In this episode, Lawrence Liang and Vebhuti Duggal discuss two digital film platforms, pad.ma and indiancine.ma, within the larger context of thinking about archives in the digital era. Moving between traditional notions of state-run archives and the proliferation of non-state archives, the discussion examines issues ranging from cultural infrastructure to the specific affordances of the digital study of film, and considers what it means to extend an open-source ethos into the realm of academic tools and methodologies.

Vebhuti Duggal teaches film studies at the School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Dr BR Ambedkar University Delhi. Recently, she has co-edited Film Studies: An Introduction (2022) and Punjab Sounds: In and Beyond the Region (2024). She is currently working on her book manuscript on cinema-oriented listening cultures in India.

Lawrence Liang teaches at the School of Legal and Socio-Political Studies, Dr BR Ambedkar University Delhi. He works on the intersection of law, culture and technology, and is one of the co-founders of Pad.ma and indiancine.ma in collaboration with Camp (Mumbai) and Pirate Cinema (Berlin).

In this maiden episode of अकाद-mic, Dharitri Narzary shares with Yogesh Snehi her experiences in the making of the documentary film ‘Future at a Stake’ for Doordarshan in 1998. Shot during the period of militancy, the film looks at the breakdown of the educational system in Northeast India and documents the anxieties and aspirations of students, parents and teachers; Dharitri was the film’s producer.