Elephant Boy

Film by michelle williams gamaker

Single-channel video

2016 | HDV | B+W | Sound | 3:15 | English

Krishna Istha re-enacts the introductory sequence of the 1937 Robert Flaherty and Zoltan Korda film Elephant Boy, in which child actor Sabu recites lines by rote in English despite not being conversant with the language.

The work explores how colonial violence is imposed on individuals as they take on a new language. The introduction is testament to this: the words and grammar don't always make sense, just as language evolves, erodes and changes over time. The delivery of the lines also draws upon the uncomfortable nature of miming, and miming other people, in particular by those who wish to ridicule and differentiate based on the cuts and timing of the source material.