Prof Anjali Monteiro – School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS

About

Anjali Monteiro retired as a Professor in 2020, from the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Masters degree in Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology. She is involved in documentary production, media teaching and research. She teaches courses in documentary and video production as well as theoretical approaches to image making practices and has done pioneering and innovative work in critical media education with various groups including activists, school and college students, parents and teachers. Jointly with Prof. K.P. Jayasankar, she has won thirty-three national and international awards at documentary film festivals. A presiding thematic of much of their work has been a problematising of notions of self and the other, of normality and deviance, of the local and the global, through the exploration of diverse narratives and rituals. These range from the stories and paintings of indigenous peoples to the poetry of prison inmates. Their most recent awards for their Kachchh Trilogy are the Basil Wright Prize 2013 for So Heddan So Hoddan (Like Here Like There) and Jury's commendation in the Intangible Culture category 2019 for A Delicate Weave at the Royal Anthropological Institute Festival, UK. Retrospectives include Vibgyor Film Festival, Kerala, 2006; Bangalore Film Society, 2010; Madurai International Film Festival, 2012 Parramasala Sydney, 2013, Chennai 2017, Trichur International Film Festival 2018 and India International Centre, New Delhi 2018. An adaptation of their film Saacha (The Loom) was a part of the art exhibition ‘Project Space: Word. Sound. Power.’ at the Tate Modern, London, in 2013, and at Walking Through the Soul City — Sudhir Patwardhan: A Retrospective, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, between Nov. 30, 2019 and Feb. 12, 2020. Monteiro and Jayasankar were invited artists at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018, where Saacha (The Loom) was showcased as an installation, between Dec 12, 2018 and March 29, 2019. They have served as jury members and as festival consultants to several film festivals in India. They have mentored many award-winning student and fellowship documentary film projects as commissioning editors. Her doctoral work involved an ethnographic study of television audience reception in a working class neighbourhood in Goa, in the late 1980s. She currently writes in the broad area of media and cultural studies, with focus on documentary film, censorship, critical theory and issues of media representation. She has been a visiting professor at several Universities, including University of Technology Sydney, University of Western Sydney, Lund University, Sweden and University of California, Berkeley. She has a book entitled A Fly in the Curry: Independent Documentary Film in India (Sage, 2016), co-authored with Prof. K.P. Jayasankar. She is active in campaigns against censorship and for freedom of expression. Awards

From the Diary of a Genetic Counsellor Best Programme Award, Open/General category, Fifth UGC Country-wide Classroom Video Festival, Hyderabad, 1992.
The Plot Thickens... First Prize and the Award for Individual Technical Excellence in Editing, Sixth UGC Country-wide Classroom Video Festival, Calcutta, 1993.
Identity- The Construction of Selfhood Asia Prize, Prix Futura Berlin 1995 Second Prize, Education and Literacy Category, International Video Festival on Science, Society and Development, Thiruvanathapuram, 1995.
Odhni- A Collective Exploration of Our Selves, Our Bodies Second Prize, Health and Population Category, International Video Festival on Science, Society and Development, Thiruvanathapuram,1995.
Kahankar: Ahankar Jury's Special Mention, Mumbai International Film Festival, 1996.
YCP 1997 Certificate of Merit, Mumbai International Film Festival, 1998. Jury’s Award for Best Innovation, Astra Festival of Anthropological Documentary Film, Sibiu, Romania, 1998.
Saacha Second Prize, New Delhi Video Forum, 2001.
SheWrite Best documentary, IV Three Continents International Documentary Festival, Venezuela, 2005. Gold for Sound Design and Silver for Cinematography, Indian Documentary Producers Association (IDPA)Awards, 2005. Sadho International Poetry Festival Special Award, New Delhi, 2010.
Our Family Special Jury Award, Signs Film Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, 2007. Certificate of Merit and Special Mention of the Jury, MIFF 2008. Gold for Best Sound Design, Gold for Best Script, Silver for Editing, and Certificate of Merit for the Best Documentary, IDPA Awards, 2008
Memory.Space Gold for Best Cell Story, IDPA Awards, 2008
Breasts Special Mention of the Jury, Sadho International Poetry Festival, New Delhi, 2007.
Do Din ka Mela Gold for Best Script and Certificate of Merit for the Best Documentary, IDPA Awards, 2010. Commendation of the Jury, Intangible Culture Category, Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) International Festival of Ethnographic Film, 2011. Runner up, We Speak Here International Online Film Festival, 2012. National Award: Rajat Kamal for Best Audiography, 2012.
So Heddan So Hoddan, Silvers for Script, Cinematography and Sound Design IDPA Awards, 2011 Best film, International Folk Music Film Festival, Kathmandu, 2012. Basil Wright Prize, 13th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film 2013.
A Delicate Weave Jury's commendation in the Intangible Culture category at the 16th Royal Anthropological Institute Festival 2019 at Bristol, UK
A Fly in the Curry Special Mention in the President’s National Awards, 2017 best book on cinema category. The citation reads: “K.P.Jayasankar- Anjali Monteiro explore independent documentary films in India and revisit the relationship between filmmakers and their narratives. The book sets new standards for form and context in cinema studies.”

Affiliations

Former Faculty Associate, Faculty of Arts and Social Scienes, University of Technology, Sydney
Trustee and President, Managing Committee, AVEHI, Audio-Visual Resource Centre, Bombay·
Founding member of the editorial collective, SubVersions—A Journal of Emerging Research in Media and Cultural Studies
Member,Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Creative Communication, Sage·
Member,Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, USA
Member, Editorial Board, Member, Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia Series, Routledge
Member, PUKAR Institutional Ethics Committee
Member, Academic Council, Central University of Tamil Nadu
Member, Board of Studies, Department of Communication Studies, Pune University

Publications

Books

Towards People-Centred Development, co-eds, M. Desai & L. Narayan, Mumbai, TISS, 1998.
With K.P. Jayasankar, A Fly in The Curry: Independent Documentary in India, Sage, 2016.
Anjali Monteiro, K.P. Jayasankar and Amit Rai (eds), DigiNaka: Subaltern Politics and Digital Media in Post-Capitalist India, Orient Blackswan, 2020.

Selected Papers in Books and Journals

With K.P. Jayasankar, The Spectator-Indian - An Exploratory Study of the Reception of News, Cultural Studies 10(1), January 1993.
With K.P. Jayasankar, India: The News of the State and the State of the News in Jensen, K.B. (ed.) The News of the World, Routledge, 1998.
Official Television and Unofficial Fabrications of the Self: The Spectator as Subject in Nandy, Ashis (ed.), The Secret Politics of Our Desires, OUP, 1998.
With K.P. Jayasankar - Between the Normal and the Imaginary - The Spectator-self, the Other and Satellite Television in India, in Hagen, I and Wasko, (ed.,) Consuming Audiences: Production and Reception in Media Research (International Association for Mass Communication Research (Series), Hampton Press, 2000.
With K.P. Jayasankar, Documentary and Ethnographic Film, Elsevier Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Elsevier, 2001
With P. Jayasankar, The Plot Thickens – A Cultural Studies Approach to Media Education in India, in Tony Lavender, Birgitte Tufte and Dafna Lemish (eds.) Global Trends in Media Education, Hampton Press, 2003
With K.P. Jayasankar, Censorship ke Peeche Kya Hai, in Nalini Rajan (ed) Practising Journalism, Sage, 2005
With K.P. Jayasankar, Jai Ho Shanghai: The Invisible Poor in Slumdog Millionaire, in Kaldor, Mary et al (eds) Global Civil Society Yearbook of the London School of Economics, 2009, Sage, London
With K.P. Jayasankar, A New Pair of Scissors- the Draft Cinematograph Bill 2010, Economic and Political Weekly, July 17, 2010
With K.P. Jayasankar, Imaging Mumbai, in Vimal Shah and Pankaj Joshi (eds) Revisioning Mumbai, Asiatic Society, Mumbai, 2010
With K.P. Jayasankar, Resisting Censorship in India, East Asia Forum Quarterly, Vol 4, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2012.
Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar, Mumbai Sub-versions: The Place of Affect in Digital Video Activism in Monteiro, A. et al (eds) DigiNaka: Subaltern Politics and Digital Media in Post-Capitalist India, Orient Blackswan, 2020.
Faiz Ullah, Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar, DiverCity- Independent Documentary as an Alternate Narrative of the Cityin Devasundaram, A.E. (ed) Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: The New Independent Cinema Revolution, Routledge, 2018.

Other Articles/Reviews

Film Review: With K.P. Jayasankar , Voices from Baliapal - A Review, Indian Journal of Social Work, Vol. L, No:6, Oct. 1989, pp. 545-48
With K.P. Jayasankar, Do Children have Bad Effects on Television, Perspectives, Nov. 1996.
With K.P. Jayasankar, Let a Thousand Meanings Bloom, Economic Times, Nov. 24, 1996
With K.P. Jayasankar, The Film-maker as Activist, Seminar 466, June 1998, p.99.
With K.P. Jayasankar, Towards Critical Encounters with the Dominant Media in India, The Third Eye 1, 1999, p.29.
With K.P. Jayasankar, Images of the Other in India, Media Development, 2001
Towards Gender Sensitivity in the Media, Manavi, 2002
Book Review: Representing Black Britain, by Sarita Malik, in Biblio, Vol. VII, Nos. 9 &10, Sept-Oct 2002
Book Review: Violence and the Media, by Cynthia Carter and C. Kay Weaver, Culture, Health & Sexuality, July–August 2005; 7(4): 405–423
With K.P. Jayasankar, Love in the Time of Moral Policing, Sunday Herald, February 8, 2009, p. 1
Book Review: The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2009, 1-3
With K.P. Jayasankar, Like Here Like There, Himal South Asian, October 2011
Monteiro, Anjali, Let a Thousand Wisdoms Bloom, http://designpublic.in/blog/let-a-thousand-wisdoms-bloom/, November 21, 2012
Book Review: Sanjukta Dasgupta, Dipankar Sinha and Sudeshna Chakravarti, Media, Gender and Popular Culture in India: Tracking Change and Continuity , Contributions to Indian Sociology, October 2013 47: 449-451

Projects

Film Projects

Pani Panchayat
1986, Part I and II, 50 mins, Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Watershed Management, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development

New Directions in Medical Social Work: Community Health
1987, Part I and II, 60 mins., Hindi with English subtitles
Tags: Community Health, Community Participation, Social Work

The Young Workers
1987, Parts I-IV, 1 hr. 40 mins.
Tags: Child Labour, Community Participation.

Tanda
A Document on the Denotified Tribes in Maharashtra
1988, Part I and II, 60 mins, Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Nomadic and De-notified Tribes, Human Rights, Social Movements

The Fifth Schedule
1988, Part I and II, 44 mins
Tags: Indigenous peoples, Forest Rights, Scheduled Tribes, Land Alienation, Human Rights, Social Movements, Environment.

Lage Jiva Ghar Ghar
A Document on Women and Shelter
1990, 44 mins., Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Housing Rights, Gender, Domestic Violence, Patriarchy

From the Diary of a Genetic Counsellor
1991, 30 mins., English
Best Programme Award, Open/General category, Fifth UGC Country-wide Classroom Video Festival 1992
Tags: Health, Genetic Counselling, Down’s Syndrome, Social Work

Magra Mewar Vikas Sanstha
1991, Part I and II, 68 mins., Hindi with English subtitles
Tags: Watershed Management, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development

One Hundred Years Of Drought
1993, 21 mins., Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Watershed Management, Drought, Famine, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development

Sudha Police Station Gayi Thi
On the Demystification of Police Procedures for Women
1992, 16 mins., Hindi
Tags: Gender, Domestic Violence, Patriarchy, Police, Social Work

Odhni: A Collective Exploration Of Ourselves, Our Bodies
1993, 23 mins., Hindi with English subtitles
Tags: Sexuality, Gender, Domestic violence, Patriarchy
2^ndprize, Health and Population category, International Video Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, 1995.

The Plot Thickens…
1993, 14 min., English
Tags: Media Education, Media Literacy, Identity, Semiotics, Advertising
First Prize and the Award for Individual Technical Excellence in Editing,

Identity: The Construction of Selfhood
1994, 20 mins., English
Tags: Media Education, Media Literacy, Identity, Semiotics, Advertising, Communalism
Prix Futura Berlin Asia Prize 1995.
2^nd prize, Education and Literacy category, International Video Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, 1995.

Punarvasan
A Document on Reconstruction in Post-earthquake Marathwada
1995, 58 mins., Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Earthquake, Environment, Community Participation, Housing, Rehabilitation, Sustainable Development

Kahankar: Ahankar (Story Maker : Story Taker)
1995, 38 mins., Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Indigenous peoples, Forest Rights, Scheduled Tribes, Land Alienation, Warli Paintings, Warli Folklore, Environment, Gender.
Special Mention of the Jury, Mumbai International Film Festival,1996.

YCP 1997
1997, 43 mins., Marathi and Hindi with English subtitles
Tags: Prisons, Identity, Poetry, Human Rights
Certificate of Merit, Mumbai International Film Festival 1998
Jury’s Award for Best Innovation, Astra Festival of Anthropological Documentary Film, Sibiu, Romania, 1998.

Water to the People
Towards Community Participation in Rural Drinking Water Schemes
1998, 34 mins., English, Marathi
Tags: Drinking Water Management, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development

Jungle Tales
Surviving Development in Uttara Kannada
1999, 52 mins., Kannada with English subtitles
Tags: Indigenous peoples, Joint Forest Management, Scheduled Tribes, Land Alienation, Forest Rights, Social Movements, Environment.

Self Representation
5 mins, English, 2000
Tags: Media Education, Media Literacy, Identity

Saacha (The Loom)
2001, 49 mins., Marathi and English
Tags: Working Class, Mumbai, Poetry, Art, Marxism, Trade Unions, Textile Industry, Mills, Narayan Surve, Sudhir Patwardhan
Second Prize, New Delhi Video Forum, 2001.

Reconstructing Communities
2002, 52 mins, Part I &II, Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Watershed Management, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development

Naata (The Bond)
2003, 45 mins., English, Hindi
Tags: Informal Sector, Mumbai, Slums, Communal Harmony, Peace and Conflict Resolution, 1992 Mumbai Riots, Dharavi, Community Media

Mumbai
2004,10 Mins, Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Working Class, Mumbai, Poetry, Marxism, Trade Unions, Textile Industry, Mills, Narayan Surve

SheWrite
2005, 55 mins, Tamil and English
Tags: Sexuality, Poetry, Tamil, Gender, Domestic violence, Patriarchy
Best Documentary Prize, IV Three Continents International Documentary Festival, Venezuela 2005
Gold for Sound Design and Silver for Cinematography, IDPA Awards 2005

Unheard Voices
2006, 27 mins, English
Tags: Health, HIV/AIDS

With the People
2006, 5 mins, English
Tags: Baba Amte, Anandwan, Community Participation, Social Work, TISS

Our Family
2007, 56 mins, English
Tags: Gender, Sexuality, Patriarchy, Transgender, Tamil Nadu
Special Mention of the Jury, Signs 2007
Certificate of Merit and Special Mention of the Jury, MIFF 2008
Indian Documentary Producers Association (IDPA) Gold for Best Sound Design
IDPA Gold for Best Script
IDPA Silver for Editing
IDPA Certificate of Merit for the Best Documentary

Memory.Space
DV, 90 secs, 2009
Tags: Memory, City
IDPA Gold for Best Cell Story, 2008

Irani Restaurant Instructions
2008, 3 mins, English
Tags: Poetry, Irani, Nissim Ezekiel, Mumbai

Do Din ka Mela
A Two Day Fair
2009, 60 mins, English subtitles
Tags: Kachchh, Kabir, Music, Sufi
IDPA Gold for Best Script
IDPA Certificate of Merit, Best Documentary
2010 Commendation of the Jury, RAI International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2011
Runner Up, We Speak Here Culture Unplugged International Online Film Festival, 2012
National Award: Rajat Kamal for Best Audiography 2012.

Climate Justice for All
2009, 16 mins, English
Tags: Community Participation, Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Forest Rights, Social Movements, Environment.

So Heddan So Hoddan
Like Here Like There
2011, 60 mins, English subtitles, PSBT
Tags: Kachchh, Shah Latif Bhitai, Music, Sufi
IDPA Silvers for Script, Sound Design and Cinematography, 2011
Best film, International Folk Film Festival, Kathmandu 2012
Basil Wright Award, RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, 2013

Farooq vs The State
2012, 25 mins, English subtitles, TISS
Tags: Mumbai, Communalism, Human Rights, Police, Riots

A Delicate Weave, 2017

Surshala, 2018

Documentary and Web Projects Mentored/Commissioned

2018
Friendscapes
Break the Silence around Sexual Violence PSA series
Manbhum City
Fables From My Childhood

2017
A Foreigner In My Own Land
Kahan ka Rasta (At the Crossroads)
Culture Download
Wheels of Her Own
Mithi Si
These Women in the Hills
Like Dust We Rise
Why This Cow-laveri Di?
Wo Dhuan
Kapda Kamra Kachra
PSA Series on Questioning Heteronormativity

2016
Tayiya Kanasu (A Mother’s Dream)
Mod (The Turn)
Many Months in Mirya
Dar-B-Dar (The Itinerants)
Time Vampires
Where the Blue Lotus Blooms…
Chakwa or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying about the Slum
Vaastvya
Raet ke Mahal (Sand Castles)
Kiska Jungle, Kiska Mangal? (Whose Forest is it anyway?)
PSA series "Say No to Intolerance, Say Yes to Diversity."

2015
A Radio of One’s Own/Apna Ek Radio
Chatkorichya Athvani
Kicking from the Corner
Govandi Crime aur Camera
Imaging Bombay
Antar Bhaasha
Caste on the Menu Card
Jaat Baaja Baraat
Mula Vimutti
Not Caste in Stone
Silence Please!
PSA Series “Say No to Censorship”

2014
Waiting for a Storm
Where The Clouds End
Delisle Road Dreams
HerStories
Mahatma Phule Vyayam Shala
Rajacha Lalbaug
PSA Series on Safe City

2013
A Commons Story
Flashpoint
Aman ki Khoj / Search for Peace
Framing’92
Badalte Nakshe / Changing Maps
Ek Aakhari Panah / One Last Refuge
PSA Series on Commons

2012
Breakin’ Mumbai
TISSTORY – Glimpses through the Archive
Such an Eventful Journey
Reconstructing Lives – A Community Centred Response to Disasters
Innovation in Praxis
At TISS – Campus Life through the Years

2011
Dere Tun Dilli
Old Routes New Journeys
From The Margins
Do Andolan
Cornered City
City’s Edge
Fish Tales
Kahani Pani Ki

2010
Videokaaran
Andhere Se Pehle

2009
There are No Borders Here
Inside Out
Flex n Faces
My Name is Basheer

2008
Where’s Kishore
Koliwada Gazing
Gender Unpack

Webarchives

Migrant Mumbai
A City Made and Sustained by Migrants
migrantmumbai.tiss.edu

Street Mumbai
On Access and Rights to Streets
streetmumbai.tiss.edu

WasteLines Mumbai
Rethinking waste and the city
wastemumbai.tiss.edu

CasteMopolitan Mumbai
Contesting caste in the cosmopolis
castemumbai.tiss.edu

Giran Mumbai/Mill Mumbai
Revisiting the mill lands of Mumbai and its people
millmumbai.tiss.edu

Remembering 1992
An exploration of different kinds of memory of the Mumbai ethnic violence of 1992-93, that seeks to counter the present erasures.
mumbairiots.tiss.edu

DiverCity
Visual Mumbai archive
divercity.tiss.edu

TISStory
An oral history archive that presents 75 years of TISS’ contributions to education, field action and research from the perspective of alumni and teachers:
tisstory.tiss.edu

Teaching

Courses Taught (MA in Media and Cultural Studies)

Image Making I
(Basic course, 2 credits, Semester 1, MA in Media and Cultural Studies)

The course critically explores visual images and media narratives, to understand how they are constructed in and through relationships of power and resistance. It enables the students to appreciate the many complex layers and codes involved in image making and representation. It also facilitates a critical engagement with contemporary visual culture in India.

Image Making II
(Basic course, 2 credits, Semester 2, MA in Media and Cultural Studies)

This course introduces key issues, debates and movements in documentary film, illustrated with screenings of selected documentary classics. Through the exploration of the work of selected filmmakers, it also aims to sensitise students to the formal elements and changing language of documentary film. This course also seeks to understand the history of documentary film in India, locating it in the context of shifting discourses on state, nation, gender and development, encompassing a range of styles and approaches. Throughout the course, the claim of the documentary to represent the “real” is critically interrogated.

Working with Video I
(Basic course, 3 credits, Semester 2, MA in Media and Cultural Studies)

A hands-on course that uses the technical inputs provided in Semester I to take students through the process of producing two short video pieces. It familiarises students with conceptualising, visualising and creative writing for the production of a music video and a public service spot. This course combines the technical and aesthetic aspects of production.

Working with Video II
(Basic course, 4 credits, Semester 3, MA in Media and Cultural Studies)

A hands-on course that takes students through the process of producing a documentary film in small groups around a broad common theme relating to the city of Mumbai. It familiarises students with the documentary production process from concept through script, documentation and post-production. At the end of the course, the students would have skills for developing a concept and proposal, doing research for documentary, interacting with communities for making a film, scripting, undertaking video documentation and editing a documentary.

Outreach Teaching

Courses in Documentary Production
Asian College of Journalism
Central University of Hyderabad
Central University of Tamil Nadu
Central University of Rajasthan
Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication
Lahti School of Design, Finland
Film and Television Institute of India, Pune
C-DIT, Kerala

Courses in Media and Cultural Studies
National Institute of Design
Central University of Rajasthan
University of California, Berkeley
University of Technology, Sydney

Research Interests

Documentary Film, Censorship, Television Studies, Media Education, Media and Cultural Studies