NOT JUST ROADS is an ethnographic documentary film that narrates the story of a massive urban transformation underway in India.

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Highways are being constructed at an unprecedented rate of 23 kilometers per day under the Indian government's Bharatmala (‘Garland of Limitless Roads’) program. The program aims to open new territories for the emerging Indian middle class. Currently, the territory is inhabited by villages, working class neighbourhoods, and nomadic herders. It is criss-crossed by native trails and vital ecological commons. This film captures the story of one such highway outside Delhi, from the perspective of human and non-human actors.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

2:39:1, 70’, DCP, Colour, India, Switzerland, Germany

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DIRECTED, WRITTEN, & PRODUCED BY

Nitin Bathla and Klearjos Eduardo Papanicolaou

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WITH SUPPORT FROM

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, India Office

Andromeda Film AG

ETH Zürich

FILM STILLS

CINEMATOGRAPHY AND SOUND RECORDING

Nitin Bathla 

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EDITING

Klearjos Eduardo Papanicolaou

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MUSIC, SOUND DESIGN AND MIXING

Ludwig Berger

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POST-PRODUCTION

Patrick Lindenmaier, Davide Legittimo,

Andromeda Film AG

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GRAPHIC AND TITLE DESIGN

Claudia Sinatra & Metaxia Markaki

TEAM

NITIN BATHLA is an architect, artist, and educator currently pursuing Doctoral Studies at ETH Zurich. His work focuses on labour migration, land ecology, and housing in the extended urban region of Delhi. Aside from academic writing, he work on films, community art projects, and social design projects.

KLEARJOS EDUARDO PAPANICOLAOU is a Greek/Mexican filmmaker interested in ethnography as a filmmaking methodology. His films and collaborations include 'The Seven Sisters Indoor Market' (2016), 'The Disappearance of Robin Hood' (2018), and 'Not Just Roads' (2020). He is currently based in Zürich, where he teaches ethnographic filmmaking at the urban scale at the ETHZ.

LUDWIG BERGER is a sound artist and electroacoustic composer. Gravitating around the practice of field recording, his sonic pieces and installations explore more-than-human worlds. He composes music and sound for film, theatre and radio. As research assistant at the Institute for Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich, he studies the sonic dimension of landscapes. 

CLAUDIA SINATRA is an  architect,  urban  designer  and  researcher  with  degrees  from  the  University  of  Ferrara  (MArch  hons)  and  the  London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Science  (MSc  City  Design  and  Social Science). Currently based in Zürich, her work lies at the intersection of urban design, urban planning, and graphic design. She is a licensed architect in Italy as well as a member of the Academy of Urbanism - Young Urbanists Network and Lares - Verein für gender- und alltagsgerechtes Planen und Bauen.

METAXIA MARKAKI is an architect, researcher and educator. After completing her studies at NTUA Athens, ENSAPLV Paris and ETH Zurich, she developed her independent practice through projects, teaching and writing. She is currently a tutor and PhD candidate at the ETH Landscape and Urban Studies Institute investigating peripheral landscapes of the Greek countryside.

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