The Yugantar Film Collective (1980–1983) was founded in Bangalore, India, by documentarian Deepa Dhanraj, activist Abha Bhaiya, cinematographer Navroze Contractor, and writer Meera Rao. Emerging at a time of political upheaval and transformation in the country, their filmography constitutes a remarkable archive that addresses intersectional questions of labour and gender, class and caste violence, sexual exploitation, and the prevailing patriarchal social order. Working with participatory forms of filmmaking, the activism of the Yugantar Collective is born from the political and social context of its formation — the radical student’s movement of the 1960s, the Indian women’s movement of the 1970s and 1980s, and the aftermath of India’s Emergency (1975 to 1977), a period of state violence, political persecution, and forced sterilisation campaigns.

A common thread that connects the four films on view in this programme is the development of close alliances with grassroots women’s groups in India. The collective gives voice to working women by recording what was happening on the ground as they became politicised. As noted by Deepa Dhanraj, “we did not come to a ready-made understanding of documentary practice; we were creating a process as we worked”. Throughout this process, women share their stories of pain and resistance, express critical positions, and discuss political demands regarding their living conditions. Thinking together becomes a “collective event”. The debates and negotiation that ensue gradually translate into alliances and friendships that form a powerful ecosystem beyond the films themselves. The filmmakers capture the energy of the women’s speech: anger, frustration, disagreement, negotiation, solidarity. The pleasure of sharing becomes an act of radical intimacy and an exercise in collective action. In Dhanraj’s words, the ways in which women speak of their lives and suffering is supported by a collaborative process that finds its transformative potential in “listening with complete attention”. By gathering this material, Yugantar’s Collective aimed at circulating the films back into the community as tools for developing further ways of self-organising, thus a blueprint for feminist political action. 

The films’ formal experimentation and its associated activist practices are shaped by the women’s lived experiences and narratives. Shot on 16mm, each film explores issues ranging from labour rights and domestic subjugation to the effect of extractivist policies on communities and ecosystems. Location plays an important role — the private and public spaces, the home and the street, the workplace, the factory, the hospital, the paths to work, the meadows and the forest. The films make creative use of different discursive strategies, from documentary scenes to fictional ones (often improvised) and re-enactments (such as the strike at the tobacco factory in Nipani).  Molkarin focuses on domestic workers in the city of Pune and their process of developing political consciousness by joining unions to strike against low wages and poor working conditions: “We wash vessels, clothes and run our homes. Prices keep rising daily. We work all day, still we can’t afford to eat two meals”, says one of the women. The density of Tambaku Chaakila Oob Ali derives from the determination of a group of female workers in a tobacco factory in Nipani. Subjected to physical and verbal abuse as well as to silently endure the sexual exploitation perpetrated by their managers, the women gather to end with systemic violence and to strike for higher wages, a struggle that they won.  Developed with the feminist activist collective Stree Shakhti Sanghatana, in Hyderabad, Idhi Katha Matramena is a fictionalised portrait of a woman’s emotional collapse and suicide attempt as she seeks to cope with work, study, motherhood, home obligations, and an abusive family. The characters and dialogues in the film emerged from consciousness-raising sessions where women discussed painful experiences. In Sudesha, Yugantar worked with the Chipko Movement, a non-violent group of women who fiercely campaigned against the deforestation of rural Himalayan regions. As scientist and activist Vandana Shiva reminds us, forests are life support systems and a matter of survival for these women. In the final sequence of Sudesha, as a group of women gathers at night before a protest, they discuss their husbands’ disapproval of their political activity. While hand spinning with dim light, we hear one of them saying: “If we are all here together, why should you be afraid.”

In capturing how women theorised their struggles and strategically planned their resistance, the films of Yugantar Collective pose questions about the relevance of feminist archives for an emancipatory politics of solidarity today. In fact, they also express a sense of hope in the way documentary practices offer a framework to nurture synergies across filmmaking, activism, and social justice.