Throughout South Asian cities, it’s widespread to see posters celebrating non secular festivals and promoting political occasions that function vibrant, Photoshopped collages of public figures. These eye-catching banners perform as publicity instruments, signifying a degree of native social standing. Nonetheless, what was as soon as an indication of energy employed primarily by elites has lately develop into extra democratised, accessible to anybody with a smartphone, slightly bit of cash and the ambition to make it occur.
The brief documentary Get together Poster follows a gaggle of laundrymen within the suburb of Bandra in Mumbai as they design and cling up a poster to have fun the Ganeshotsav Hindu pageant. With every image and face placement endlessly fussed over, the group hopes the ultimate product would possibly elevate them politically – or at the very least garner loads of Likes and good feedback on Fb. Filmed in 2020 amid India’s COVID-19 outbreak, the Mumbai-based director Rishi Chandna’s slice-of-life documentary gives a wry commentary on the intersection of faith, class, politics and self-image within the digital age.
