Bombay Tilts Down

Directed by

Ashok Sukumaran

Filmed from a single location over two months, "Bombay Tilts Down" documents the rapidly transforming metropolis of Mumbai. It was shot remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic by a CCTV camera that was mounted on the thirty-fifth floor of a building in the heart of the city. CAMP pushed the camera to its limits: It moves from expansive skies, limitless sea, and gleaming glass towers to bustling streets, tarp-covered settlements, and the figures and faces of city dwellers, many of whom seem aware of the camera looking at them. The artists edited the collected footage to create the illusion of a continuous takein which days and weeks fold into each other. The film's soundtrack was composed by BamBoy (Tushar Adhav), who interspersed his beats and basslines with the sounds of storms, sirens, and recordings of poetry and songs by working-class and Dalit poets who came of age in the city's once bustling textile mills. [Overview courtesy of MoMA]