Memory as Movement: Archiving Feminist Histories
Day 1 | 6th March 2025, Thursday
CD Deshmukh Auditorium, IIC, Delhi
| Panel 1 | 9:15 am – 11:15 am | Panel 2 | 11:30 am – 1:30 pm |
| Personal Acts of Archiving – how individuals document histories, struggles, as well as feminist journeys, in deeply felt undertakings | Archiving processes of women’s organizations in Delhi – how collectives have approached the task of preserving their work and histories. |
| Panelists: Uma Chakravarthy, Historian & Filmmaker Baaraan Ijlal, Artist Suryanandini Narain, Editor & Academic Siddesh Gautam aka Bakery Prasad, Artist Moderated by Sabeena Gadihoke, Photographer and Academic | Panelists: Urvashi Butalia, Zubaan Madhu Mehra, Partners for Law in Development Vani Subramanian, Saheli Disha Mullick, Khabar Lahariya/ Chambal Media Vani Viswanathan, TARSHI Suneeta Prajapati, Chambal Media Moderated by Dipta Bhog, Nirantar |
As the India Chapter of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) marks the 20th edition of the Asian Women’s Film Festival, we take this moment to reflect on the ways in which the women’s movement in India has been – and can be – archived.
The idea for these discussions emerged as IAWRT began putting together its own story of 20 years while planning this landmark edition of AWFF. In the process, we encountered familiar questions—What does it mean to archive a movement? What gets remembered, and what is forgotten? How do we document our histories in ways that are accessible, dynamic, and true to the spirit of feminist organizing?
Archiving is not just about preservation; it is about memory, power, and representation. Across decades, the women’s movement in India has produced an extraordinary body of work—documents, images, films, oral histories, and creative expressions—that serve as records of resistance, negotiation, and transformation. Yet, these materials often remain scattered, fragile, and under-recognized.
To explore these complexities, we are curating two panel discussions:
- The first panel examines personal acts of archiving, shedding light on how individuals document histories, struggles, as well as feminist journeys, in deeply felt undertakings.
- The second panel focuses on the archiving processes of prominent women’s organizations, offering insights into how collectives have approached the task of preserving their work and histories.
Together, these conversations will help us think through the challenges that arise in the process of archiving – questions of access, erasure, authorship, and ethics. They will also offer possible ways to navigate these dilemmas, imagining new strategies for keeping feminist histories visible and vibrant.
As we celebrate this milestone edition of AWFF, these discussions serve as an invitation to view archiving as a feminist practice—one that not only safeguards the past but also shapes the future.
