Documentary on humble Indian lamp at British festival

By Maria-Suzette Fernandes-Dias, Indo-Asian News Service

Canberra, May 2 (IANS) A documentary on 'diya', the humble earthen lamp that
lights up Indian homes during Diwali, is the focus of a documentary by an
Australian filmmaker.

Judith MacDougall has shot the 55-minute film "Diya" in Hindi with English
sub-titles.

Filmed in Uttar Pradesh in 2001, the film traces the life of the small
terracotta oil lamp used for religious ceremonies in India, particularly
during Diwali, the festival of lights.

MacDougall explores the life cycle of a lamp from the time it leaves the
potter's wheel to the colourful Indian bazaars where it is sold to frantic
buyers, to its auspicious role in the religious rites and finally to its
return to nature after it is discarded into the river at the end of the
festive ceremony.

The cinematographer has filmed "Diya", all on her own, on a digital video
camera on a 16mm film.

By focussing on an object that may seem mundane to many Indians but exotic
to a global public, MacDougall brings on screen the life of potters. Often
looked down upon as inferiors in caste-ridden Indian society, this community
personifies the strength of family bonds.

"I was taken up by the way in which three generations of a family toil in
preparing the clay, moulding it into the required shapes and finally baking
the moulds in kilns to fashion these inexpensive terracotta lamps."
MacDougall told IANS.

According to MacDougall, the families of the lamp makers are locked in
extreme poverty and are keen on breaking out of the lamp-making business.

"They are also a community of ambitious, devoted parents who want to educate
their children. Most of them would like their children to have a different,
less arduous existence, ending several generations of their family's life as
potters," observes MacDougall.

A visual anthropologist, MacDougall had initially planned to make this film
for a museum-type setting in order to help a global audience place diya in a
cultural milieu.

However, when this film was screened at various film festivals in Europe and
America, it received much acclaim not only for its ethnographic content but
also for its social theme.

MacDougall is thrilled by the positive feedback she got from the Indian
audience in Europe and America.

She says she has been successful in "making the significance of the diya and
Diwali and the Indian relation between the four elements - fire, water, air,
earth - accessible to all cultures."

The film was sparked by MacDougall's long interest in Indian culture. Her
encounter with India dates back to 1978 when she, along with her husband
David, maker of a renowned documentary, "Doon School Chronicles", was
awarded a grant by the Australian Film Commission to produce a documentary
on the richness of India's photographic tradition.

"Diya" will be featured at the Royal Anthropological Institute's film
festival to be held in Durham, Britain, in July 2003.