of the vast majority of this country. Likewise, the growth of literally dozens of cable television channels has not opened up any more space either.

Far too rich, and growing fast
For quite some time now it has become more than apparent that there is an immense output — both in quality and quantity — coming out from alternative Indian documentary films.

Take the case of the ‘Kriti Film Club’ of Tara Apartments, at Alaknanda in New Delhi. (Email kritidpc@vsnl.com). They explain their idea thus: “The whole idea of the Kriti Film Club is to place thought-provoking cinema in a discussion group. This will not only help to deepen understandings on social and development issues amongst film makers and viewers, but more importantly create a space where students, activists, academician, development professionals, media professionals and friends can come together and interact through meaningful cinema.”

A look at their listing of films gives an idea of the depth available. They have screened films relating to food insecurity in different parts of India (Harvesting Hunger, Krishendu Bose), the right to health-care (Aadha Aasman’ by Samina Misra), the impact of corruption on the environment (Bandits and Backhanders by Pradeep Saha) and much more.

The point that needs to be accepted is that creativity is blossoming in the field of alternative Indian documentary. Take the case of the Unit for Media and Communications, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Just this single organisation itself has put out a rich collection of video productions, most of which are obviously still inadequately known about in the development, alternate and campaign networks in India. Let aside the mainstream. Anjali

Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar (kpj@tiss.edu) recently sent across a listing, after a request from my end, which put together the films they had undertaken.

Such a small impact
Is it not sad that such a large corpus of work should be so inadequately noticed and consequently have an infinite small impact compared to what was possible?

Stalin K, a film-maker based in Gujarat, set up an electronic-based mailing list called Docuwallahs on Yahoogroups, aimed at networking alternative film-makers to share ideas and information. For technical reasons, the old Docuwallahs list is being abandoned, and a new one called Docuwallahs2 has been set up in its place. Today, other networks in India such as Vikalp and CAC-Delhi (both focused on combatting the problem of censorship in films) are also active quarters in building links among the alternative films.

The next issue is, how is the potential of alternative films, boosted by newer and affordable technological solutions, tapped to effectively take forward the developmental agenda in India?

Young lawyer Lawrence Liang of Bangalore, influenced like this writer by the potentials of alternate paradigms of creating and sharing knowledge, has argued elsewhere why documentary and alternate film makers in India could do well to think of starting to license their works under an ‘open content’ license.

As one sees it, the current model of copyrights hardly helps the small player in the alternative space. While it brings wealth and power to the corporate world, the copyright model is yet to make a single film popular or earn anything significant for an alternate film-maker. Lawrence Liang argues, “Most documentary film makers do not live off royalty in any case. Their films are either commissioned or they earn some money from various prizes, invitations and the like.”

Like the Free Software Movement, Indian alternative documentary film-makers are obviously still awaiting their own Richard

Stallman, who can think of a suitable license that helps to make alternative films popular and widely-noticed. Indian alternative documentary film is simply too good to be trapped within an inept system of distribution or copyrights, that blocks it from finding its audiences and making its impact. Alternative documentary has immense potential before it. Can it turn these developments into an ally in their quest for a wider impact on far-greater audience?