ABSTRACT
In this chapter, two central questions are explored with respect to archives and historical narratives: How might we read or write into the absences that mark dispersed and transitionary archives? And, given that historiography now includes multiple media and formats, how do we comprehend the relationship between historical time and technological time? I draw upon my own work on Fatma Begum (1892–1983, the first South Asian female directorproducer) along with the work of experimental filmmaker Kamal Swaroop on D. G. Phalke (1870–1944, the first South Asian male director, considered “the father of Indian cinema”). In doing so, I wish to address the relationship between archives, history, and time in the context of plural cultural imaginaries of the past and present.
