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 THU OCT 21 2004
7:00 In the Name of God
Anand Patwardhan
(India, 1992)
Artist in Person
(Ram ke Naam). In December 1992, contending that the sixteenth-century
Babri Mosque in Ayodhya was built on the birth site of the god Ram,
Hindu militants tore it down, setting into motion a chain reaction
that claimed thousands of lives. (See Father, Son and Holy War,
October 22.) In the Name of God, completed a year before
this epochal event, lays bare the mechanics by which religion was
politicized.
A sharp-eyed Patwardhan records the march to Ayodhya, fronted by
a politician in a Toyota done up like Ram's chariot, and conducts
interviews that are alternately comic (a self-important ideologue
turns out to be drunk) and horrifying (a man endorses Gandhi's
assassination). We watch as young men converge into an avenging
mob who claim they
know the exact location of Ram's birthplace but, when questioned,
have no idea in which century he was born. The film's moral center
is a Hindu priest in Ayodhya, who points out that the nationalists
are “playing a political game.” The priest was subsequently murdered;
as of this writing, the site of the former mosque remains unused. - Juliet Clark
Photographed by Patwardhan. (75 mins, In English
and Hindi with English subtitles, Color, DV-Cam, From First Run/Icarus)
Preceded by short:
 We Are Not Your Monkeys (Anand
Patwardhan, India, 1996). A music video composed with the late
Daya Pawar and Sambhaji
Bhagat gives a dalit (“untouchable caste”) perspective on the Ramayana,
rebuking contemporary Hindu fundamentalists for trying to recruit
the poor into a new “monkey army.” (5 mins, In Hindi with English
subtitles, Color, DV-Cam, From First Run/Icarus)
Followed by:
Lecture by Anand Patwardhan
In his Documentary Voices lecture, Patwardhan will
discuss documentary filmmaking and, in his words, “the need for
the messengers of bad news not to allow themselves to be shot
and silenced, but
to come out of the margins and make themselves heard loudly and
clearly.” (c.
60 mins plus discussion)
(Total program: c. 140 mins plus discussion)
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