Prof Jayasankar K. P.

About

K.P. Jayasankar retired as a Professor in 2020, from the School of Media and Cultural Studies (www. smcs.tiss.edu), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He holds an M.A. in German Studies and a Ph.D. in Humanities and Social Sciences (IIT-B). He is involved in media production, teaching and research. He 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. His documentary films (jointly directed with Prof. Anjali Monteiro), have been screened across the world, have won 33 national and international awards. 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. He has also mentored many student and fellowship documentary film projects as commissioning editor. Dr. Jayasankar is an award winning cameraperson and editor and enjoys web and graphic design. He writes in the broad areas of censorship, documentary film and media and cultural studies and have contributed to scholarly journals and edited volumes. His most recent publications are Jayasankar, K.P., anjali Monteiro, A Fly in the Curry — Independent Documentary Film in India, Sage, 2016, which has won a Special Mention for the best book on cinema in the National Film Awards, 2016, and DigiNaka: Subaltern Politics and Digital Media in Post-Capitalist India, Anjali Monteiro, K.P. Jayasankar, Amit S. Rai (Eds.), Orient Black Swan, 2020. They have also supervised several MA, M.Phil. and Ph.D. dissertations. He was a a DAAD visiting scholar at the University of Heidelberg in 1984, a Howard Thomas Memorial Fellow in Media Studies, at Goldsmith’s College, London, in 1996, an Erasmus Mundus fellow at Lund University, Sweden and a Key Technology Partner Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney in 2013. He has also been been visiting faculty at several leading media and design institutions and lectured at universities in the USA, Australia, Europe, and in Asian countries and has served as a media consultant to IFAD, NDDB and UNDP. He currently holds an Honorary Faculty Associate position at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is actively involved in movements against censorship including Vikalp, which is collective of documentary filmmakers campaigning for freedom of expression and also associated with various media and voluntary organisations.

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
Member, Editorial Board, Member, Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia Series, Routledge·
Member,Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, USA·
Founding member of the editorial collective, SubVersions—A Journal of Emerging Research in Media and Cultural Studies
Member, Board of Studies, Department of Communication Studies, Savitribai Phule Pune University
Member, Academic Council, Sree Narayana Guru College, Mumbai
Member, Managing Committee, AVEHI, Audio-Visual Resource Centre, Bombay
Member, Managing Committee, Comet Media Foundation
Trustee, Navnirmiti Trust

Publications

Books

With A. Monteiro, 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 A. Monteiro, The Spectator-Indian - An Exploratory Study of the Reception of News, Cultural Studies 10(1), January 1993.>
With A. Monteiro, India: The News of the State and the State of the News in Jensen, K.B. (ed.) The News of the World, Routledge, 1998.
With A. Monteiro - 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 A. Monteiro, Documentary and Ethnographic Film, Elsevier Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Elsevier, 2001
With A. Monteiro, 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 A. Monteiro, Censorship ke Peeche Kya Hai, in Nalini Rajan (ed) Practising Journalism, Sage, 2005
With A. Monteiro, 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 A. Monteiro, A New Pair of Scissors- the Draft Cinematograph Bill 2010, Economic and Political Weekly, July 17, 2010
With A. Monteiro, Imaging Mumbai, in Vimal Shah and Pankaj Joshi (eds) Revisioning Mumbai, Asiatic Society, Mumbai, 2010
With A. Monteiro, 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.

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

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.

Research Interests

Documentary Film, Censorship, Television Studies, Media Education, Media and Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Hermeneutics, Advaita Vedanta