NY fest turns Norwegian producer out after racist remark: Bengali director
Times of India | 13 January 2025
12 Kolkata: A Bengali director, Anirban Dutta — whose film ‘Nocturnes' was nominated for Cinema Eye awards in sound, cinematography and music categories — has reported an alleged incident of racism involving a Norwegian producer at the event held in New York recently.
Many in India have protested the incident ever since director Anupama Srinivasan, the co-director of ‘Nocturnes', highlighted it on social media.
The incident, Dutta said, happened with Bård Kjøge Rønning, who is credited as producer for the documentary ‘No Other Land'. "He (Rønning) claimed to have watched many Indian films, and stated that Indian filmmakers don't know how to make films," Dutta said, while talking to TOI from New York. According to Dutta, the Norwegian producer had stated that Indian filmmakers ‘come begging to us' for money. "When confronted and asked how many Indian films he (Rønning) had seen, he replied that he had seen enough and gets ten emails daily in his inbox from Indian producers begging for money," Dutta said. No statement from Rønning on the issue is available yet.
"I immediately reported the incident to the organizers, who promptly asked him to leave the party. He was subsequently uninvited from all their events," Dutta said, adding that while it was important to protest against racism, not everyone in the West was like this. "The documentary community in New York and beyond has rallied to support me. They have unequivocally stated that there is no place for racism in the world, including the documentary space. I want to point out that the issue is systemic. When funding for independent films is scarce, filmmakers become vulnerable to unfair co-production agreements. We must ask why these inequitable arrangements persist? There are no funding opportunities in India and many other countries in the Global South. In order to make our films, we enter into co-productions. Filmmakers from the Global South provide the idea, story, and are the directors of the film. We have the right to fair co-production terms, proper credit, and appropriate compensation," Dutta said. "At one level, it was anger that made me put the FB post; anger that it doesn't seem to matter what you achieve in life, you are only judged by the colour of your skin, even in a forum of documentary filmmakers! At the same time, I also realized that it is a moment to speak up fearlessly," Srinivasan said from New York.
Her post caught the attention of directors Debalina, Rakesh Sharma, Anand Patwardhan and Sankhajit Biswas. Debalina pointed out that this is a case of "content colonizers". "His racist verbal assault must be condemned by not just Indian filmmakers, but also the international community. There's certainly the need for an informed dialogue, even passionate debate about the disproportionate influence the funders may be exerting on the form, style and content of Indian documentaries," Sharma opined.