About our suggested films
A selection of over 450 titles was created by a researcher in South Asian cinema working alongside the bfi South Asian Cinema project group and cultural diversity team, and staff from the bfi's Education department. It was the result of long consideration and consultation with some of our external partners and individuals outside the bfi. As with any list it cannot be considered definitive.
Our deliberations threw up several problem areas for which some explanation may be useful:
What about films that might be considered Bangladeshi and Pakistani; or Sri Lankan and Indian?
This is a difficult issue. In the end we felt that when voting people should feel free to place a film in any list they felt appropriate (following or not following our cue), provided a film was voted for only once.
What about documentaries?
The list includes a very few of these. Our criteria was theatrical releases and the normal channels of distribution and exhibition, which therefore left us with a few documentaries, but mostly narrative or fiction features.
What is a Diaspora Film?
Should we insist on a director of South Asian origin, or funding, or simply a film with distinctive characteristics, imagery and/or content? We were not in the end able to agree, but we have generally followed the rule that films in this part of the list should be made by a South Asian director or writer (non-resident at the time of making) and have South Asian or Diasporic content.
Are the top films meant to be culturally, industrial or historically significant? Art-house or popular?
This is not a debate we can resolve in the selection, but is a debate we hope to stimulate. The poll is aimed at finding your viewpoints across all the categories.
Why are there so comparatively few Indian films? And within that so few Hindi films?
This is a difficult question. We had to set limits to the exercise and Bollywood looms large both within and without the region, but we felt that as a result other film-making cultures did not get the profile they deserved. We also wanted to interest communities living in the UK who have an interest in these particular movies and to register the diversity of film-making in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (not to mention the Diaspora), as well as the strong traditions in Tamil, Telegu, Bengali and other languages. South Asian cinema isn't just Bollywood and we wanted the poll's contours to reflect that.
