On May 26, the Edinburgh Earth Initiative hosted a film screening and panel discussion to celebrate the work and achievements of Chitra Sangtani, the Postgraduate Earth Fellow working on the Cool Infrastructures project with Professor Jamie Cross. This also spotlights the heat dimension of our University-wide Climate and Health campaign.
Her documentary film, aptly titled Dilli ki Sardi (Winter of Delhi), is a nuanced and sensitive exploration of fire as a major – and at times, the only – source and technology of heating for many during Delhi’s winter. Spanning different socio-economic groups, the film also recalibrates our notion of fire and firewood, prompting us to consider the two alongside the contours of rural/urban life, labor, and livability. Speaking about her experience of making the film, Chitra said: “Going back to Delhi to make a film on fire in this manner completely changed my relationship with the city, as did my own understanding of fire and what it means. It made me realise how using fire for everyday activities often makes us forget how important it is as a source of energy. Moreover, having worked with an NGO on natural resource management, the process of filmmaking made me aware of the immediate crossovers between rural and urban practices”. A companion film, on Delhi’s summer, is also in the works.
The panel discussion that followed the film screening involved a lively, insightful, and thought-provoking exchange of ideas between Chitra and the panelists. Dr Magnus Course, Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, called the film a “fundamentally different project” and commented on the sensory aspects of woodsmoke and drew our attention to how the film, during its exploration, makes us think about firewood as an index for the evaluation of materiality, with particular reference to the scenes that revolved around the use of broken and discarded doors as firewood. Dr Course’s comments also touched on how the film depicts winter as an event, which in turn impacts market practices and determines what can and cannot be sold.
Musicologist and Senior Lecturer in the Edinburgh College of Art, Dr Annette Davison, then pivoted the discussion towards the film’s ingenious and structural use of sound, commending its “beautifully focused” interweaving of sounds, voices, and music to complement the visual elements. For Dr Davison, the film signified a sense of giving a voice to energy, facilitated by a non-didactic stepping back and surrender of control, allowing others (the actors of the film) to take over. She also remarked on the film’s framing of fire as a communal symbol, before concluding by emphasising the historical connectivity of fire to celluloid, and of pre-digital film and fire.
Dr Moyukh Chatterjee, Assistant Professor in the School of Policy and Governance at Azim Premji University, India, started by examining the consequences of the question that Dilli ki Sardi seemingly asks: What emerges when you see Delhi through the fire? Dr Chatterjee understands fire as a symbol that transcends socio-economic barriers through the propagation of ‘people as infrastructure’. The film, he added, speaks to the capacity of fire to function as a symbol of altruism and hospitality, enabling people to care for one another in the midst of a cruel weather in a city that is equally indifferent to the fundamental question of people and their survival. According to Dr Chatterjee, the film is also a tactful illumination of the resourcefulness of the people on the street, a skill amplified by the fact that they are also vulnerable to and exposed to violence.
Dr Sophie Haines, Lecturer in Anthropology of Development, spoke of how the film had her thinking about the effects of smoke on the broader atmosphere, the porosity and interconnection of bodies and the worlds they occupy, and how fire doubles up as a tool for viewing and shaping the connections between the city and the countryside.
The enthusiasm of the panel discussion spilled into the Q/A session, where the audience reflected on a plethora of topics, ranging from the gendered implications of fire and firewood, the role of fire in the creation of inclusive city spaces, the volatile nexus between fuel and governance, and the confounding issue of viewing fire as a polluting agent, especially when it is the only source of heating for many.
At one point, one of the many people Chitra encounters during the film poignantly comments: ‘If it wasn’t for this fire, we would die of cold’. And Dilli ki Sardi, by containing the environmental, social, economic, cultural and emotional nuances of fire within its carefully curated vignettes, is a film that everyone must watch.
You can watch Dilli ki Sardi, directed by Chitra Sangtani, in collaboration with Pranav Jain and Ivan Robirosa, here as a part of the Earth Fellows Edit.