In Person: I Am Lawrence Wilson by Varun Kodamana

Varun Kodamana’s documentary I Am Lawrence Wilson (2022) is a joyride into the magical world of analogue film through the life of its protagonist, the near-seventy-five-year-old cinephile and artist Lawrence Wilson. Programmed as part of Aldona Video Club’s public screenings at the 9th edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival from 15-22 December 2024 in Goa, the film uncovers the many sides of Wilson. A dancer, a mimicry artist and a lover of both film and the machines that showed them, Wilson eked out a living in Goa’s extractive mining industries like several working-class Goans. He gradually saved money to build a wondrous collection of film and projectors. However, Wilson’s passion for collecting and cinema was not private; he was known for travelling with films in Goan villages, enabling access to film for rural publics at a time when television was not as readily available. In this, he, along with his friends and companions Anthony Joseph and Yakub Abdul Mulla, can be credited as constituting at least two generations of new rural publics. 

Wilson’s steadfastness is inspiring. After losing his job in a wave of cuts, he decided to carry his passion forward as a business. However, he and his friends have suffered a blow since the advent of the totalising digital age. Kodamana’s documentary captures these concerns, but it does so with an eye to the future rather than an impulse to preserve the past as a relic. In this edited conversation, Kodamana speaks with us about the motivations for his film and why he chose to showcase the past world of film without nostalgia. The gaze remains in a direction moving from ground up, it is not projected onto Wilson in a top-down manner. Rather, it invites viewers into Wilson’s home and community, not as spectators but as guests, and if one wishes, as participants. With the feel of a playful feature rather than a conventional documentary, Kodamana blurs the lines between the past and present, fact and poetry, biography and storytelling. This is not only a film about analogue though; it is also about friendship and the practice of love. At the festival, the film was screened on a 35mm projector, operated by Yakub Abdul Mulla and Anthony Joseph, and was followed by a conversation with friends before a final treat of live analogue 16mm and 35mm film projections. Merely doing what they love, here too, the three friends constituted a new public.  

Varun Kodamana is a celebrated independent filmmaker, professional cinematographer, and dedicated educator. With an exceptional passion for cinema, he has carved a niche for himself in the Indian film industry, earning recognition for his creativity, technical expertise, and commitment to storytelling.

(Featured image: Still from I am Lawrence Wilson [2022] by Varun Kodamana. Image courtesy of director.)

Recorded on 19 December 2024.

To learn more about this year’s edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival, read Anoushka Antonnette Mathews’ review of Niharika Popli’s If I Could Tell You (2024) and Aparna Chivukula’s essay on the show Ghosts in Machines (2024) curated by Damian Christinger. Also watch the previous episodes of In Person, featuring a walkthrough by Ravi Agarwal and David Verghese of the exhibition Carbon (2024) and an interview with Dayananda Nagaraju and Niranjan NB as they speak about their project The Everlasting River (2024).