It is sad and it is good. Sad for the reasons that led to the formation of an organisation like the Women in Cinema Collective. Good that there finally is a place for women to go to when there is trouble in the industry, and there has always been trouble. Silence has mostly been the only way out for years, decades. All that led to the WCC — you can connect it like a chain, starting with that terrible incident that happened to an actor in Kochi, words like assault and attack thrown about so much in the past many months when you talk about her, that you feel it’s enough, just let her be. Free of those words, and move on like any of the rest of us, with the regularities of life.
But it couldn’t be so, not when the names that it charred are so big. Her much-hailed bold actions brought the incident out, and silence could no longer reign. Discussions happened. Many spoke out. But the biggest of all that had been the formation of WCC.
One would think an organisation to bring the women working together in an industry together, to fight the injustices, would be welcomed by all, hailed, and promoted. But the WCC had to go through a lot in the few months it’s been formed. Here is one of its core members and filmmaker, Vidhu Vincent, giving a gist of what the WCC has come to mean.
‘WCC knows that it isn’t a bed of roses’
World cinema is going through a crucial stage. There are a lot of discussions happening on the form, language and content of cinema. The controversy that hatched in Hollywood this year was like opening a genie in a bottle. Every fest that I went to, there were discussions about Harvey Weinstein and his coworkers. Not just cinema, it was reflected in sports, academics and even politics. It became a huge campaign. Mostly initiated by women. Women became ready to open up. They became more aware about their rights. It is in this background that I want to view Malayalam cinema.
Last February, after the actor was attacked, the WCC was formed. We came together, brainstormed. We knew from the beginning it wasn’t going to be a bed of roses. Or a red velvet carpet. We’d have lots of issues. One happy thought was the realisation that we should be together, hold each other’s back, speak out, and write. That’s when we decided to see the Chief Minister. Malayalam cinema is going to turn 90 years old. We wanted to do a study on what was the place of women in Malayalam cinema and what did women go through. He welcomed our proposal. And perhaps for the first time in India, a commission was formed for it — Hema Commission. It is not a small thing.
After the meeting, there started a voluntary campaign drive for more members. WCC got registered. We began going to campuses, especially with film students in them. We spoke about the significance of such a collective. It is still in its baby stages. Even when we say it is a trade organisation it’s got a class character. There is everyone from producers to makeup artists to hair stylists. It is a group handling women’s issues. So its character is different. It can’t work like other class organisations. So our work is challenging. There are other organisations in the industry that we need to work with. We have to make them understand what we do. For that we need to be very clear ourselves. We are going through that internal exercise now.
We had a presence at this IFFK, along with other film organisations. A WCC panel was presented. There were discussions on women in cinema. Avalkoppam was a section in the IFFK. Such small interferences or the attempts at it, will either be accepted or will give rise to debates. The latest being the controversy involving Parvathy. All this would show to the world, beyond Malayalam cinema, how Malayalis react, what Malayalis really are like. We have been through several incidents like that and WCC has become a reason for some of it. Even when people spit on our faces, we are observing this other side of a Malayali. There raises a question of where we really are, despite the many advances we as a society have otherwise made.
Women power
On March 8, International Women's Day, the Indian Women Cinematographers' Collective was formed, as an initiative by senior cinematographer Fowzia Fathima.
Then there was Pombilai Orumai formed by woman workers in Munnar to demand fair wages, going against their own trade unions, rebelling against capitalism, patriarchy.
Another show of women power came when nurses in private hospitals took out a struggle demanding minimum wages and received wide support from a large section of society
‘Movies for women a must’
Maybe the results won’t come now, it will take time. But we know in a male-dominated industry like cinema, how people, stars or technicians, react. Earlier, such incidents would not come out; such discussions had no platform. WCC is trying to create that platform.
We think cinema is a capital-oriented industry. And mostly, capital is handled by men in society. There is a connection between capital and patriarchy. Women mostly don’t have capital. If we need a women-friendly face in cinema, there should be women handling capital. Movies celebrating patriarchy come so much because the people who take tickets in theatres are mostly men. Women mostly only go with men. So cinema is trying to cater to male audience. Only when we have women too like that will there be movies to cater to them. Financially and politically, women need to come into power. Not just in cinema; in different fields. That would also reflect in cinema. It is not a quick change. There should be cinema produced by women, giving importance to women in cinema. There should be more women participating in the working units. When I say that, I mean equal rights… that cinema should bring out a world that dreams of such rights.
(As told to Cris)
