Rummaging for Pasts is an experimental juxtaposition of two cinematic documents: the video diary of an international archaeological excavation and a collection of assorted eight-millimeter found footage. The archaeologists, digging at the site of Monte Pollizzo in Sicily, are in pursuit of an ephemeral past, its people and its meaning. The found footage, excavated from a roadside junkyard in a Bombay flea market, embodies forgotten images of a collective memory. Two archaeologies. One an academic endeavor, the other a collector's fetish. One investigating the pre-classical world of the Mediterranean in search of the indigenous Sicilian, the other a gaze into the private moments, ceremonies, and rituals of urban middle-class India of the 1970s. The film engages with the ambiguity inherent in ruminating over these pasts, once abandoned and now reconstructed, assuming fresh connotations and meanings in the act of recovery. The multiple objectives of the archaeological endeavor coalesce with the palpable visuals of a brief nostalgia to emerge as a single, continuous, and unresolved narrative.
Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography: Ashish Avikunthak
Editing: Danna Rose, Ashish Avikunthak
Sound: David Hoe
1 PRINT IN DISTRIBUTION
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distribution format |
Digital file on server (NTSC) |
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screen |
16/9 (single screen) |
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speed |
29,976 fps |
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sound |
sound |
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rental fee |
112,00 € |
