Indigenous Film Ecologies in India

南亚的土著生态旨在：1）通过共同创作的实践，巩固电影制作的土著方法; 2）发展以研究为基础的土著电影制作文化，解决公共领域的不对称问题; 3）研究土著电影的不同生态。拟议项目的基础是与属于印度被剥夺知情权的部落社区并与游牧电影公司有联系的土著艺术家和电影制片人集体建立研究伙伴关系。这些群体在殖民时期被贴上“生来就是罪犯”的标签，他们被积极排斥在知识生产过程和公民身份之外，主流媒体继续通过犯罪、原始主义和受害者身份的框架对他们进行歪曲。该项目巩固了为记录土著人在全球大流行病中的经历而开发的电影制作方法和形式，并将其带到印度边境的不同地区和社区：海洋、沙漠和山区。这些地区生态遭到破坏，由于海床上升、降雨模式反常、气温升高和荒漠化，越来越不适合居住，传统的移徙、生计、营养和住房模式受到挑战，社区不得不迅速适应新的生活条件。 该项目旨在作为一个行动研究干预的基础上集体反思的做法，其中包括：1）培训部分，涉及电影制作技术培训，以适应识字率和数字技能低的社区的需要，并结合研究方法和集体反思实践培训，以支持社区制定自己的研究问题和项目，（2）宣传活动，目的是发展土著电影制作文化，巩固游牧电影作为土著电影中心的地位，并举办“游牧电影节”;以及3）一个研究部分，侧重于社区艺术实践的转变，既涉及培训，也涉及数字化的扩展，这是参与国家创意经济的必要条件。 项目的价值在于过程本身-在这方面，它的产出和影响、方法论和认识论是相互交织的。在具体产出方面，该项目将产生：（1）制作至少六部小说和非小说类电影，与全国各地土著群体制作的精选电影一起作为游牧电影节的一部分放映;（2）创建游牧电影节，作为该国土著电影出版物的中心; 3）出版反映这些边境地区艺术实践的过程和方法以及转变的出版物。更广泛地说，该项目将有助于合作研究实践的转变，超越“参与”模式和社会参与的艺术实践。它也将是对知识生产的多模式方法的干预，同时为新兴和充满活力的实践社区提供平台。

Indigenous Ecologies in South Asia aims to 1) consolidate, through practices of co-creation, an indigenous methodology for filmmaking; 2) develop a culture of indigenous research-based filmmaking that address asymmetries in the public sphere; and 3) research different ecologies of indigenous film. The proposed project is based on a research partnership with a collective of indigenous artists and filmmakers belonging India's DeNotified Tribal communities (DNTs) and associated with Nomad Movies. These are communities who were labelled as 'criminal by birth' during the colonial period, who have been actively excluded from processes of knowledge production, as well as from citizenship, and who continue to be misrepresented in mainstream media through the frames of criminality, primitivism and victimhood. The project consolidates a methodology and form of filmmaking developed to document indigenous experiences of the global pandemic and takes it to different regions and communities at India's borderlands: the sea, the desert and the mountains. These are sites of ecological disruption that are becoming increasingly unliveable with rising sea beds, uncharacteristic rainfall patterns, increased heat and desertification- where traditional patterns of migration, of livelihood, nutrition and shelter are being challenged and where communities are having to adapt fast to new conditions of life. The project is designed as an action-research intervention based on collective reflexive practice that comprises: 1) a training component involving technical training in filmmaking adapted to the needs of communities with low literacy and digital skills, in combination with training in research methods and collective reflexive practice to support communities in developing their own research questions and projects, while drawing on and transforming their creative practice; 2) a promotional component with the objective of developing a culture of indigenous filmmaking, consolidating Nomad Movies as a hub for indigenous film and at developing a 'Nomad Film Festival'; and 3) a research component focussed on the transformations in communities' artistic practices, both in relation to the training and in relation to the expansion of the digital as an imperative to participate in the country's creative economies. The value of the project lies in the process itself - and in this respect its outputs and impacts, methodology and epistemology, are enmeshed. In terms of tangible outputs, the project will result in 1) the production of at least six fiction and non-fiction films that will be showcased as part of the Nomad Film Festival, alongside selected films produced by indigenous groups across the country; 2) the creation of a Nomad Film Festival as a hub for indigenous film publications in the country; 3) publications reflecting on the processes and methodology and on the transformation of artistic practices in these border regions. More broadly, the project will contribute to a transformation of collaborative research practice, moving beyond 'participatory' models and socially engaged art practices. It will also be an intervention into multimodal methods of knowledge production, while providing a platform for an emergent and vibrant community of praxis.