2005-2007
conceived and directed by mousumi de
produced by mousumi de, richard edkins, karen bristoll
camera by richard edkins, mousumi de, christopher shone
special thanks to ricardo mbarak for interviews in Lebanon
special thanks to tim seltzer for interviews in Kyrgystan
photography by karen bristoll, richard edkins, mousumi de
edited by mousumi de, lesley scrine, richard edkins, chris schone
publicity by daniel huges
It was December 2004, it all started in a class of conflict transformation; there were people from England, different parts of Africa, Japan, China and many more, I was the only Indian. I wasn’t doing that module, I used to just go and sit whenever time permitted. That particular class started with the quote ‘an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind’. The class was about Martin Luther King and Gandhi. During my childhood 2nd October was marked for Gandhi Jayanti art competitions that I invariably participated in, more for art than anything else; and in the following decades it was just another day off from work, a holiday nothing more exciting than Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi on TV. I was just sitting there in the class and I questioned myself, I am from India and I have to be ‘reminded’ about Gandhi here in Britain? What the hell am I doing? What the hell am I doing with media? Don’t we have enough media on violence? Can we talk about non-violence for a change? An eye for an eye? is an interactive documentary that questions if it is naïve to think that non-violence can work in this century, against violent weapons of the military and silent weapons of the media. With Richard Edkins and Karen Bristoll, it was shot over a period of 17 months in over 7 countries. This documentary started as a compilation of people’s experiences and opinions on whether non-violence can work in this century, but has emerged as a compilation of their stories, that lie beneath the skin of their opinions. Everyone has a story to tell, whether they come from Lithuania or Kyrgyzstan, Iraq or Lebanon, Britain or Germany. In the heart of these stories lies the human in different faces. An eye for an eye? invites you to see the human that lies beneath the garb of nationality, race, regime, class, creed, colour and the different faces of god. As for whether non-violence can work in this century? –an eye for an eye can just make the whole world blind, but what do you think? The project concludes in the form of a 40 minute linear documentary and 400 clips put together into an interactive documentary using the Korsakow system that was devised by media artist Florian Thalhofer. For more information on the film, please visit: June 2007 : The film is under production; on June 10th 2007 my external hard drive crashed and corrupted most of the data, we lost about a year's work but I am back in action with Lesley Scrine. March 2006: a preview version of the linear film is screened at the exhibition Woman's Eye View at Lanchester Gallery, Coventry University, as part of Coventry Women's festival. October 2005: a preview version of the linear film is screened at Hinckley College. One of the student's questioned me about the editing proces of the film 'Dont you think you are already editing the film by choosing who to interview and who not to?'. A lot of the interviews conducted were absolutely random. September 2005 : there is an impromptu screening of the linear version of the film as a preview at the Brave new Brum-Apocalypse Soon ? in Digbeth September 2005 : a preview version of the linear film is screened at Diversity Day in Coventry University.
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