Brief Encounter

Second film in a three part series 'Untold: An India Affair'.

The research field is creative practice that documents and analyses the history of racial alienation and the politics of power.

Commissioned by Takeaway Media Productions for Channel 4, the researcher co-directed ‘Brief Encounters’, the second of a three part series, ‘Untold: An India Affair’ exploring Britain’s relationship with India during the pre-colonial era. The series was broadcast during prime-time on Channel 4 and ‘Brief Encounters’ was transmitted on 14th October 2001.The series was the centre-piece of Channel Four’s ‘Untold’ season, its contribution to Black History month.

Undertaking research and co-direction with Jim Burge (who had previously directed ‘100 Years: Wheeling and Dealing’ in 2000) ‘Brief Encounters’ looks at the career of Warren Hastings the first Governor General of India (1773-84) in order to analyse different facets of his work and influence from his rise to power to fall from grace. It contrasts his pursuit of inter-racial harmony, his creation of treaties to calm political tensions and his evident respect for India’s civilisation including his encouragement of Charles Wilkins’ translation of the Bhagavad Gita in to English, with his more aggressive pursuit of warring conflict and containment and his ill-judged financial dealings. The latter finally precipitatedhis impeachment by British Parliament were his charges included extortion. More than a personal narrative, ‘Briefef Encounters’ set out to highlight the complex political and cultural circumstances of the time which made their resolution an impossible task. The research also gave emphasis to the subsequent degeneration of Anglo-India relationship associated with the period of the Raj. The series was accompanied by a Channel 4 book by Archie Brown.

In its review for 2001, Channel 4 named the series, along with Darcus Howe’s ‘Slave Nation’, Jon Ronson’s ‘Secret Rulers of the World’, and Nick Davies ‘Drugs: The Phoney War’ and ‘America and Islam’, as “championing non-conformist thinking”.

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