Session 10: Coralynn V. Davis
Moving Stories: Reflections on Archival and Filmic Circulations of Maithil Women's Tales
Chair: David Boyk
Respondent: Pranav Prakash
- Thursday 2026-07-09 11:00-12:30
- Location: Seminar Room
- Type: session
In this paper, I reflect on two sets of scholarly and community-engaged experiences: 1) the multi-year collaborative creation of a public digital archive of women’s oral stories, and 2) the multi-year collaborative creation and set of screenings and workshops built around the hybrid documentary film, Sama in the Forest, based on my research and of which I am the producer. People in and from the Mithila region participated in various ways that I will discuss in the production, processing, and circulation of the stories, archive and film for wider audiences. My focus in this essay is on the processes and participatory roles, as well as the implications of the circulation of fixed examples, representations, and modal shifts in what are otherwise ephemeral and domestic or otherwise localized, ritualized and community-contextualized expressive practices. Using evidence from interviews and written reflections of participants, I argue that the commonly extractive production of archival and filmic creations are mitigated by three elements: a) participatory and collaborative processes; b) the broad accessibility of the products; and c) the use of the film in particular to stimulate conversations among community members during filming and later via workshops adjacent cultural regions.