Screening & Discussion
The digital archive
The Fifth Wall gathers films, reportages, moderations, texts, letters and photos by the filmmaker and editor
Navina Sundaram (1945–2022) from over 40 years of her work in television.
Sundaram grew up in New Delhi, India before going to Hamburg in 1964 for an internship at Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). From 1970, she worked as a
political editor, filmmaker, reporter and presenter for the broadcasting company. From 1992–93, she was ARD correspondent and head of South Asia television in New Delhi. On leaving NDR, she continued her work as an independent director of documentaries. Her research and reportage on international affairs and political histories reflect her vantage position at the crossroads of critical postcolonial voices emerging from the global South and the post-war reorganization of western Europe.
Sourced from the archives of German public-service broadcasters (ARD) and Sundaram’s private archive, The Fifth Wall is a curated look at German migration and media history. Sundaram is thus the prime focus as an author who takes a journalistic stand: on internationalism and decolonization, the question of class, racism, immigration, on Indian and German politics.
Programme Schedule:
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11:00 - 13:00
Introduction into the archive (20 min.)
Thematic walk on Cultural Transfer in the biography and work of Navina Sundaram (90 min.)
13:00 - 14:00
Lunch Break
14:00 - 14:45
Screening of:
Comment on the film: "Auf dem Wege zur Glückseligkeit" by film scholar/ curator Dorothee Wenner (screened from the archive), 5 min.
"Auf dem Wege zur Glückseligkeit"; film by Navina Sundaram; 31 min.
14:45 – 15:30
Open Discussion of the film and on the educational and curatorial work with the archive in Germany and India
The Fifth Wall was conceptualized and developed by Merle Kröger and Mareike Bernien (pong film) in collaboration with Navina Sundaram within the framework of Archive außer sich – a project of the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art e.V.
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About the speakers:
Merle Kröger, novelist and film author, lives in Berlin. Together with the filmmaker Philip Scheffner, she has been making feature documentary films since 2007. In her novels, Kröger combines historical research, personal history and political analysis with elements of crime literature. As a curator of the transnational cultural project Import Export: Cultural Transfer between India and Germany, Austria (2005), she began a long-term collaboration with Navina Sundaram.
Rubaica Jaliwala, freelance editor and translator of literary, art and cultural texts and books, lives in Mumbai and Berlin. As trainer and educational advisor, she has led workshops on intercultural learning and diversity, anti-racism and gender on four continents. She has collaborated with pong film since 2005 on the German–English translation of film subtitles, essays, novels and the entirety of The Fifth Wall, including its films, reportages and commentaries. She has also voiced excerpts of Navina Sundaram’s letters for audio recordings.
This event is part of a series of events celebrating The Fifth Wall planned across Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai.
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