A gateway for the media

How would you describe the role of Outreach Media?

Elaine: I see it primarily as a gateway for visiting researchers and media. We help them understand the aspect of Auroville that they want to cover through putting them in contact with the appropriate people. With filmmakers, we also send them material beforehand and look after logistics, like arranging to have them picked up at the airport. And it is a requirement from the Auroville Foundation that we accompany them the whole time they are filming in Auroville. This can be very tiring but the filmmakers appreciate us being around because we make their time here more productive.

Fabienne: Foreign film crews have to get permission from the Indian embassy in their country and from the Auroville Foundation to film here. It’s a long process in which Outreach Media plays a key role as we have to decide if the project fits with the Auroville purpose.

What does this mean?

Elaine: It has to be about Auroville. It cannot be a feature film or commercial that uses Auroville just as the background: like shooting a car commercial in front of Matrimandir.

Fabienne: We are selective. We study what the filmmaker wants to do, and we reject it if it is very shallow or if there is very little research involved. Actually, we always recommend that the filmmaker comes in advance to do research, but this rarely happens.

Elaine: If we are not familiar with the foreign film company or TV station we will ask Aurovilians from that country for more information. Recently we had a film crew from a Colombian TV station wanting to make a programme about Auroville. We asked a Colombian Aurovilian about them, she recommended the station and it turned out to be a very good experience.

Are you getting more and more requests to film or write about Auroville now?

Fabienne: Yes. Now there is a race to film Auroville for the 50th anniversary: we have three separate film crews working on this topic. Somebody from a French TV crew came here for three days. He got incredibly caught up with it, read everything he could, watched every movie on Auroville made in French, and then he sent us the most exhaustive synopsis for a film on Auroville we have ever received. It was very impressive. And we didn’t even meet him!

What are the kinds of things in Auroville that interest the media?

Fabienne: We get many requests from TV travel channels and magazines in India, and there is also a little interest in education, but the foreign media are interested in sustainability and economy. Both of these topics are difficult grasp because there is a big gap between the ideal and the reality.

We claim, for example, that we tend to have a cashless economy inside Auroville but practically we know it is not true. Recently we had an embarrassing experience with a magazine focussing on different ways of eating and wellbeing in Auroville. They wanted to eat in an Auroville restaurant, but I explained they did not take cash there so it would not be possible for visitors to dine at the restaurant. But when the manager heard who the journalist was, he suddenly said that they did take cash! It was very confusing.

Then again, a filmmaker from France came to learn about sustainability. He spent half an hour at Gaia’s Garden and was fascinated by how Kireet had transformed a barren piece of land. But the next stop was Matrimandir where she saw huge lawns being watered. ‘Hey, guys,’ she said, ‘is there something wrong here?’

So the Aurovilians themselves contribute to giving a confused picture about this place?

Fabienne: Absolutely. You could make Auroville look like a farce when you see all the inconsistencies that are here.

How do you explain contradictory situations like these to the media?

Fabienne: We say we have all the problems of the world here, all the good and all the bad, and we have to deal with it because this is a laboratory. They respond to this honesty, and they do feel something different here. These people are very sharp, very bright. The other day, one of them asked us, ‘When you grow bigger, do you think you will become very ordinary like any other place?’ And I said, ‘Yes, The Mother herself said it might be like this. Unless we find the new consciousness, we should forget about being different.’

If you are not touched inwardly, it is difficult to understand this place. So when we try to explain Auroville to them, we keep it simple. There are so many layers in Auroville that need to be put into perspective if Auroville is to be understood properly. This requires also some integrity, honesty, from the journalist.

Do you feel you need to be protective of Auroville when you accompany these media teams? Do you give them any kind of guidance or direction?

Fabienne: Once we have identified the Aurovilians who are willing to be interviewed, we step back. We let the Aurovilians say whatever they want. But we choose the interviewees carefully because they should be people who are ‘carrying’ something of Auroville. It is easier with education but for business, for example, it is rare to hear somebody explaining why business in Auroville is different.

Do journalists and filmmakers send you a copy of their work before they go public with it?

Elaine: We ask them to send articles and final cuts so we can correct any inaccuracies, but they very rarely do this. And we cannot enforce this.

Fabienne: One consequence is that every six months there are one or two shockingly inaccurate pieces about Auroville.

Elaine: One young freelance journalist came recently, and an Aurovilian let her stay in her home for some weeks. We and other Aurovilians spent time with her. But then she wrote an article about Auroville for the online magazine Slate in which we, as well as the Auroville Foundation, were misquoted. Everybody was upset. We wrote to her and said you have misrepresented us and Auroville, and she said she was very sorry. We wrote to the magazine to point out the inaccuracies, but they only changed two photo captions.

In other words, once you have given permission, you cannot control what people film or write about Auroville.

Fabienne: We can’t and we don’t want to, that is not our role. But we are aware that there are many levels in Auroville and it is very easy for a journalist with malicious intentions to stay on the surface and misrepresent us.

Elaine: We also deal with the issue of people misusing Auroville’s name. For example, a jewellery store in Pondicherry was using the Matrimandir as their logo.

Fabienne: Then there are the tour operators. One was claiming that Mango Hill is an Auroville guest house, and that if you stayed there you would have open access to everything in the community – as if Auroville is a theme park.

Elaine: And a yoga training workshop promised participants they could go daily for a concentration in the Matrimandir as part of their programme.

When you take up these issues with them, how do they respond?

Elaine: If you approach it in a non-confrontational way, most people respond positively. If it requires a stronger message, Vinodhini takes care of it on a more legal basis.

Many people in India still seem ignorant of the existence of this place, in spite of all the films and interviews and our website, and in spite of the fact that many Aurovilians are interacting with India through their work and activities. How do you explain this?

Fabienne: One of the reasons is we badly miss a well-educated Tamil speaker on our team. We have very good contacts with all the English language newspapers; they want to know more and more about Auroville. We also have a contact with the editor of one of the biggest Tamil dailies who wants to do a weekly article on Auroville. But no Aurovilian is coming forward to write articles for him or to cultivate a relationship with other Tamil newspapers.

We also need somebody on the team who can write good press releases in English and Tamil. However, we do have two newcomers working with us. One of them will assist us in filling up the gaps in our image bank. We were funded by the Foundation for World Education to do this, and now we have catalogued all the Auroville photographs and films, working together with Matrimandir and Auroville Archives.

All of this sounds like a lot of work for a team of just two people.

Fabienne: Outreach Media is understaffed and we don’t have the appropriate office space: we need to expand or move to a new building. One reason is that we are not getting any budget from the Budget Coordination Committee: we get only two maintenances. Where are we going to find an educated Tamil speaking person who doesn’t need a maintenance?

We have been given the very important responsibility to supervise Auroville’s relationship with the media, yet we had to fight tooth and nail to get those two maintenances. Auroville Radio is another important communication channel that gets no financial assistance from Auroville. What does this tell you about our priorities as a community?