Anjali Monteiro & K.P. Jayasankar

Identity: The Construction of Selfhood

Year: 1994
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Duration: 20 mins

Questioning the notion of the self as a pre-given, primordial and purposive entity, this video explores the gamut of modes in which identities are produced, circulated and consumed within our culture. Identity is both difference and relationship; identity is enmeshed in relations of power, be they of gender, race or religion. Traversing a multi-cultural terrain inhabited by Paul Klee and the Indo-Anglian poet A.K. Ramanujan, by popular commercials and the writings of riot-affected children, Michel Foucault and Sant Kabir, the medieval Sufi poet, the video is an invitation to examine anew our praxis of identity as an eternally negotiated site of change and resistance.

Awards

Prix Futura Berlin Asia Prize 1995

2nd prize, Education and Literacy category, International Video Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, 1995

Festival Selection

13th World Wide Video Festival, 1995

Social Communication Cinema Festival, Kolkata, 2002