par Surjan, Kinshuk
Président du jury Janssens, Sonja
Promoteur Vanhaesebrouck, Karel ;Hoens, Dominiek
Co-Promoteur Vromman, Jan
Publication Non publié, 2025-12-16
Thèse de doctorat
Résumé : This practice-based PhD thesis arises from a personal dissonance with cinematic portrayals of India’s prolonged agrarian crisis. In the past three decades, more than 400,000 farmers have committed suicide. The thesis argues that a subconsciously inherited, neocolonial gaze on rural India has shaped how Indian farmers have been represented/ignored. This gaze fosters urban indifference and affects policy, enabling the crisis. Are we, as filmmakers, myself included, not implicated in its continuation?How can I be a better ally? Is allyship only about addressing well-established issues of representation, or must we rethink the filmmaking process? The thesis seeks to identify a process by which films can arise from a reciprocal, non-extractive engagement. It questions how privileged artists can make films with people who are marginalised, not just about them.The research is a critical self-reflection that traces a path of stumbling and learning as an outsider through ethical and practical challenges. These challenges required abandoning preconceived methods and facing insecurities that risked reverting to extractive impulses under pressure. This journey led to the Friendship Circle, a collaborative space created with widowed women farmers in Maharashtra, the soil from which the film Marching in the Dark sprouted.​Since the process influences representation, aesthetics cannot be separated from ethics. It explores how the camera records the relational space between the protagonist and the filmmaker, not just the protagonist. While documentary ethics are well-explored, this thesis argues that an adequate response requires moving beyond the procedural question of “What must I do?” to the more difficult internal challenge of “How may I be?” This approach is cultivated through surrender, waiting, being chosen and speaking nearby. Ultimately, the thesis aims to conceptualise an Everyday Cinema aesthetic that acknowledges everyday as a site of resistance for the marginalised and, in its attempt to prioritise the everyday, wrestles with framing and temporality to honour dignity on the screen without sacrificing accessibility.​This work does not claim to provide a definitive solution or radically transform the lives of its protagonists after the film is screened, recognising that while such outcomes are the ideal form of allyship, they are often elusive. Instead, it offers an imperfect yet pragmatic framework for a documentary practice where the process is an act of reciprocity and solidarity, and the film itself a testament to that shared journey.

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