![]() ![]() Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) was an aspiring Bengali filmmaker who had been born into an intellectual family in Calcutta. With regard to Pather Panchali-and ultimately making Indian films slightly more available in America-the Museum played a much greater role. Film societies and classrooms could more easily manage the transport and projection of the less cumbersome format of 16mm and, in fact, MoMA joined the trend through its film circulation program. Non-theatrical companies like Brandon Films provided a market for these films after they completed their limited theatrical runs. The acceptance of subtitles in America spread with the popularity of postwar Italian and French films, and this led to a slightly greater inclination toward risk-taking by distributors. Whatever other depictions of Asia or Africa available remained, as they had always been, the products of exploitative White imperialists, like the Hungarian-turned-British Korda brothers ( Elephant Boy, The Drum, Four Feathers) or Hollywood studio exoticism ( Trader Horn/Tarzan/”documentaries” by Martin and Osa Johnson, Clyde Beatty, or Frank Buck.) Although Japan and India both had booming film industries, the films seemed only to be for the home market. In 1951, with Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Japanese films began to appear on a very limited basis. “Third World” cinema was pretty much nonexistent for Western audiences until the 1950s. ![]() These notes accompany screenings of Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali on November 14, 15, and 16 in Theater 2. ![]()
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