Mapping Cold Wars
Director: Tejal Shah
Duration: 00:19:00; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 44.665; Saturation: 0.128; Lightness: 0.250; Volume: 0.317; Cuts per Minute: 1.736; Words per Minute: 16.363
Summary: Various Women's NGO's and activist groups including members from Forum Against Opression of Women, Akshara, Awaaz e Niswaan, Womens Centre, Strisangam, etc gather together in front of a map of the world. The group exercise, done during a 'retreat' in Khandala had them mapping out the countries that witnessed military action during the cold war years. Predictably selective in its litany of nations and places, this mapping exercise finds companions with other footage from Tellavision Mumbai. It highlights the old left's problem of being 'selective' about understanding geo-politics and in their acknowledging of state-sponsored terror and violence. Still it is an energetic exercise and the women seem to be having a good time locating places on the map. This footage was given to the Tellavision Mumbai project by Tejal Shah who attended the retreat.
A group of women are mapping all the wars that have taken place during the
cold war period.
The first on the list is
Laos, which is easily located.
Next is
Vietnam....
The women are enthusiastic about the exercise and have a child like exitement in plotting the countries
The camera changes angle to give an overview of the world map with a few countries already marked.
Cambodia
Laos
Vietnam
Has Chandra gone inside?
Chandra has gone inside.
The women are still at the task at hand along woth some friendly banter.
Camera changes to show an overhead view of the world map.
A woman mispronounces Libya as Lubya
The group of women have split in two groups - One searching
Libya, the other Cambodia
Camera closes into the South Asian region to show Afghanistan,Tibet,South Korea and Laos as already marked.
A womans' hand with a pin is closing in on Libya.....
Cambodia
Grenada Islands
Has Cambodia been located?
Cant you find it?
Found it! Cambodia is done.
You got Cambodia?
But now one cant see the map
Libya
Libya is so close yet so far as the woman searches in vain for Libya in Europe.
The other group is still in pursuit of Cambodia even as a woman sings out Cambodia.
Cambodia is found.The next country on the list is
Grenada Islands.
The Camera zooms into Granada at the time it is located and marked.
Have Uruguay,Korea and Guatemala been marked?
Libya is located
the camera changes angle to give an overhead view and zooms into central america where the group has located
Nicaragua.
The camera shifts to Asia to show that the group has located the next nation on the list -
Iraq.
A women in the bck performs a checklist.
A woman expresses her frustation of moving from 1 end of the map to the other
Iraq
Nicaragua
Panama is the next country.
Manuel Noriega was the President when the coup happened.
Who was in Panama?That fellow who had to run and hide in a church when the CIA was after him.
Manuel Noriega
Panama
Have you marked Panama?
No
Then mark it! Its just there.
Have you marked Iraq?
Iraq is done.We have marked Iraq.
Bosnia?
The camera focuses on Africa as the next country in announced - Bosnia
Panama is located while another checklist is performed.
Bosnia
Panama
Here's Romania...
Has Bosnia been marked?
No
Bosnia has not yet been marked?
The group locates Romania while still in pursuit of Bosnia.
Camera moves from Afica to Asia to Australia.
Bosnia
Romania(?)
Bosnia
Are they going in order?
Yes,we have now reached Bosnia.
Lets now focus on Bosnia.
Look for it, it should be near Yugoslavia. Its a really tiny place.
They are all so small...
What is underneath Austria?
I think this 'B' that they have written is Bosnia.
Paruguay
Paruguay is the next country to be marked as the search for Bosnia continues.
The search for Bosnia gathers steam and they come in striking range of the country
Bosnia
Bosnia still eludes them !!!
Did you find Bosnia?
No
Get some spectacles.
Sudan has already been marked...
Ill mark it again...its been sometime since we have marked anything.
But 1st find Bosnia please...
There is 'B' written here.....
Camera closes up with a side view showing all the pins on the World map.
What is this here?
No,thats not it.
Come lets search....
World map
The long pursuit for Bosnia comes to an end.
You see this 'B'...I suspect that is Bosnia.
Here you see Albania on top of.....
Zagreb is in???
Bosnia.... Zagreb Crs.... no.... Czech Republic (?)
Here look - Slovania,Croatia,Bosnia....this is the one - the green one
The one where 'B' is written...they havent written the whole name.
Bosina is found....Mark it!
Now Sudan...
Bosnia
Another Checklist is performed
Yugoslavia is marked follwed by Iran.
The camera zooms out to show the small group of enthusiastic women...
Is Sudan marked?
yes
Afghanistan?
Yugoslavia??
Here it is.....
Dominican Republic? Korea?
Korea is done....
Guatemala?
yes
Dominican Republic?
No thats not done...
Iran?
No.....Iraq is done....Iran is beside Iraq
Angola?
Angola?Ethiopia?Yemen?
Iran
Yugoslavia
The group is down to last few countries
There is a feeling of anticipation and exitement as the women mark
Dominican Republic,Yemen and
Angola - the last 3 on the list....
Angola
Dominican Republic
Shouldnt we also mark what China has done to Tibet...what India has done to Sri Lanka?
Is Uganda done?
Uganda is not on the list.
What are we now looking for?
Angola and Yemen
Did anyone find Dominican Republic?
Dominican Republic...Come on !! I got it......
Where is Yemen?
It's been located....
Angola has also been found....
This is only wars of US and USSR
Yemen
Camera zooms out showing all the women looking at the recently completed map.While some are drawing conclusions by looking at the map others are taking pictures for memories.
Colonisation
The group is dicussing about colonisation.
The power center (?) is in Europe.
It spreads to North America.Spain colonises almost all of South America.West European countries colonise South and South-East Asia.Finally all European countries end up having colonies in Africa,disintegrating it into many small countries.
We should with different colours put all the colonised countries....
If we do that entire continents will have to be shaded !!!
Lets look at the colonisation.Think about the colonisation.
You want to think about the colonisation of how it happens? (?)
The analysis goes on.
The group ponder after Africa where will the Imperialist next lay their eyes on.
It's concluded that the oil rich but economically weak Central Asian countries,such as Turkmenistan,Kazakistan,etc, will be the next victims of imperialisation.
India and China will be the markets that will fuel the growing imperialism.
Central Asia
The group marks out all the countries that already have miltary bases of imperialist nations USA in particular.
The Indian government is considered to be a puppet of the west,which will not resist if it were attcked by a western imperialist
Communism
The dicussion shifts to the
Korean War and the growth of communism.How all communist countries have come in the vicinity of other communist countries,such as rise of communism in South America which is close to Cuba.
It then shifts to Africa where there has never been a communist presence.
It is suggested that such a thing should be done on a globe.
rise of communism
A zoomed in camera goes to every marked country starting from Central America to Asia.
All continents with execption to Australia,Antartica and North America have had wars fought on them.
The camera zooms out to give a complete picture of the 23 wars that have taken place after the 2nd World War.
Wars during the Cold War
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