LENSING ‘OUR’ FOOD - ANALYZING COMMUNITY DYNAMICS THROUGH COLLECTIVE REFLEXIVITY IN DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN INDIA AND ITALY

Abstract

In an era of rapid technological advancements, environmental crises and shifting sociopolitical landscapes, the concept of self-documenting stories of communities is being used as an effective tool to critically examine values and beliefs around agriculture and food production. Documentary filmmaking has a closer affiliation to reality and ability to deconstruct process, place and people (Nichols, 1991). Collective reflexivity is based on the premise that communities have the capacity for critical self-reflection, allowing them to examine their own mode of existence. Collective reflexivity within participatory documentary is a double entanglement which accentuates a group’s capacity for critical introspection coupled with documenting human experiences. This study examines collective reflexivity in the documentaries, "Keetnashak Ya Vinashak" (SPS Media, 2016, India) and "La Restenza" (Alessandra Coppola, 2021, Italy), two culturally distinct but profoundly related films which lens on the production of food and associated values in India and Italy. The research probes how the filmmaker engages as a participant within the larger scope of community reflection revealing multiple layers of climate change, digital technology, agro-tech and community resilience. This paper also seeks to identify how the filmmaker being situated in their own culture creates similarities and differences in the film’s approaches to examining the stories, storytelling and the characters. Does the filmmaker’s knowledge of cinematic devices contribute to its effectiveness? The paper contributes to the larger discourse of the documentary film’s function as a reflective mirror for a developing society which is influenced by neoliberal and capitalist perspectives on agriculture.