Screening of Survey City with Panel of Filmmakers

 

Survey City is a new filmed based on research conducted by SOAS Professor Dr. Sanjay Srivastava, SOAS Research Fellow Dr. Matt Birkinshaw, and New Delhi based filmmaker Tarini Manchanda on the 'mysterious life of documents' in Delhi. The film explores the human elements – fear, anxieties, hope, confusion – that surround the urban poor’s efforts to be good citizens and listen the state as it promises a better life through surveys and documentation. It also explores the frequently inexplicable nature of the state and its processes as it deals with those at the precarious edges of the city. The film focuses on the discovery of a set of survey-related document intended to provided security of tenure but was declared ‘lost’.

 

 

Matt Birkinshaw is a Research Fellow at SOAS. His research interests include the politics of urban infrastructure, technologies and environments in South Asia. He is currently working on water governance and geo-spatial technologies in Delhi-NCR. More information is available at mattbirkinshaw.net.

 

Tarini Manchanda studied environmental policy and currently works in New Delhi, India with local communities demanding changes in environmental law and social movements. Trained in Sociology and Environmental Policy, her films have been at residencies, festivals and universities in North America, Europe and India. The desire to solve social problems led to her interest in constructing truth and irony through visuals. Tarini’s films ask questions even as they capture a quiet bout of rain.

 

Sanjay Srivastava is British Academy Global Professor at SOAS University of London. His key publications include 'Constructing Post-colonial India. National Character and the Doon School; 'Passionate Modernity. Sexuality, Class and Consumption in India'; 'Entangled Urbanism. Slum, Gated Community and Shopping Mall in Delhi in Gurgaon', and 'Masculinity and the Post-national City. Streets, Neighbourhoods, Home and Consumerism'.