Living Like a Coomon Man
By Sanderien Verstappen, Mario Rutten and Isabelle Makay 2011, 65 minutes 6:30 P.M., 19th March 2011 Smriti Nandan Cultural Centre, Nanda-deep, 15 /3 Palace Road, Bangalore 560052 Tel: 080-22258091 / 65979732 The filmmakers will be present at the screening The screening is free for members of Smriti Nandan. All others are encouraged to make a donation of Rs. 49/- or above to Smriti Nandan. Synopsis Youngsters in developing countries all over the world dream of going to the West. They hope to earn money and get overseas experience to improve their positions at home. But once they arrive, they end up in low-status jobs and living crammed into small houses with other newly arrived migrants. This film follows the daily life in one such house in East London. The bunker beds are filled with young Indians, all from relatively wealthy families in Gujarat. When they return to visit India, their families have great expectations of their sons and daughters. Will these youngsters fulfill their own and their families' dreams? Website: https://sites.google.com/site/livinglikeacommonman/ |
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About the filmmakers
SANDERIEN VERSTAPPEN is a Ph.D. researcher in Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. Her research project focuses on the impact of emigration and remittances in central Gujarat (India). She co-directed Take Away Ritual (2002), a documentary on western tourists and their interaction with inhabitants of Pushkar (Rajasthan, India). She published a book and several articles on the reception of Indian cinema among the Indian diaspora in The Netherlands (2007). See http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/s.b.verstappen/.
MARIO RUTTEN is Professor of Comparative Anthropology and Sociology of Asia at the University of Amsterdam. He has conducted extensive research in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Over the past 25 years, he has carried out fieldwork on rural capitalists and labour relations in Gujarat, and on Patel migrants in Europe (London) and their linkages with the home region in central Gujarat. Currently Mario Rutten is co-director of an international collaborative research programme between the University of Amsterdam and the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore on the various impacts of NRIs on their home region, with special emphasis on Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. See http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.a.f.rutten/
ISABELLE MAKAY is a visual anthropologist/documentary maker and teaches at the Design Academy Eindhoven. She directed several short documentaries, including Zhenja (2007), a documentary about Russian girl in Belgium who migrated from Kazachstan, and Amer (2006), a documentary about a man who visits his home village in Bosnia-Herzegovina which he left for Italy after the war.
SANDERIEN VERSTAPPEN is a Ph.D. researcher in Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. Her research project focuses on the impact of emigration and remittances in central Gujarat (India). She co-directed Take Away Ritual (2002), a documentary on western tourists and their interaction with inhabitants of Pushkar (Rajasthan, India). She published a book and several articles on the reception of Indian cinema among the Indian diaspora in The Netherlands (2007). See http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/s.b.verstappen/.
MARIO RUTTEN is Professor of Comparative Anthropology and Sociology of Asia at the University of Amsterdam. He has conducted extensive research in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Over the past 25 years, he has carried out fieldwork on rural capitalists and labour relations in Gujarat, and on Patel migrants in Europe (London) and their linkages with the home region in central Gujarat. Currently Mario Rutten is co-director of an international collaborative research programme between the University of Amsterdam and the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore on the various impacts of NRIs on their home region, with special emphasis on Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. See http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.a.f.rutten/
ISABELLE MAKAY is a visual anthropologist/documentary maker and teaches at the Design Academy Eindhoven. She directed several short documentaries, including Zhenja (2007), a documentary about Russian girl in Belgium who migrated from Kazachstan, and Amer (2006), a documentary about a man who visits his home village in Bosnia-Herzegovina which he left for Italy after the war.