Tracing Kolkata's cinephilic encounters: An analysis of alternative cinema in the city

Abstract

Abstract This article attempts to delineate the cartography of alternative cinematic productions in the region of Kolkata, which, being a nodal juncture that shapes the cultural milieu of Bengal, offers the technological and cultural infrastructures and the scope for cinephilic engagement crucial to the production of non-mainstream cinemas. To explore the gradual development of independent and amateur films in Kolkata, this article emphasizes the cinephilic tradition of the city that not only triggered cinematic movements (such as the film society movement and the Super-8 movement) but also ushered in the institution of film festivals in the region. Despite the mutations due to technological shifts, both film societies (in altered forms) and film festivals occupy central positions in the contemporary city's cinephilic culture. This article analyses the cinephilic legacies of the film society and the Super-8 movements that have historically fostered the contemporary cinephilic ecology of Kolkata, spurring peripheral media products.