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ANALOGUE NATIVES
experimental film, India / Germany 2001-2025, 26 mins, English
dual film projection 35mm & digital, 1:1.85, 24fps, colour, stereo
credits
a film by Bernd Lützeler
with ideas by Bernd Lützeler, Jeanno Gaussi & Shumona Goel
filmed & edited by Bernd Lützeler
with Mayur Kakde, Satish C Ajgaonkar & Swapnil B Sarnaik
narrated by Satish C Ajgaonkar, Swapnil B Sarnaik, Jaganath S Rangdhol & Kishore Rathod
processed at Filmlab India, Rauko Cine Labs
optical blow ups at Ramnord Research Laboratories, Rauko Cine Labs
reverse telecine at Ramnord Research Laboratories, Studio Sound N Vision
scanned at Filmlab India, NoMasala Films, Prasad Film Labs
supported by Akademie der Künste
with funds from Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media - BKM
as part of the programme Neustart Kultur
synopsis
In 2010, a 106-year-old dilapidated residential building is on the verge of collapsing in Mumbai, the financial capital of India and the heart of the Hindi film industry. All tenants have been evacuated, and many of them now gather on the opposite train station platform, waiting to watch their building collapse. Some are filming the loss of their own homes with their mobile phones. Later, after the fire brigade clears the road of rubble, residents start climbing into the ruins of the building to retrieve their belongings.
Three years later, a whole industry collapses in Mumbai. Within just a few months, Bollywood undergoes a rapid transition from celluloid to digital, and almost all film laboratories close down forever. Smaller businesses, such as animation studios, cannot keep pace and are left behind. Many technicians and experts find themselves in a precarious situation from one day to the other, most of them without any survival strategy. In interviews, four analogue film veterans reflect on the obsolescence of their craftsmanship and the future of cinema.
From morning to nighttime, MM Mithaiwala, an iconic sweets and snacks joint opposite a crowded suburban railway station in Mumbai, blares its notorious lassi advertisement - spoken by Harish Bhimani, the most famous voiceover artist in India - into the traffic jam right outside its entrance. However, since their building creates a bottleneck and is the main reason for the daily gridlock at the train station, the municipality decides to demolish the restaurant in order to widen the road.
In the early morning hours, while shooting for a soap opera at the Film City complex in the north of Mumbai, two hundred technicians, actors and production workers become witness of a leopard entering their set from the nearby national park. The leopard hunts and kills a stray dog right in front of everyone’s eyes. Statistics suggest that considering an estimated 96,000 stray dogs living in the streets of Mumbai and nearly 75,000 reported dog bites annually, wild leopards hunting in the city at night reduce the risk of rabies transmission. That way they prevent at least 90 human deaths and save the city 8 percent of its annual dog sterilisation budget.
An expanded multi-genre documentary within the constraints of the so-called Masala Formula, popularly known from Indian cinema.
screenings
Prisme #7, Nantes, France 2024 (work in progress - preview)
