50 minutes / Color
Release: 2003
Copyright: 2002
"I suddenly realized… I command the space to raise a dissenting voice, and if I don't do it, it's as political an act as doing it… to stay quiet is as political an act as speaking out."- Arundhati Roy, Author of Booker Prize Winner The God of Small Things
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.
"A moving, vividly potent film about the destructive effects of corporate greed and unchecked globalization, as well as the story of one woman's bold, admirable decision to place the needs of her country above her own. Highly Recommended!" —Video Librarian
"Excellent! Required viewing… A testament to the power of one person to activate millions to protest against environmental, political, and financial corruption." —H-Environment Discussion Network
"Highly Recommended! The beauty of the documentary lies in the manner in which Roy questions the actions of the Indian State and International Organizations such as the World Bank so eloquently. The ideas presented in the film provide ample ground for discussion and contemplation." —Educational Media Reviews Online
"An urgent and vital film… Aradhana Seth's inspiring documentary charts Roy's progress, and her poetry, with bold accomplishment." —The Guardian
Select Accolades
The residents of the historic Chinese city of Fengjie clash with officials forcing them to evacuate their homes to make way for the world's largest dam.
LI Yifan and YAN Yu | 2012 | 147 minutes | Color | English; Mandarin | English subtitles
December 3, 1984. Bhopal, India. The worst chemical disaster of all time. How has Union Carbide manipulated the US and Indian legal systems for 20 years to avoid facing justice?
Ilan Ziv | 2004 | 52 minutes | Color | English
