June 03, 2009

Love-Hate: Brits and E. Indian Patriots

We struggled to encapsulate the vast subject into a short, catchy, meaningful title suitable for searching key terms on You Tube, Vimeo, and Google. Not possible. So, Tel Aviv Cinemateque Librarian Dr. Dror Izhar and I titled this post and the embedded video hoping at least to suggest the core of his fascinating doctoral dissertation.

When Dror first rattled off his dissertation title to me a few years ago, I reeled(!) on this mouthful: "The Indian Patriot Image in British Commercial Film and TV (1956-1986)." Yet when we videoed his brief lecture on the subject last spring, the title immediately struck me as deceptively complex. Because while he covers a vast collection of related themes (as examples, British Post-Colonialism; India 1820 to 1947; and History, Film, and the UK), Dror's eloquent storytelling provides not just a synopsis but a context, and reasons why the subject is timely and important.

Watch the video (8:17 minutes).



While we hope Dror's lecture interests lay and professional film and history audiences, he also seeks publishers (and others who might suggest venues) to develop his dissertation into a book. Please write your suggestions and questions in the comments section here or to dro@netvision.net.il (Skype: Dror1954).

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