“A wonderful testament to the power of citizen archivists.“
— Carl Malamud, Public Resource
“The work being done by Srujanika and Subhashish may be critical in preventing history from being mutilated.“
— Dhanada K. Mishra, PhD, Academic
“The film contains an implicit warning: advances in technology are always more likely to assist the established, the powerful, and the commercial.
Minority cultures and concerns are always likely to have to run to catch up, to be entrepreneurial, inventive, almost absurdly dedicated and hardworking.“
—TIM BROOKES, Endangered Alphabets
About the film
Srujanika was founded as a volunteer-led collective by scientist couple Nikhil Mohan Pattnaik and Puspashree Pattnaik in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, in 1983. Since 2006, its workforce of only a handful of volunteers has managed to collect, process, and archive 10,000 volumes of books, magazines, and other periodicals and dictionaries published in the Odia language since the early 1800s. These publications are hosted on their portal—Odia Bibhaba. A large portion of the books they have archived was beyond conservation and, in most cases, did not have anyone to conserve them. But what really led to this massive project? This Open Culture documentary film accounts for the ups and downs of the movements Srujanika led and their constant struggle to document Odisha’s utterly neglected printing history.
“The Volunteer Archivists” was selected for a screening and discussion at the Indian Institute of Mass Communications, Dhenkanal, Odisha, India in January 2023.
Theatrical Trailer
Stills
DATASHEET
TITLE
The Volunteer Archivists
LOGLINE
Collective negligence is threatening two centuries of printed publications in Odia, one of India’s official languages. A few volunteer archivists must struggle against all odds, including legal battles, to digitalize crumbling books.
CAMERAPERSON, RECORDIST, DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER
Subhashish Panigrahi
WRITER(S)
Subhashish Panigrahi
CAST
Puspashree Pattnaik (self)
Nikhil Mohan Pattnaik (self)
Padmaja (self)
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION/ORIGIN
India
FILMING LOCATION(S)
Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, Odisha, India
DATE(S)
Year of Production 2021-2022
Release Date(s) 26 May 2022 (India—Limited Release)
DURATION
35 minutes (appx.)
LANGUAGE
English
GENRE
Documentary
DISTRIBUTION COMPANY
O Foundation
FILM WEBSITE
https://theofdn.org/film/tva
PERMANENT ARCHIVE
https://archive.org/details/the-volunteer-archivists
US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER (LCCN)
2020512175
DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI/EIDR)
10.5240/D926-0610-5EAA-FA7E-F91D-9
Reviews & Publications
- “The Volunteer Odia Archivists“. Endangered Alphabets. (by Tim Brookes)
- “The Volunteer Archivist“. Orissa Post. (by Dhanada K. Mishra, PhD)
FOR SCREENINGS, REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS & OTHER QUERIES, CONTACT:
SCREENINGS
- June 2023: dWeb Camp 2023, Navarro (US)
- May 2023: Bakul Foundation, Bhubaneswar (India)
