Through case studies and surrounding discussions, this round table aims to shed light on forms of film cataloguing that have emerged outside institutionalised archiving in India. These archival practices that have been nurtured by communities of cinephiles, collectors, music and dance lovers have proven to be crucial resources for film archives, historians and academics. Contradicting the finiteness of certain standard cataloguing models, we encounter metadata mining characterised by open-ended rigour, imagination and zeal. By citing specific examples of the resurrection of filmographies by online communities; institutional “disobedience”; and hopeful collaborations between different forms of archives, the roundtable seeks to further open the discussion with all.
