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Pure
Chutney is an exploration of the delicious - and even difficult
- mix of Trinidadian-Indian culture. The film takes up as
its theme the undeniable hybridity of postcolonial societies,
and celebrates in some measure the events and accidents of
history that constitute the Indian diaspora. This video portrays
interactions with various Trinidadian-Indians, and takes as
its point of departure their reflections on what someone in
the film calls "our preoccupation with India". The camera
and the narrative take the point of view of a U.S.-based Indian
writer and photographer traveling in Trinidad. This video-essay
appears at a critical time: in India, where right-wing appeals
to religious purity are signaling a period of grave crisis
for assorted minorities and women; and in the West, where
the growing presence of a diasporic Indian population in,
for example, the U.S., Canada and the U.K. calls for a sophisticated
and complex engagement with the question of Indian identities
and difference.
About the Director ...
Sanjeev Chatterjee
is associate Professor at the School of Communication, University
of Miami, and the Director of the Center for the Advancement
of Modern Media. He is also the founder/ director of the "Documentary
Unit" at the University of Miami. His other videos about the
Indian diaspora include A Cousin's Marriage (1993) and Bittersweet
(1995). His documentary From the Shadow of History, about
peacekeeping in the former Yugoslavia, placed second in the
Silver State Documentary Film Festival (1998) and was part
of the Vermont International Film Festival (1998).
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