更新时间:2012-04-12
愛說矣 • 反种姓的歌声:inspiring
It is a documentary for which the filmmaker has spent 14 years, yet the mission behind the production is not yet accomplished.
The film is about the caste system in India. Although the system has been legally abolished since the independence of the nation in 1948, discrimination has been banned, and there are affirmation actions benefiting the Dalits (the lowest caste), in fact the discriminating culture still exists.
There are two names highlighted in the film, as the epitomes of the two themes respectively: Dr.B.R. Ambedkar and Vilas Ghogre. Dr. Ambedkar was the spiritual leader and major ideologue aspired by adored by the Dalits community. Vilas Ghogre was a talent Dalit poet and singer, whose works were around the plight of the Dalits. In 1997 the statue of Dr. Ambedkar in a Dalit community was desecrated, the Dalits ran a street protest, but the police force cracked down violently, killing and injuring the community. The officer who ordered the firing was charged but the prosecution process has taken a very long time. The director of the film once tried to follow up the case until it ends. Vilas visited the Dalits community after the crackdown, desperate and shocked, he killed himself. The film has included one of his song, and covered other performances of this folksong tradition, in which music as a form of social resistance.
This documentary can be regarded as an activist film, as it is pro-Dalits. Although some interviews of other castes have been included, those parts have affirmed the argument that the Dalits have always been the suppressed group. But in fact the 1997 crackdown and the prolonged process of prosecution have provided certain evidence of the suppression. It is successful as informing the viewers to aware of the situation of the Dalits, and introducing the activist music practices to them. The music performance is the most inspiring part of the documentary, which makes the film moving and interesting even though the film is over 3 hours. The lyrics of those songs are close to the lives, difficulties and believes of the Dalits, and the performance are found in local communities, though some have become popular in mediated in TV channels, the music is not only a kind a entertainment and consumption, it is political. That's why one of the band was oppressed by the government, regarded as terrorist and forced to disband.
