Indian Space Dreams.

Abstract

This feature-length documentary is an ethnographic practice-research project about representation, place and identity. The geographical context for this practice was the southern-most tip of Mumbai where, at a space research centre, astrophysicists were designing and building instruments for India’s first astronomical satellite. In the West, the dominant discourse questions whether space research can be justified in a developing country with high levels of poverty. So when one of the space scientists invited me to film his science class with the children in the slum next door to the Space Research Centre, this presented an opportunity to explore this juxtaposition and contrast. The film intercuts these two worlds, separated by a wall, to question notions of outer space above and spaces here on earth.