‘you’ve told me that three times now’: Propaganda/anti-propaganda in the Films Division India documentary, 1965–75

In the period from 1965 to 1975, some unprecedented and original experiments with the non-fiction film were conducted within Films Division India (FD), the Indian government’s documentary production organisation. The films of this period are important because they mark the first expression of dissent and resistance to statist agendas of propaganda, as well as to prescriptive ways of making documentary films. This article examines the work of a select group of FD film-makers and their engagement with politics and film form, under the leadership of FD’s then Director, Jehangir Bhownagary. This decade has often been referred to as the ‘golden age’ and the ‘experimental film’ phase of FD, framing the popular understanding of the FD documentary through the binary of ‘nation-building/propaganda films’ or ‘experimentation’. This article analyses the films of this period – from the perspective of a documentary film-maker and curator, with a long-standing engagement with the FD archive – to foreground the critique embedded within experiments with film form, as well as the status quo-ist and regressive nature of some of the highly abstract and unconventional films made in this period. By doing so, the article attempts to pry loose the rigid classifications that have now congealed debates about the FD films, and to offer a more nuanced reading of this material.