DAM / AGE : a documentary about ARUNDHATI ROY & the Narmada Dam Project

(2003) 50 min

Prize winning writer Arundhati Roy's bold and controversial campaign against the Narmada dam project in India.
DAM/AGE traces writer Arundhati Roy's bold and controversial campaign against the Narmada dam project in India, which will displace up to a million people. The author of The God of Small Things, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1998, Roy has also published The Cost of Living, a book of two essays critical of India's massive dam and irrigation projects, as well as India's successful detonation of a nuclear bomb. In her most recent book Power Politics, Roy challenges the idea that only experts can speak out on such urgent matters as nuclear war, the privatization of India's power supply by Enron and issues like the Narmada dam project.

As the film traces the events that led up to her imprisonment, Roy meditates on her own personal negotiation with her fame, the responsibility it places on her as a writer, a political thinker and a citizen.
As she puts it in DAM/AGE, "The God of Small Things became more and more successful and I watched as in the city I lived in the air became blacker, the cars became sleeker, the gates grew higher and the poor were being stuffed like lice into the crevices, and all the time my bank account burgeoned. I began to feel as though every feeling in The God of Small Things had been traded in for a silver coin, and I wasn't careful I would become a little silver figurine with a cold, silver heart."

The film shows how Roy chose to use her fame to stand up to powerful interests supported by multinational corporations and the Indian government. For her, the story of the Narmada Valley is not just the story of modern India, but of what is happening in the world today, "Who counts, who doesn't, what matters, what doesn't, what counts as a cost, what doesn't, what counts as collateral damage, what doesn't."
In a clear and accessible manner, the film weaves together a number of issues that lie at the heart of politics today: from the consequences of development and globalization to the urgent need for state accountability and the freedom of speech.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• DAM
• AGE
• Film
• with
• Arundhati
• Roy
• documentary
• india
• indian

[theroyprocess]

It seems to be an old story. Man exploits man because they have 'permission' and get a pay check to do it. This film reminds me of the movie 'Spartacus' , about how we enslave each other. The common thread is 'behavior' ! As bad as everyone is, we must decide to be 'kind' to ourselves and value pro-life, non-toxic means instead of the reverse! Reward good behavior much more than mischief.

[kumar75000]

very good work..

[rutu5286]

I liked it. Good work. I can understand if people may have different thoughts than Arundhati Roy on the subject but I can't tolerate people bad mouthing her and using slangs against her. Thats the sign of their mental underdevelopment than faults of her which they so aggressively want to point out.

[ThePseudoBasher]

Arundirty roy was and will always be lame

[rakshan]

@ironladyarundhati Ignore/dismiss the hindu-fascist rhetoric from stupid people who cant see beyond the flag of nationalism. Arundhati's "come september" speech was so eloquently written. I have heard it so many times that I can quote paragraphs from it. And then you get to discover like-minded people, some she listed in her speech, others like Assange, Brigitta Jonsdottir, Bradley Mannning, Glenn Greenwald, JP Barlow, etc and u realize that there are a lot of good people in the world.

[ironladyarundhati]

@rakshan Nice to know

[rakshan]

@ironladyarundhati for every 10 indians who dont understand Arundhati, there is one who does. At the very least, she is not ignored in the media (which is a fate that people like Noam Chomsky suffer in the US). I'm just glad to hear her speak, to read her books, and to feel.

[ironladyarundhati]

What is the use of her sacrifice? Ignorant arrogant deluded Indians, have no brains to understand her intellect.