by MATTHEW HAYS

If you grew up in North America, chances are your perceptions of India came from either a Merchant-Ivory period movie or from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. From the dawn of cinema, Western-based filmmakers have had a fascination with India, representing the country and its people in ways that are often hugely problematic, at best.

A screening and lecture series, Phantom and Fact: India in Western Film and Video, taking place this week, explores the intricacies involved in such representations. The series has been organized in tribute to Indian film historian Vijaya Mulay’s forthcoming book, As Others See Us, an extensive overview of how Western filmmakers have viewed India.

Included in the series is India’s Struggle for National Shipping (1946), German filmmaker Paul Zils’ documentary account of India’s fight for independence, painstakingly restored by Amrit Gangar. Fritz Lang’s The Indian Tomb (1959) will also screen, a film made by the German auteur late in his career, a remake of his earlier film. Trailblazing theatre director Peter Brook’s Le Mahabharata (1989) is the epic telling of the Indian myth, in which the filmmaker based the production on his own stage version.

In 1969, famous French filmmaker Louis Malle would enter the fray, making L’Inde fantome, a direct cinema approach and effort to reveal the “real India.” The film, backed by French TV and the BBC, fascinated western audiences, but rattled the Indian middle class, who suggested the doc was rife with inaccuracies. This led Indira Gandhi to ban the BBC from India. Jean Renoir’s The River (1951) is arguably the director’s greatest feature, and was a formative influence on India’s most famous cinematic export, Satyajit Ray. The film is an adaptation of Rumer Godden’s novel about a British family living in Calcutta.

The series includes visions of India through the eyes of Canadian filmmakers. Sturla Gunnarsson’s magnificent Such a Long Journey (1998), based on the celebrated Rohinton Mistry novel, will screen, as will Philippe Gautier’s Hathi (1998), about a boy’s relationship with an elephant. The series will include a panel discussing how Canadian filmmakers have looked at India, with guest speakers Gunnarsson, Eisha Marjara, Mulay and Rock Demers.

At Goethe-Institut, La Cinémathèque québécoise and Concordia May 5–14, Info: www.centrekabir.com

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