Collections/March 2023

Labor and Love: 8 Documentaries by Deepa Dhanraj

Deepa Dhanraj’s films are decolonial feminism in action. A filmmaker whose intersectional view of gender oppression and collaborative approach to documentary were far ahead of their time, Dhanraj has dealt frankly with issues of class, caste, labor, patriarchy, and state violence over the course of a long and fiercely engaged career. In 1980, she founded the Yugantar Film Collective along with cinematographer Navroze Contractor, activist Abha Bhaiya, and writer Meera Rao, and the group went on to create a series of works that spoke to working-class women’s experiences, struggles, and strategies of resistance within Indian society. Curated by Devika Girish, this series brings the Yugantar films together with some of Dhanraj’s later documentaries, all of them invaluable, on-the-ground records of India’s feminist movement that still serve as models for how to forge a vital activist cinema.

8 films — 0 on the Channel, 8 unavailable