One Film at a time

This anthology of essays and interviews with filmmakers, scholars, archivists and curators explores the many and distinct processes and skills involved in keeping films alive through practices of archiving, curating and restoration. Focused on the extraordinary collection of avant-garde and political cinema from India housed in the archives of the Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, this volume traces diverse histories and trajectories of filmmaking in India since the 1960s – from experimental narrative to political documentary, cult classics to collective filmmaking practices. The volume also reflects on curatorial and archival practices as they have been up to now, and considers new ways forward.

Contributors: Nicole Wolf, Deepa Dhanraj, Kirtana Kumar, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Erika & Ulrich Gregor, K.Hariharan, Ruchir Joshi, Dorothee Wenner, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, and Markus Ruff.

“One Film at a Time” was published as part of “Badnam Basti and Other Indian Films in the Archive of Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art,” a project funded by the Cultural Preservation Programme of the Federal Foreign Office.