All of My Work Is Endangered’: Anand Patwardhan on the Future of Documentary Films in India https://artreview.com/all-of-my-work-is-endangered-anand-patwardhan-on-the-future-of-documentary-films-in-india/
Mark Rappolt Features22 October 2021
The new proposed bill is crazy – it allows the present rightwing government to remove clearances that were granted under previous governments. All of my work is endangered. Clearly this kind of law, while it pretends to protect ‘public morality’ and ‘sensibility’, is aimed at the human-rights- oriented films we made, films which somehow got through the system in the past, some bruised and some intact.
There is little free speech now in India. Here and there people do speak out and the government cracks down and there are different levels of crackdown. People have been murdered, sometimes jailed, sometimes their work is prevented from reaching the public. Generally, the ways of reaching audiences are shrinking: both because of government actions but also due to the pandemic.