Faculty & Staff
Prof Anjali Monteiro
Professor , Mumbai campus
Dean - School of Media and Cultural StudiesQualification
M.A. (Poona),
Ph.D. (Goa)
Anjali Monteiro is a Professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Masters degree in Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology. She is involved in documentary production, media teaching and research. She teaches courses in documentary and video production as well as theoretical approaches to image making practices and has done pioneering and innovative work in critical media education with various groups including activists, school and college students, parents and teachers.
Jointly with Prof. K.P. Jayasankar, she has won thirty-two national and international awards at documentary film festivals. A presiding thematic of much of their work has been a problematising of notions of self and the other, of normality and deviance, of the local and the global, through the exploration of diverse narratives and rituals. These range from the stories and paintings of indigenous peoples to the poetry of prison inmates. Their most recent award is the Basil Wright Prize for So Heddan So Hoddan (Like Here Like There) at the 13th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film 2013. Retrospectives of their work include Vibgyor Film Festival, Kerala, 2006; Bangalore Film Society, 2010; Madurai International Film Festival, 2012 and Parramasala Sydney, 2013. An adaptation of their film Saacha (The Loom) was a part of the art exhibition Project Space: Word. Sound. Power. at the Tate Modern, London, in 2013; and at Khoj, New Delhi in 2014. They have served as jury members and as festival consultants to several film festivals in India. They have mentored many award-winning student and fellowship documentary film projects as commissioning editors.
Her doctoral work involved an ethnographic study of television audience reception in a working class neighbourhood in Goa, in the late 1980s. She currently writes in the broad area of media and cultural studies, with focus on documentary film, censorship, critical theory and issues of media representation. She has been a visiting professor at several Universities, including University of Technology Sydney, University of Western Sydney, Lund University, Sweden and University of California, Berkeley. She has a book entitled A Fly in the Curry: Independent Documentary Film in India (Sage, 2016), co-authored with Prof. K.P. Jayasankar. She is active in campaigns against censorship and for freedom of expression.
Awards
- From the Diary of a Genetic Counsellor
Best Programme Award, Open/General category, Fifth UGC Country-wide Classroom Video Festival, Hyderabad, 1992. - The Plot Thickens...
First Prize and the Award for Individual Technical Excellence in Editing, Sixth UGC Country-wide Classroom Video Festival, Calcutta, 1993. - Identity- The Construction of Selfhood
Asia Prize, Prix Futura Berlin 1995
Second Prize, Education and Literacy Category, International Video Festival on Science, Society and Development, Thiruvanathapuram, 1995. - Odhni- A Collective Exploration of Our Selves, Our Bodies
Second Prize, Health and Population Category, International Video Festival on Science, Society and Development, Thiruvanathapuram,1995. - Kahankar: Ahankar
Jury's Special Mention, Mumbai International Film Festival, 1996. - YCP 1997
Certificate of Merit, Mumbai International Film Festival, 1998.
Jury’s Award for Best Innovation, Astra Festival of Anthropological Documentary Film, Sibiu, Romania, 1998. - Saacha
Second Prize, New Delhi Video Forum, 2001. - SheWrite
Best documentary, IV Three Continents International Documentary Festival, Venezuela, 2005.
Gold for Sound Design and Silver for Cinematography, Indian Documentary Producers Association (IDPA)Awards, 2005.
Sadho International Poetry Festival Special Award, New Delhi, 2010. - Our Family
Special Jury Award, Signs Film Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, 2007. Certificate of Merit and Special Mention of the Jury, MIFF 2008.
Gold for Best Sound Design, Gold for Best Script, Silver for Editing, and Certificate of Merit for the Best Documentary, IDPA Awards, 2008 - Memory.Space
Gold for Best Cell Story, IDPA Awards, 2008 - Breasts
Special Mention of the Jury, Sadho International Poetry Festival, New Delhi, 2007. - Do Din ka Mela
Gold for Best Script and Certificate of Merit for the Best Documentary, IDPA Awards, 2010.
Commendation of the Jury, Intangible Culture Category, Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) International Festival of Ethnographic Film, 2011.
Runner up, We Speak Here International Online Film Festival, 2012.
National Award: Rajat Kamal for Best Audiography, 2012. - So Heddan So Hoddan, Silvers for Script, Cinematography and Sound Design IDPA Awards, 2011
Best film, International Folk Music Film Festival, Kathmandu, 2012.
Basil Wright Prize, 13th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film 2013.
Affiliations
- Trustee and President, Managing Committee, AVEHI, Audio-Visual Resource Centre, Bombay·
- Founding member of the editorial collective, SubVersions—A Journal of Emerging Research in Media and Cultural Studies
- Member,Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Creative Communication, Sage·
- Member,Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, USA
- Member, Editorial Board, Member, Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia Series, Routledge
- Member, PUKAR Institutional Ethics Committee
- Member, Academic Council, Central University of Tamil Nadu
- Member, Board of Studies, Department of Communication Studies, Pune University
Personal Website
Research Areas
Documentary Film, Censorship, Television Studies, Media Education, Media and Cultural Studies
Books
- Towards People-Centred Development, co-eds, M. Desai & L. Narayan, Mumbai, TISS, 1998.
- With K.P. Jayasankar, A Fly in The Curry: Independent Documentary in India, Sage, 2016.
Selected Papers in Books and Journals
- With K.P. Jayasankar, The Spectator-Indian - An Exploratory Study of the Reception of News, Cultural Studies 10(1), January 1993.
- With K.P. Jayasankar, India: The News of the State and the State of the News in Jensen, K.B. (ed.) The News of the World, Routledge, 1998.
- Official Television and Unofficial Fabrications of the Self: The Spectator as Subject in Nandy, Ashis (ed.), The Secret Politics of Our Desires, OUP, 1998.
- With K.P. Jayasankar - Between the Normal and the Imaginary - The Spectator-self, the Other and Satellite Television in India, in Hagen, I and Wasko, (ed.,) Consuming Audiences: Production and Reception in Media Research (International Association for Mass Communication Research (Series), Hampton Press, 2000.
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Documentary and Ethnographic Film, Elsevier Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Elsevier, 2001
- With P. Jayasankar, The Plot Thickens – A Cultural Studies Approach to Media Education in India, in Tony Lavender, Birgitte Tufte and Dafna Lemish (eds.) Global Trends in Media Education, Hampton Press, 2003
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Censorship ke Peeche Kya Hai, in Nalini Rajan (ed) Practising Journalism, Sage, 2005
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Jai Ho Shanghai: The Invisible Poor in Slumdog Millionaire, in Kaldor, Mary et al (eds) Global Civil Society Yearbook of the London School of Economics, 2009, Sage, London
- With K.P. Jayasankar, A New Pair of Scissors- the Draft Cinematograph Bill 2010, Economic and Political Weekly, July 17, 2010
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Imaging Mumbai, in Vimal Shah and Pankaj Joshi (eds) Revisioning Mumbai, Asiatic Society, Mumbai, 2010
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Resisting Censorship in India, East Asia Forum Quarterly, Vol 4, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2012.
Other Articles/Reviews
- Film Review: With K.P. Jayasankar , Voices from Baliapal - A Review, Indian Journal of Social Work, Vol. L, No:6, Oct. 1989, pp. 545-48
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Do Children have Bad Effects on Television, Perspectives, Nov. 1996.
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Let a Thousand Meanings Bloom, Economic Times, Nov. 24, 1996
- With K.P. Jayasankar, The Film-maker as Activist, Seminar 466, June 1998, p.99.
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Towards Critical Encounters with the Dominant Media in India, The Third Eye 1, 1999, p.29.
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Images of the Other in India, Media Development, 2001
- Towards Gender Sensitivity in the Media, Manavi, 2002
- Book Review: Representing Black Britain, by Sarita Malik, in Biblio, Vol. VII, Nos. 9 &10, Sept-Oct 2002
- Book Review: Violence and the Media, by Cynthia Carter and C. Kay Weaver, Culture, Health & Sexuality, July–August 2005; 7(4): 405–423
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Love in the Time of Moral Policing, Sunday Herald, February 8, 2009, p. 1
- Book Review: The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2009, 1-3
- With K.P. Jayasankar, Like Here Like There, Himal South Asian, October 2011
- Monteiro, Anjali, Let a Thousand Wisdoms Bloom, http://designpublic.in/blog/let-a-thousand-wisdoms-bloom/, November 21, 2012
- Book Review: Sanjukta Dasgupta, Dipankar Sinha and Sudeshna Chakravarti, Media, Gender and Popular Culture in India: Tracking Change and Continuity , Contributions to Indian Sociology, October 2013 47: 449-451
Film Projects
Pani Panchayat
1986, Part I and II, 50 mins, Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Watershed Management, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development
New Directions in Medical Social Work: Community Health
1987, Part I and II, 60 mins., Hindi with English subtitles
Tags: Community Health, Community Participation, Social Work
The Young Workers
1987, Parts I-IV, 1 hr. 40 mins.
Tags: Child Labour, Community Participation.
Tanda
A Document on the Denotified Tribes in Maharashtra
1988, Part I and II, 60 mins, Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Nomadic and De-notified Tribes, Human Rights, Social Movements
The Fifth Schedule
1988, Part I and II, 44 mins
Tags: Indigenous peoples, Forest Rights, Scheduled Tribes, Land Alienation, Human Rights, Social Movements, Environment.
Lage Jiva Ghar Ghar
A Document on Women and Shelter
1990, 44 mins., Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Housing Rights, Gender, Domestic Violence, Patriarchy
From the Diary of a Genetic Counsellor
1991, 30 mins., English
Best Programme Award, Open/General category, Fifth UGC Country-wide Classroom Video Festival 1992
Tags: Health, Genetic Counselling, Down’s Syndrome, Social Work
Magra Mewar Vikas Sanstha
1991, Part I and II, 68 mins., Hindi with English subtitles
Tags: Watershed Management, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development
One Hundred Years Of Drought
1993, 21 mins., Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Watershed Management, Drought, Famine, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development
Sudha Police Station Gayi Thi
On the Demystification of Police Procedures for Women
1992, 16 mins., Hindi
Tags: Gender, Domestic Violence, Patriarchy, Police, Social Work
Odhni: A Collective Exploration Of Ourselves, Our Bodies
1993, 23 mins., Hindi with English subtitles
Tags: Sexuality, Gender, Domestic violence, Patriarchy
2nd prize, Health and Population category, International Video Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, 1995.
The Plot Thickens…
1993, 14 min., English
Tags: Media Education, Media Literacy, Identity, Semiotics, Advertising
First Prize and the Award for Individual Technical Excellence in Editing,
Identity: The Construction of Selfhood
1994, 20 mins., English
Tags: Media Education, Media Literacy, Identity, Semiotics, Advertising, Communalism
Prix Futura Berlin Asia Prize 1995.
2nd prize, Education and Literacy category, International Video Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, 1995.
Punarvasan
A Document on Reconstruction in Post-earthquake Marathwada
1995, 58 mins., Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Earthquake, Environment, Community Participation, Housing, Rehabilitation, Sustainable Development
Kahankar: Ahankar (Story Maker : Story Taker)
1995, 38 mins., Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Indigenous peoples, Forest Rights, Scheduled Tribes, Land Alienation, Warli Paintings, Warli Folklore, Environment, Gender.
Special Mention of the Jury, Mumbai International Film Festival,1996.
YCP 1997
1997, 43 mins., Marathi and Hindi with English subtitles
Tags: Prisons, Identity, Poetry, Human Rights
Certificate of Merit, Mumbai International Film Festival 1998
Jury’s Award for Best Innovation, Astra Festival of Anthropological Documentary Film, Sibiu, Romania, 1998.
Water to the People
Towards Community Participation in Rural Drinking Water Schemes
1998, 34 mins., English, Marathi
Tags: Drinking Water Management, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development
Jungle Tales
Surviving Development in Uttara Kannada
1999, 52 mins., Kannada with English subtitles
Tags: Indigenous peoples, Joint Forest Management, Scheduled Tribes, Land Alienation, Forest Rights, Social Movements, Environment.
Self Representation
5 mins, English, 2000
Tags: Media Education, Media Literacy, Identity
Saacha (The Loom)
2001, 49 mins., Marathi and English
Tags: Working Class, Mumbai, Poetry, Art, Marxism, Trade Unions, Textile Industry, Mills, Narayan Surve, Sudhir Patwardhan
Second Prize, New Delhi Video Forum, 2001.
Reconstructing Communities
2002, 52 mins, Part I &II, Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Watershed Management, Environment, Community Participation, Sustainable Development
Naata (The Bond)
2003, 45 mins., English, Hindi
Tags: Informal Sector, Mumbai, Slums, Communal Harmony, Peace and Conflict Resolution, 1992 Mumbai Riots, Dharavi, Community Media
Mumbai
2004,10 Mins, Marathi with English subtitles
Tags: Working Class, Mumbai, Poetry, Marxism, Trade Unions, Textile Industry, Mills, Narayan Surve
SheWrite
2005, 55 mins, Tamil and English
Tags: Sexuality, Poetry, Tamil, Gender, Domestic violence, Patriarchy
Best Documentary Prize, IV Three Continents International Documentary Festival, Venezuela 2005
Gold for Sound Design and Silver for Cinematography, IDPA Awards 2005
Unheard Voices
2006, 27 mins, English
Tags: Health, HIV/AIDS
With the People
2006, 5 mins, English
Tags: Baba Amte, Anandwan, Community Participation, Social Work, TISS
Our Family
2007, 56 mins, English
Tags: Gender, Sexuality, Patriarchy, Transgender, Tamil Nadu
Special Mention of the Jury, Signs 2007
Certificate of Merit and Special Mention of the Jury, MIFF 2008
Indian Documentary Producers Association (IDPA) Gold for Best Sound Design
IDPA Gold for Best Script
IDPA Silver for Editing
IDPA Certificate of Merit for the Best Documentary
Memory.Space
DV, 90 secs, 2009
Tags: Memory, City
IDPA Gold for Best Cell Story, 2008
Irani Restaurant Instructions
2008, 3 mins, English
Tags: Poetry, Irani, Nissim Ezekiel, Mumbai
Do Din ka Mela
A Two Day Fair
2009, 60 mins, English subtitles
Tags: Kachchh, Kabir, Music, Sufi
IDPA Gold for Best Script
IDPA Certificate of Merit, Best Documentary
2010 Commendation of the Jury, RAI International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2011
Runner Up, We Speak Here Culture Unplugged International Online Film Festival, 2012
National Award: Rajat Kamal for Best Audiography 2012.
Climate Justice for All
2009, 16 mins, English
Tags: Community Participation, Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Forest Rights, Social Movements, Environment.
So Heddan So Hoddan
Like Here Like There
2011, 60 mins, English subtitles, PSBT
Tags: Kachchh, Shah Latif Bhitai, Music, Sufi
IDPA Silvers for Script, Sound Design and Cinematography, 2011
Best film, International Folk Film Festival, Kathmandu 2012
Basil Wright Award, RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, 2013
Farooq vs The State
2012, 25 mins, English subtitles, TISS
Tags: Mumbai, Communalism, Human Rights, Police, Riots
Documentary and Web Projects Mentored/Commissioned
Gender Unpack (4 short films)
28 mins, English, PSBT, 2006
Open Frame Festival, 2006
From the Margins (5 short documentaries)
English and Hindi, 2012, TISS
TISStory (5 documentaries and website)
English, 2011
tisstory.tiss.edu
Remembering 1992 (6 documentaries and website)
English and Hindi, 2013, TISS
mumbairiots.tiss.edu
Giran Mumbai (4 documentaries and a website)
English and Marathi, 2014, TISS
millmumbai.tiss.edu
Castemopolitan Mumbai (6 documentaries and a website under development)
English and Hindi, 2015, TISS
Dreaming Free (6 music videos and 6 PSAs on gender and public space)
English and Hindi, 2014, TISS
Affirming Divercity (5 music videos and 5 PSAs)
English and Hindi, 2015, TISS
My Name is Basheer
Directed by Anushka Meenakshi, 2009, 66 minutes, Malayalam and English, with English subtitles
Flex 'n Faces
Directed by Shrikant Agawane, 2009, 20 minutes, Marathi, with English subtitles
Before Dark
Directed by Ajay T.G, 2010, 33 minutes, with English subtitles
Videokaaran
Directed by Jagannathan Krishnan, 2010, 67 minutes, with English subtitles
No Kidding
Directed by Nikhil Titus, 2011, 30 minutes, with English subtitles
Dere Tun Dilli
Directed by Shilpi Gulati and Divya Cowasji, 2012, with English subtitles
Old Routes New Journeys
Directed by Abeer Gupta, 2012
Waiting For A Storm
Directed by Prachi Mokashi, 2013
Where The Clouds End
Directed by Wanphrang Diengdoh, 2013
Chatkorichya Athvani (A Slice of Memory)
Directed by Shweta Ghosh, 2014
Kicking from the Corner
Directed by Vikram Buragohain, 2014
Mod
Directed by Pushpa Rawat, 2016
Courses Taught (MA in Media and Cultural Studies)
Image Making I
(Basic course, 2 credits, Semester 1, MA in Media and Cultural Studies)
The course critically explores visual images and media narratives, to understand how they are constructed in and through relationships of power and resistance. It enables the students to appreciate the many complex layers and codes involved in image making and representation. It also facilitates a critical engagement with contemporary visual culture in India.
Image Making II
(Basic course, 2 credits, Semester 2, MA in Media and Cultural Studies)
This course introduces key issues, debates and movements in documentary film, illustrated with screenings of selected documentary classics. Through the exploration of the work of selected filmmakers, it also aims to sensitise students to the formal elements and changing language of documentary film. This course also seeks to understand the history of documentary film in India, locating it in the context of shifting discourses on state, nation, gender and development, encompassing a range of styles and approaches. Throughout the course, the claim of the documentary to represent the “real” is critically interrogated.
Working with Video I
(Basic course, 3 credits, Semester 2, MA in Media and Cultural Studies)
A hands-on course that uses the technical inputs provided in Semester I to take students through the process of producing two short video pieces. It familiarises students with conceptualising, visualising and creative writing for the production of a music video and a public service spot. This course combines the technical and aesthetic aspects of production.
Working with Video II
(Basic course, 4 credits, Semester 3, MA in Media and Cultural Studies)
A hands-on course that takes students through the process of producing a documentary film in small groups around a broad common theme relating to the city of Mumbai. It familiarises students with the documentary production process from concept through script, documentation and post-production. At the end of the course, the students would have skills for developing a concept and proposal, doing research for documentary, interacting with communities for making a film, scripting, undertaking video documentation and editing a documentary.
Outreach Teaching
Courses in Documentary Production
Asian College of Journalism
Central University of Hyderabad
Central University of Tamil Nadu
Central University of Rajasthan
Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication
Lahti School of Design, Finland
Film and Television Institute of India, Pune
C-DIT, Kerala
Courses in Media and Cultural Studies
National Institute of Design
Central University of Rajasthan
University of California, Berkeley
University of Technology, Sydney
Email: monteiro[at]tiss[dot]edu
School of Media and Cultural Studies
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088, India
Phone: +91 22 2552 5661 (Work) Fax: +91 22 2552 5050
Email: monteiro [at] tiss [dot] edu
URLs: http://smcs.tiss.edu
www.monteiro-jayasankar.com
V.N. Purav Marg
Deonar
Mumbai-400088
+91(22)25525000