At the limit of the personal: The Kashmir conflict via explorations in the ethical space of film

Abstract

Abstract This article is a critical appreciation of the often misunderstood and controversial filmmaker Ajay Raina, who frequently finds himself at a discursive crossfire, being criticized by both Hindu and Kashmiri nationalists. Through a discussion of Raina’s three Kashmir-related documentary films, I will indicate the limits of the personal film as a challenge to official or hegemonic conflict narratives. The analysis focuses on the mediation of exile narratives, conflict testimony and visual evidence in the ethical space of film. I will argue that, through ethical protocols of film production and the vérité-form, Raina opens a complex space for the negotiation of conflict narratives. These openings are, however, under threat of ideological closure because of attempts to anchor the audio-visual testimony through his personal voice-over and a narrative of secular nationalism. Finally, I am drawing on the concept of embodied memory to better understand these ambiguous moments when his intentions are crossed by divergent readings from different audiences.