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Mass Communications and Media Studies. An Introduction (2nd edition)

official state film production house, Films Division of India (FD), and majority of the scholarly works mentioned earlier deal exclusively with the history and aesthetic politics of FD. The nationalist historiography describes the FD as an extension of the colonial film institution. Battaglia questions this view and argues that this explanation only looks at the institutional structures of FD and does not take into account the contemporary deliberations that led to its establishment and also denies any agency to the freelance documentary filmmakers who operated beyond the boundaries of official institutions. Battaglia discusses at length the formation of independent documentary filmmaking in India and the impact the advent of video technology had on this culture. She argues that the video moment in India was an important historical juncture which led to the development of a particular aspect of documentary film practice which was the ‘screening’ as a live-event or cultural performance. One of the most fascinating parts of the book is the discussion related to women filmmakers and the notion of ‘feminist aesthetics’. Battaglia counters the popular idea that women filmmakers brought some kind of ‘performative’ aesthetics to documentary practices. She says that while the coming up of more women in filmmaking and the development of a new performative mode of address seem to be closely linked to each other, one must keep in mind that fixing this idea within a specific historical discourse leaves out other possible alternatives. Battaglia also devotes a substantial space to the contemporary scene and explores the film festival circuits as well as the online networks as spaces for circulation and sites of cultural activism. Battaglia’s work is unique and pioneering in the sense that it goes well beyond the existing body of work on the history of Indian documentaries whose primary concern lies with the Films Division. Documentary Film in India is a meticulously researched work and Battaglia’s first hand interviews with the practitioners and experts make the book thoroughly engaging. Exhaustive notes and references signal that the book is meant for serious researchers who want to look at a comprehensive history of documentary filmmaking in India.