When celluloid pornography went digital: class and race in the Bangladeshi cut-piece online

Abstract

This article investigates the fate of celluloid pornography after the end of film. With the demise of celluloid filmmaking in Bangladesh and the rapid transitioning of film projection to digital forms, bits and pieces of stray sexually explicit celluloid have migrated to digital formats. In this article, I map the movement of so-called 'cut-pieces', locally produced strips of illegal celluloid pornography, onto online forums patronized by Bengali speakers. Exploring the reception of this sexually explicit material in its new digital environment, I ask the following questions: how are the traces of 'locality' that inflected the celluloid production of cut-pieces received within digital spaces of consumption? What happens to markers of class and race when celluloid forms of pornography move onto digital platforms? And what are the cultural and technological limits to the internationalization of the aesthetic of mainstream pornography?