Human and Animal Ecologies Across the Thar Borderlands: Screening by Natasha Raheja
Screening, Talk
Natasha Raheja’s screening at the Lahore Biennale brought attention to the complexities of borders, ecology, and human migration through two distinct yet interconnected films. More than 110 guests attended the screenings on 7th November 2024 at Lahore Museum Auditorium. The first, A Gregarious Species, is a nine-minute experimental piece exploring locust swarms as boundary-defying entities. Using found footage, TikTok videos, and formal techniques like glitch and frame juxtapositions, the film examines the locust’s symbolic and ecological roles. Raheja frames the locust as both a metaphorical and literal representation of foreignness, addressing its implications in mythology, climate change, and borderland livelihoods. The second film, Kitnay Passports (How Many Passports), is an observational documentary-in-progress. It features Pakistani Hindu migrant families navigating their lives between Pakistan and western India. This film delves into the bureaucratic processes that flatten the rich, plural realities of borderland life.
The films collectively challenge viewers to rethink the naturalization of borders—not only for humans but also for non-human entities like locusts. Raheja’s approach situates the Thar Desert as a contiguous, shared geography, transcending political divides. Raheja’s work stood out for its nuanced exploration of the intersections between ecology, migration, and the human condition, engaging the audience with a thought-provoking lens on the artificiality of borders and the resilience of shared landscapes.
Natasha Raheja is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. She received her PhD in Anthropology from NYU and her BS in Biology and MA in Asian Languages and Literature with a focus on Urdu from UT Austin.
Her projects explore questions of migration, belonging, and majority-minority politics. Her writings have been featured in peer-reviewed journals and her films have been screened at festivals and colleges nationally and internationally.
She is the director of Cast in India, an observational portrait of the Bengali metal workers who manufacture New York City manhole covers. She is currently working on a book and film series tracking human, animal and object movement across the India-Pakistan border.
Location: Lahore Museum Auditorium
Date: November 8