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I Sing the Body Electric
INDIA / 1997 / No dialogue / Color / Video / 6 min

Director, Script, Photography, Editing: Shalinee Ghosh
Sound: Akhil Succena, Suresh SharmaMusic: Sandeep Pillai
Production Company, Source: National Institute of Design
Paldi Ahmedabad 380 007 Gujarat INDIA
Phone: 91-79-663-9692 / Fax: 91-79-660-5242
E-mail: nid@vsnl.com


Shalinee Ghosh

Graduated from the Indian National Institute of Design in 1998. She specialized in Film and Video Communication. As a student trainee under Mike Pandey she worked on Remains of the Ridge. It was televised nationally on World Environment Day '96. Made in the West, a student project of hers, dealt with recycling and dumping of plastic waste. Her diploma film Imperative and the Challenge documents water harvesting methods in the remote tribal areas of India's Drylands. She also freelances as a still photographer and writes in national dailies and journals abroad with her own illustrations.

A striking short video by a young film student transforms a grimy ironworks factory into a magic wonderworld.

Director's Statement
I Sing the Body Electric tries to capture the light, music and magic of a factory manufacturing construction rods. Dawn to dusk men risk their lives handling red hot ingots that turn in seconds into glowing serpentine waves.
Searching for assembly line shots for another film I stumbled upon this factory. The pulsating life hidden within the moribund exteriors was a revelation. Seemingly lifeless ingots that came to life and ruled. Activities of the men - their courage, skill and concentration.
Counter parted with the hectic activity, the calm alertness of squirrels, and the yogic postures of frogs. Man, machine, decay, teeming nature, residing in harmony.
I had difficulties, being the first woman on those premises. Several weeks went by before I was accepted. Every moment I was warned that lethal accidents were a breath away.
I had to shoot with a camera that had to be switched off every two minutes because of the heat. Most of the sound had to be recreated in the studio because there was no sound equipment.

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COPYRIGHT:Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Organizing Committee