We live in a world where content creators thrive by catering to the curiosity and voyeurism of their audience. Private moments, emotional experiences, dramatic conflicts, all are sellable products. While creating the content, these creators often intentionally break the fourth wall, and acknowledge the audience’s presence. Voyeurism no longer implies a detached or impersonal form of observation, but an experience more participatory.
Cinema can be seen as a medium that gratifies the human tendency to observe others' lives. However, not all films offer the illusion of unmediated and “authentic” experiences. The ‘found footage’ technique—where a film is presented as if it were a recording of a non-fiction event—powerfully emphasises the act of observation and the illusion of raw, 'unedited' experiences. In this sense, it is more closely connected to voyeurism than arguably any other genre in cinema.
Footage, a film by acclaimed editor Saiju Sreedhara, is the only the second film in the 'found footage' in Malayalam (the first being Vazhiye (2-22) by Nirmal Baby Varghese) and is a brave attempt. The film follows the first-person experiences of a vlogger couple whose revenue model depends on the commodification of personal experiences. Their curiosity to film and uncover the mysteries surrounding a lady doctor who lives in the same building sets the stage for the film.
Sreedharan’s commitment to the genre is evident in his work. He offers an immersive viewpoint for audience, and he lets his characters to break the fourth wall. He uses shaky camera work, grainy footage and abrupt cuts to create an illusion that what the audience watch are homemade videos. Cameras are part of the story world, characters are aware of it, and the cameras take the narrative forward.
In a Reddit AMA, the filmmaker revealed that The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cloverfield (2008) were his key inspirations for creating Footage. The Blair Witch Project is widely credited with popularising the found footage genre. The film had employed innovative marketing, intentionally blurring the line between fiction and reality by presenting the film as found footage of real missing student filmmakers. Notably, found footage technique has precedents in literature and can be observed in epistolary novels—which relies on diary entries and newspaper clippings for narrative—like Dracula.
However, unlike most of its predecessors in cinema and literature, Footage does not venture into the horror genre but remains firmly in the realm of mystery thriller. Sreedharan focuses on a character study of the vloggers, exploring their attitudes, thought processes, and adventures. The film explores their fears, jealousy towards others' content, and self-awareness about their own content. More importantly, the filmmaker uses the vloggers and their cameras to make the audience confront their own voyeuristic tendencies. The film opens with an explicit sex scene in a nearby apartment, shown through the lens of one of the vloggers. This initial scene draws attention to the camera’s presence, which then shifts to the vlogger couple recording their own intimate moments. By placing these two scenes side by side, the film contrasts individuals whose private lives are captured without their consent with those who knowingly document and commodify their own privacy.
Two aspects of Sreedharan's film that this writer found somewhat problematic were the colour grading and the dialogues. The colour grading did not effectively support the 'real and original' footage presented to the audience. Similarly, the dialogues were intended to give the impression of being unscripted. However, the delivery by one of the lead actors did not effectively support the filmmaker’s goal of presenting a style that mimics real footage. Nonetheless, Footage remains a unique experiment in Indian cinema and is definitely a must-watch for those interested in films that push beyond conventional boundaries.
