Understanding Global cinema in retrospect of diasporic film

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Introduction

Films have been an ever evolving aesthetic of art. With the

evolution of time, films have truly become one of the most

popular formats of arts and entertainment. Film-makers, with the

use of modern technology and techniques, can tell their stories

in any way they want to. Indeed, films in modern times have

become a gateway to the land of imagination where we experience

dinosaurs, robots and super heroes all coming to life. The

existence of globalization over the world is undeniable and its

effect can experienced in a myriad of aspects. The essence of

globalization can also be experienced in films. According to

Sathian (2010, p23), mass migrations and economic integration in

the global economy produce a confused cultural space in cinema.

This is the space of diasporic cinema, which is the most

significant and popular artistic expression for the (self-)

representation of migrant and diasporic groups (Far Flung

Families, 2014).

The presence of Diasporic cinema on a global stage is

evident – just think of Bollywood movies such as ‘Kabhi

Khushi Kabhie Gam’, or Hong Kong martial arts movies such as

‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’, Turkish-German cinema, or

Asian-British films, to name just a few examples and

types.

All these examples are types of diasporic movies

respectively diasporic cinema. However, unlike other, easily

identifiable genres such as sci-fi, comedy or drama, which all

share typical characteristics, diasporic movies cannot be easily

grouped together. They do not form an entity and lack a pre-

defined character: “Diasporic cinema is not a pre-existing

or self-evident formation” (Desai, 2013, p.208). What all

diasporic films however have in common is that they

usually construct an imagined world, often permeated by a

naive and ideological view regarding the homeland of the

diaspora. Globalization expert and scholar Arjun Appadurai

thus refers to diasporic films as ‘mediascapes’, which blur

the lines between realistic and fictional landscapes.

Methodology

In order to understand diasporic cinema, there are three

steps that help us to identify, categorize and analyze

diasporic movies (Desai, 2013):

1. All diasporic movies are films made by diasporic film-

makers, featuring ‘diasporic thematics’, made in an

independent or interstitial mode

2. The theme and content of diasporic films are concerned

with questions of origins, movement, relocation and

disenfranchisement in relation to the nation and

migration

3. Diasporic films have a global ecology of production and are

being circulated (distributed) globally, i.e. global

production team, financing of the production through a

global system,...

In addition these three steps can be analysed further with

retrospect of Appadurai’s concept of five scapes. The five scapes

includes: (a) ethnoscapes, (b) mediascapes, (c) technoscapes, (d)

finanscapes, (e) ideoscapes; and these aesthetics are deeply

perspectival constructs, inflected very much by the historical,

linguistic and political situadtedness of different sorts of

actors: nation state, multinational and diasporic communities

(Appadorai, 1990,p295). This concept can be applied in order to

understand the global attributes of Diasporic films.

Bend it like Beckham

A film which revolves around a diasporic family and how they

articulate their lives in place which is far away from home. The

film narrative focuses on a girl named Jess who belongs to an

Indian family residing in Britain and her passion for football.

The film went straight to number one in the UK box office charts,

taking a total of £2,001,795 from 384 sites (PRnewswire,2015).The

film has been quite popular not only in Britain but globally .The

film was released in the United States in March 2003 where and

grossed 28 million dollars (Kirkup,2003).

In order to analyse Bend it Like Beckham as a diasporic text

we must first analyse the film maker according to Desai’s 3-step

analysis as. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha an Indian

(Punjabi) British filmmaker who was born in Kenya, her own origin

is a diversification of Diaspora. She graduated from from the

University of East Anglia, Chadha and later attended the London

College of Printing for post-graduate. She started her carrier

in radio and later she working as a journalist for BBC. Chanda

was getting recognized when she produced award winning

documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. The film narrative is almost

like Chandha’s own life, being a diaspora entity of the female

gender she faced certain situations and it seems like Bend it

Like Bechkam is a depiction of her struggle in a humorous way.

According to Chanda (2003), The title Bend It Like Beckham refers

to David Beckham’s ability to kick the ball in a way that it

curves and bends, confusing the goalie as to the trajectory of

the ball C h a d h a u s e s t h i s a s a m e t a p h o r f o r t h e

w a y s i n w h i c h girls like Jess attempt to bend the rules

prescribed by their cultural backgrounds to achieve their goal

(Chacko, 2010, p81). Just like how Beckham bends the ball with

his free kick, all throughout the film we see Jess a diasporic

female who is trying to break the norms of Indian norms based on

foreign soil. According to Chanda (2005) this film is her most

autobiographical to date, not only is the film set in Southall

where she grew up, but the relationship between Jess and her

father is very similar to the relationship she had with her

father (Cinem.com,2005). As explored above, the director Gurinder

Chadha is an Indian-British filmmaker who was born in Kenya. As

such, her background, which also influences and shapes her work,

is part of Appadurai’s ‘ethnoscapes’: “Men and women from

villages in India think not just of moving to Poona or Madras,

but of moving to Dubai and Houston, and refugees from Sri Lanka

find themselves in South India as well as in Canada, just as the

Hmong are driven to London as well as to Philadelphia”

(Appadurai, 1990, p297). Also another scape is applicable here is

‘mediascape’. The ‘Film’ is a medium itself hence it is a part of

what Appadurai calls ‘mediascapes’ which according to Appadurai

(1990, p299) blur the lines between ‘realistic’ and fictional

landscapes. As Chadha spent most of her life in forign lands,

the depection of Indian culture in Bend it Like Beckham is her

disporic perspective of the culuter in other word a culture which

she imagines. As she resides away from her home, her idea of home

and its culture is based on her imagination which has beed shaped

over the years by exsisting cultures, general perception of

others and even stereotyping thoughts. Which as a result creates

an India according Chadha, but it might not be the same in

reality.

The second aspect of Diaspora films questions origins,

movement, relocation and disenfranchisement in relation to

the nation and migration in retrospect of content and

theme of the film (Desai, 2013). In the case of Bend it

Like Beckham, the film focuses on the Bharma family who

has left home but however the Indian values binds the

family. All throughout the film the essence of India can

be felt not just with cultural symbolic tangible objects

but also in aspect of ideologies. In Bend It like Beckham,

the Bharma home is replete with signi cant and essentialfi

markers of Indian cultural identity such as Indian food, Indian

television programs, the Punjabi language, religious icons,

and heated discussions regarding the codes of conduct for Indian

girls (Chacko, 2010, p82). In the sense Jess’s passion about

football forces the Bharma family to face a crisis, as she tries

to break the norm of the traditional Indian society. MR Bharma

faces a cultural ideology dilemma as he cannot accept women being

empowered as men, his idea of women is more to the feminine side.

Women who live in diasporic communities struggle even more

than their counterparts in the ‘homeland’ to have an

independent, emancipated way of life. According to Thamel

(2008), the logic of the ‘ideology of protection’ in

diasporic communities sees women as in need of greater

protection by men as they live in a foreign country,

culture and tradition, thus a “patriarchal oppression

persists and delays consolidated efforts to fight

oppression” (Chacko, 2010, p83). Furthermore, ‘ideoscapes’ are

another important characterization of a culturally globalized

product such as diasporic movies. With this term, Appadurai

(1990) refers to ideas and stories of films that are closely

tied to politics and ideology and often constructed to

convey a certain imagination and desire. In this case, we

can see how, as discussed above, Bend It Like Beckham is based on

the personal story of the director and as such also conveys her

perspective and desires, here for instance the desire to break

out of the traditional Indian system where women are being

oppressed.

According to Desai the third aspect of analysing a diasporic

film is identifying it as a genre by the ecology of its

production and circulation as much as its content and style

(Desai, 2013, p 208). The cast of the film includes actors of

both east and west which is transnational production. The cast

included Parminder Nagra a London based theatre actress was

selected to play the central, the film was also a kick start to

the Hollywood superstar Keray Knightley and it also consisted

Bollywood veteran Apum Kher (Cinema.com, 2015). The film’s

multicultural and transnational casting and production unit

shapes Bend It like Beckham as a global product. Starting from

the director of photography Lin Jong (born in Taiwan and known

for working with director such as Anglee) to the post production

unit provided a transnational perspective to the film. Which made

the film look nothing like other Bollywood film, rather than that

the use of technology and transnational perspective made sure the

film has an international look. As such, the production unit,

conducted across borders by a multi-national team, that can also

be seen as part of Appadurai’s ‘technoscapes’, which refers to

the global configuration of technology and its fast moving speed

(Appadurai, 1990, p297).

In aspect of finance Bend it Like Beckham was in a sense

Euro-financed, in other words was funded by organizations based

in Europe. Bend It Like Beckham was financed by the Film Council,

Road Movies filmproduktion, Roc Media, Hamburg Film Fund, Helkon

SK and Future Film Financing with the participation of BSkyB and

British Screen Finance (PR News Wire,2015). The rights to

distribute in the U. S. out of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival was

bought by Fox Searchlight Pictures (Cinema.com, 2015). The film’s

Euro based finance with US based distribution and transnational

star cast allowed the film to excel in a global platform.

‘Financescapes’ are also an important tool of globalized products

such as diasporic movies. “The disposition of global capital is

now a more mysterious, rapid and difficult landscape to follow

than ever before (…)” (Appadurai, 1990, p298). The Euro as a

currency and the European Union as a common commercial, trade and

cultural zone itself is a product of this globalization. Decades

ago, it would have been impossible to co-finance a product such

as a movie by different countries as they all have their own

agendas as well as economic systems, but now thanks to the common

zone of the European Union, it was possible to mount a truly

European production such as Bend it Like Beckham.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Another movie that can be identified and analysed as a

diasporic movie is Ang Lee’s epic sword-drama ‘Crouching Tiger

Hidden Dragon’. The martial arts movie globally earned more than

USD 200 million at the box office (Klein, 2004), making it to one

of the most successful movies of this genre. Based on a martial

arts novel, Crouching Tiger is a Mandarin-language film set in

19th century China with the main story focuses around the Chinese

culture of wuxia (swordmanship) and jianghu (swordmen’s world)

(Chan and Wu, 2007, p195). From the first look, it seems that

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Bend It Like Beckham are two

totally different movies that have nothing in common and attend

to very different genres. However, as will be shown now, both can

be identified as expressions of diasporic cinema and the making

and background of their productions have a lot in common.

Similar to Gurinder Chadha, director of Bend It Like

Beckham, Ang Lee comes from a ‘globalized background’ that

exemplifies what Appadurai described with his ‘ethnoscapes’: He

was born in Taiwan where he completed his Bachelors degree in

theatre and later he continued his studies in film at New York

University. As such, Lee indeed is a diasporic entity as he

himself never went to China before shooting Crouching Tiger

Hidden Dragon (Klein, 2002). According to Klein (2002), like the

rest of Lee’s Taiwanese generation, he did not really know much

about China. Most of that generation including Lee himself grew

up with a sense of connection to the mainland, but that

connection was always filtered through other people,

institutions, and the mass media.

His globalized, diasporic background necessarily also

influenced and shaped the content and style of Crouching Tiger

Hidden Dragon. Lees’s background helps us to understand the

visual narrative of CTHD, in the sense that the film depicts

China as mystical and oriental extravaganza, starting from the

landscape shots to the outfit of the actors. Everything about the

film was very authentic but probably not in a Chinese way but

only from a perspective of a diasporic entity who’s stereotypical

perspective of China is shared all through the world , which

might be one of the reasons why the film was a global

blockbuster.

Thus the world that is being portrayed in Crouching Tiger

does not reflect or describe reality, but it is an imagined

world, that blurs the lines between what is real and what is not,

so it is another typical example of Appadurai’s mediascapes. Ang

Lee and the production crew constructed a China they

experienced through popular culture such as swordsmanship

novels, and watching and making previous martial arts

films. It is an ideal portrayal that is not bothered with

any negative realities and inconvenient truths: “The China

portrayed here is not plagued by domestic or international

politics; instead, it is a transnational China with

fantasized superhuman strength and gravityless walk on

walls, balances on bamboo trees, and leaps over water and

rooftops (…)” (Jay, 2006, p134). This also relates to

Appadurai’s ‘ideoscapes’ – in this particular case,

director Ang Lee is using the narrative and the characters

in the film to construct a new form of transnational and

diasporic identity in order to convey the imagination of

and desire for a transnational China.

The ecology of the movie’s production and circulation are

also characterized by a global, diasporic angle. The production

unit of Crouching Tiger is truly multi-national, starting with

artistic talents such as Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh from Hong

Kong and Malaysia, while other actors come from Mainland China

and Taiwan. Appadurai’s aspect of “ethnoscapes” could also be

applied here to realize that the film is a combination of

perspectives of several nationalities and especially

transnational diasporic entities which in a certain way shape the

film as a global product. Also, the post-production team of the

movie comes from a variety of backgrounds and origins, mainly

from the U.S. and Hong Kong. The picture quality and special

effects of the film truly makes the film a global product that

was highly appreciated by a global audience. As such, the post-

production, conducted across borders by a multi-national team,

can also be seen as part of Appadurai’s ‘technoscapes’, which

refers to the global configuration of technology and its fast

moving speed (Appadurai, 1990, p297).

Related to this is also the global financing scheme of the

movie. The American executive producer of the film, James

Schamus, planned out the distribution rights which truly put the

film to the global stage. He developed a global financing scheme

through various division of Japanese entertainment and media

giant Sony and other global and regional media houses: New-York

based Sony Pictures Classic bought the U.S. distribution rights,

Columbia Pictures obtained the rights for South America and parts

of Asia, and Columbia Pictures Asia based in Hong Kong provided

funds (Klein, 2002). Thus it is also a typical example of

Appadurai’s ‘finanscapes’, which refers to the global aspect and

possibilities of financing and trade.

In conclusion what can be understood is that diasporic films

such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon play a pivotal role when it

comes to the understanding of global Cinema. The film displays

perspectives of several nationalities staring from transnational

actors and post production crew to a diasporic film maker coming

under the same umbrella to tell an oriental tale that portrays an

idealistic China. Ang Lee’s aesthetics of hybridization in film

in the sense telling a Chinese tale in a foreign language really

worked wonders as the film did not only do well financially but

also won the Academy awards for the best foreign film.

Conclusion:Tiger VS Beckham

Diasporic films are very versitile and diverese in terms of

genre and film narrative. Which can be observed in case of these

fims, THe Crouching Tiger Hidden Drago an action packed romantic

film where as Bend it like Beckham is a full on comedy. Even

though there are alot of differences between sordsmen and

footballers, if the ashthetics of the films are compared certain

similarities can be observed. Starting with the film makers Ang

lee and Chanda both are diasporic idenitites who creates their

homeland and its idenety with their imagination which is shaped

globally. Hence the depection of China or even Indians is done on

a global perspective rather than a local one. In case of film

narrative they story line is different however both potrays

attributes of women empowerment. In case of Crouching Tiger

Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee even shaped the ending by showing Jen

leaving her lover. This indicates the charecter of women through

Jen is potrayed as an independet entity rather letting her stay

back with her lover which would be more feminine, a stereotypical

thought about women in asia. The same ideology is also visible in

Bend it Like Beckham, where Jess fights the odd to break the

norms to follow her passion of football. Jess’s story potrays

strong individualism rather than typical feminine trait which is

often highligted in countries like India. Also when it comes to

the production unit or casting, both the films consists of a

diversified and transnaitonal idviduals. This aspect has helped

the films to attract both loacal and internatioanl audience. The

same applies for the distribution, even though The Crouching

Tiger Hidden Dragon had more distributing parters, but both the

films had forgien distributor. Which as a result helped the films

to reach a global stage. The similarities of the films potrays

that these characteristics may help one to categorize Diasporic

films as a form of genre. Both the film also potrarys that a

proper balance of loclal and gloabal attributes can be a

succseful venture in terms of Global perspective. Referring to

Appadurai’s (1990) concept of (cultural) globalization, both

these films are prime example of how globalization is not a one-

way flow, but a multi-layered, multi-directional process: “The

new global cultural economy has to be understood as a complex,

overlapping, disjunctive order (…)” (Appadurai, 1990, p296). Both

of these film potrays that if local and global aesthetics are

balanced and merged then a two way symmetrical aesthetics of

globalization is possible.

References

Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and Difference in the Global

Cultural Economy. Theory, Culture & Society, 7, pp. 295-310.

Chacko,M.(2010).Multicultural Perspective: Bend It Like Beckham:

Dribbling the Self Through a Cross-CulturalSpace. National Association

for Multicultural Education.pp 81-86.

Chan, J.M., and Wu, H. (2007). Globalizing Chinese martial artscinema:the global–local alliance and the production of CrouchingTiger, Hidden Dragon. Media, Culture & Society, 29 (2), pp.195-217.

Cinema.com.(2015). Bend It Like Beckham: Production Notes. Available fromhttp://cinema.com/articles/1989/bend-it-like-beckham-production-notes.phtml [Accessed 2 April 2014].

Desai, J. (2013). The Scale of Diasporic Cinema: Negotiating

National and Transnational Cultural Citizenship. In: Routledge

Handbook on Indian Cinema, Gokulsing M., and Dissanayake, W. (eds.).

London: Routledge, pp. 206-217.

Far Flung Families. Far-Flung Families in Film [online].Available from:

http://www.farflungfamilies.net/ [Accessed 5 Apr 2015].

Jay, J.W. (2006). Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: (Re)packaging

Chinas and Selling the Hybrized Culture in an Age of

Transnationalism. In: Reading Chinese Transnationalisms: Society, Literature,

Film. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp.131-142.

Klein, C. (2002). When Chinese Martial Arts Flies Through the Global Box Office[online]. Available from: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/when-chinese-martial-arts-flies-through-global-box-office [Accessed 24Mar 2014].

Prnewswire.(2015). Film Council funded 'Bend It Like Beckham' scores big at UKBox Office. Available from http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/film-council-funded-bend-it-like-beckham-scores-big-at-uk-box-office-154065185.html [Accessed 2 April 2014].

Sathian, S. (2010). Gender and Nation in the South Asian

Diaspora: Transnational Cultural Spaces in Bollywood Cinema.

Columbia Undergraduate Journal of South Asian Studies, 2 (1), pp. 22 – 41.

Wang,G., and Yuh,E.(2005). Globalization and hybridization in cultural

products : The cases of Mulan and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Sage

CMN 664: Global Cinema

Independent University, Bangladesh

Media and Communication Department

Ehsan Kabir

Student ID: 1311104

Journals

Journal: 1 Date:

02.04.2015

Upon receiving the brief of the final assignment, I quickly

started researching about Diasporic films. My main idea was to

relate my previous findings with my final assignment. The focus

of the research will be the aesthetics of Diasporic films, for

instance the similarities in attributes between two diasporic

films. So I started searching for the second film. After an

extensive research I came across the film Bend It Like Beckham

which is a popular Indian Diasporic film. I watched the film

before but I watched it again to analyze the film narrative.

Journal: 2 Date:05.04.2015

Since I was done with initial research and I watched the film

Bend it Like Beckman, I decided to move on to my second research

phase. The motive was to find journals and articles in other

words information about the film by means of internet. I came

across several journals which were very useful such as Bend It

Like Beckham: Dribbling the Self through a Cross-Cultural Space

by Mary Ann Chacko. This specific text was very helpful as it

helped understand more about the diasporic aesthetic of the film.

Journal: 3 Date:07.04.2015

After gathering all the information I began to prepare my final

paper. The concept was to analyze the film Bend it Like Beckham

with retrospect of Desai 3 step concept and Appadorai’s media

scape. After analyzing the film with those concepts, I compared

the findings from both the films and I found out there are some

common attributes about such films. After that I started shaping

my conclusion about Diasporic film and how one can categorize it

as a genre and also how its shapes global cinema.

Journal: 4 Date:09.04.2015

After finishing my final draft, I started to design the layout of

the website. I used weebly.com which is a free online website

designing site. After selecting my desired layout and design, I

incorporated my research finding. After that I collected visual

material such as pictures and videos by means of internet which I

later incorporated with the website.