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It started as an initiative by senior cinematographer Fowzia Fathima to create a network of women cinematographers, the collective has evolved into a group of 60 members and continues to add new members everyday. Her initiative has set off an exciting time for women cinematographers in India. As we grow in numbers and in strength we intend to trigger changes in the industry. Our website www.iwcc.in (under construction currently) will feature an extensive database of women cinematographers and showcase their diverse body of work. It’s members will brainstorm over technical and creative challenges via blogs, podcasts and discussion forums on the website.

The Collective will celebrate the work of its members through social media, online press and printed publications to shine a light on the excellence of women cinematographers in the field and encourage more girls to consider cinematography and its allied fields such as gaffing, grips and assistant cinematographers as viable professions.

We invite women cinematographers and young women from film and media schools to connect with us at www.iwcc.in and be a part of this Collective.

In the spirit of International Women’s Day, IWCC honors and celebrates Ms. B. R. Vijayalakshmi – the first Indian woman cinematographer, also the first Asian woman cinematographer. She made a niche for herself back in the ’80s, when a woman cinematographer was unheard of and carved a path for future generations of female cinematographers to come.

“Each of us until we connected to the other women cinematographers experienced an isolation. Each of us is looked at as an exception. We need to change this perception. The time has come for the idea of the Collective to manifest itself now.” Fowzia Fathima, SICA

“In a global context, female cinematographers are banding together to have a collective voice and a platform to showcase their work like the ICFC (America), illuminatrix (UK) & CinematographersXX. There can’t be a better time than this to announce the inception of IWCC which stands to celebrate Indian women cinematographer’s work and spirit.” Savita Singh, WICA.

“The one thing we’ve known for certain is men and women look at things with different eyes… through a different lens. In the world of film, women have been well represented in front of the camera. I am excited to see how the film industry will be impacted as more women explore storytelling from behind the camera… it’s almost as if there is a whole new world to be discovered.” Priya Seth, WICA

“This is our space to nurture and enable the one thing that can cause change and break discriminatory barriers, and that is Excellence.” Deepti Gupta, WICA

“This will be a move towards a cinematic journey with more women cinematographers telling stories, where talent is the only requisite and there are no other limits. If we can inspire one woman to choose the craft of cinematography as a profession, we have made a difference”. Preetha Jayaraman, SICA

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Video SEWA: A People's Alternative - Ahmedabad, India

These excerpts from a Video SEWA outreach film highlight the process by which the organization trains self-employed women to make and distribute video about their own lives. The Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) is a trade union of over 250,000 poor women working in the non-formal sector in Gujarat, India. By combining advocacy and development, SEWA enables its members to protect their interests, improve their standards of living, and gain their rightful places in the economy. Video SEWA was established in 1984 with one set of 3/4 inch U-Matic production equipment and three weeks of training from Communication for Change, then known as Martha Stuart Communications.

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Collaboration and Creativity by Uzzi and Spiro, 2005

A study of small world networks by way of Broadway musicals.

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/ftp/uzzi's_research_papers/0900904.pdf

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The Small-World Problem by Stanley Milgram, 1967

http://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/milgram67smallworld.pdf

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Ciné-Tracts was founded in 1977 and edited by Ron Burnett until it ceased publication in late 1982. During that time, the journal published seventeen issues (1,247 pages). Ciné-Tracts helped to solidify the growing Film/Cultural Studies area by working from an interdisciplinary orientation. A variety of people worked for the Journal and contributed to it. These include, Martin Walsh, Teresa de Lauretis, Stephen Heath, Raymond Williams, John Berger, Hart Cohen, Peter Harcourt, Zuzana Pick, Martha Burnett, Saul Landau, Bruce Elder, Peter Ohlin, Patricia Mellencamp and David Bordwell. Ciné-Tracts had over two thousand subscribers and Indiana University Press published a selection of essays from the journal in 1991, under the title, Explorations in Film Theory.

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Like illicit cargo, a spare VHS tape from the one that Swaroop had cut for the censors found its way to an arts camp in Kasauli, thanks to art historian Ashish Rajadhyaksha. This is where the film was perceived as being close to artist Bhupen Khakhar’s works. The likes of Manjeet Bawa, Tyeb Mehta, Vivan Sundaram, Akbar Padamsee, I am told, would watch it over and over again. It helped Om Dar-B-Dar establish artistic cred. Copies of the VHS tape got into circulation. The print was viewed as staple diet by subsequent batches of Pune’s FTII. The gospel subtly spread among young filmmakers with artistic aspirations.

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/voices/one-head-scratcher-of-a-movie

This iconic underground film is path breaking in more than one aspect. Along with being the only truly surreal movie in Indian cinema, it has also used a unique method of proliferation: word-of-mouth; its VHS tape copies were viewed and passed along in elite art groups which then got converted to CDs and finally ended up as torrents. All this happened long before the term “viral marketing” came into vogue.

http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1654

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As Armas e o Povo (1975) by the Colectivo de Trabalhadores da Actividade Cinematográfica / Workers of the Cinematographic Community in Portugal

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Cooperatives +/ Collectives

–> Yukt Film Cooperative Society

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http://www.primaryinformation.org/projects/art-workers-coalition/

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An initial look at people per frame (PPF). 

From top:

1. Indian Movie Face Database (IMFDB): http://cvit.iiit.ac.in/projects/IMFDB/

2. Heavy Metal Parking Lot

3. The Newshour with Arnab Goswami

4. IIT JEE coaching ad

5. Donald Trump’s Obama founded ISIS speech

6. Telangana formation celebrations, Gun Park, Hyderabad

7. Antiques Roadshow

8. Andhra Pradesh history book

9. Hamara Shahar

10. Political flex poster, Hyderabad

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