A young Dalit ('untouchable') is brutally attacked when he drinks water from a water tank that is reserved for 'higher' castes. This is just one of many examples of caste discrimination - a form of apartheid - in modern India, which grass roots activists from Video Volunteers have documented. The organisation is headed by Stalin K, an award-winning filmmaker and respected human rights campaigner, who for 20 years has worked to promote grass roots media. At this seminar, the charismatic Stalin K will show a series of film clips shot by video activists that he and his team have trained. Based on the video examples of caste discrimination, he wants to focus on the abysmal contrast between the image of India as a modern country in rapid development and the realities of the 3,000 year-old caste system, which still holds 200 million Dalits at the very bottom of society. At the same time, he wants to describe the role of video activism in the democratisation of the media that is taking place these years, and which to a large degree is associated with the advance of the internet. Two of Stalin K's films about caste discrimination, 'Lesser Humans' and 'India Untouched' have won awards at both Indian and international festivals, and the latter was shown at CPH:DOX in 2007.

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