An International Conference

On

Labouring Bodies in South Asian Films and Filmmaking: From Beginning to Now.

Organized by

The Cultural Studies Cell, School of Arts and Humanities, Christ University, Bengaluru

Conference Dates: 19 & 20 June 2025

“Pause to think a hundred times, a thousand times, on the doorstep of the film factory.”

Viktor Shklovsky: The Film Factory (1927)

Cinema, quite obviously a commodity, is produced by the confrontational dialectic of labour and capital. As an art form, cinema has been at the centre of debates on representation of workers and work. From the debates on cinema and its relationship with workers and depiction of work in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution (Taylor and Christie 1994) to recent works on filmmaking in its initial period in India (Mukherjee 2020) there has been instances when questions of labour, class, capital, art, and audience have converged in film studies. Yet as Elena Gorfinkel has pointed out there is in studies on cinema a “paradox of labor's simultaneous visibility and invisibility” (Gorfinkel 2012, 44). This international conference is an invitation to think about labour, work, and workers as foundational conditions of production of cinema both as a commodity and as an art form.

When thinking about labour and work, this conference invites the presenters to keep Body as a central analytic. In the evocative words of Marx in Grundrisse,“Labour is the living, form-giving fire; it is the transitoriness of things, their temporality, as their formation by living time.” To this one can add that this “form-giving fire” inhabits in the Body. This Body is not an abstract body but defined by class, caste, gender, race, and sexuality. Studies have shown how bodies are sexualized and controlled and put to labour in the production of cinema and what gets represented on the screen (Mukherjee 2020; Gorfinkel 2012). We hope that the papers presented at the conference will mark newer ways of thinking about labouring bodies not only on the screen but also in their production. Another aspect which we are interested in discussing at the conference is how the representation of workers and working classes in South Asian cinema have evolved over the years. The conference seeks to explore the diverse ways in which workers, the working class, and various vocations have been portrayed in South Asian cultural narratives. This includes depictions of labour and class in cinema in South Asia, from historical and contemporary perspectives. The conference will examine the evolving nature of work, from traditional roles to the rise of new industries and occupations.

We invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners, especially those based in South Asia to consider sharing their work and present papers at this international conference. Sub-themes may include, but are not limited to:

• Representation of labour and class in contemporary South Asian cinema, including new wave and digital cinema.
• Filmic New Media content and question of labour.
• Transforming Political Economy of South Asian Cinema.
• Distribution, Theatres, Multiplexes, changing viewership, and their impact on representations of labour.
• Gender, caste, and class in the depiction of workers and vocational roles.
• The intersection of labour, identity, and culture in films and television.
• The changing image of the protagonist: from traditional workers to new-age professionals in South Asian cinematic storytelling.
• Workers’ struggles, protests, and resistance narratives in South Asian Cinema.
• Sexuality and Labour in South Asian Cinema.

Please submit an abstract (400-500 words) and a short-bionote (150 words) to csc@christuniversity.in by April 11, 2025.

Important Dates:

●      Abstract Submission: [April 11, 2025]

●      Notification of acceptance: [April 17, 2025]

●      Payment of registration fee: [May 19, 2025]

●      Draft paper (approx. 3000 words) submission: [June 02, 2025]

●      Conference Dates: [June 19-20, 2025]

Registration fee:

South Asian Doctoral Scholars $ 20/INR 1500

South Asian Faculty: $ 30/ INR 2500

International Scholars (Outside of South Asian Region): $ 50

International Faculty (Outside of South Asian Region): $ 100

Note: Publication plan will be made in consultation with the presenters in the form of a roundtable discussion during the conference.

Conveners:

Mithilesh Kumar, Department of English and Cultural Studies

Kailash Koushik, Department of Media Studies

Prachi Pinglay, Department of Media Studies

References:

Christie, Ian, and Richard Taylor, editors. The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896-1939. Routledge, 1994.

Gorfinkel, Elena. “Introduction.” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, vol. 53, no. 1, 2012, pp. 43–46

Gorfinkel, Elena. “The Body’s Failed Labor: Performance Work in Sexploitation Cinema.” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, vol. 53, no. 1, 2012, pp. 79–98.

 Mukherjee, Debashree. Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City. Columbia University Press, 2020.