India202043 minHindi, English with English subtitlesNorth American PremiereDocumentary, Experimental, Women Filmmakers
A mysterious tiger walks through the forest, barely revealing itself, save for a few rare and magical glimpses. This allegorical fiction begins Pallavi Paul’s description of systemic police violence in Delhi, India, based on events suppressed from official history. Using scattered but historically significant fragments of documentation, including video and audio eyewitness accounts, Paul explores the intersections of power, gender, and the narrativization of memory. The film moves across moments like the national emergency of 1975–77, and the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984, all while remaining contemporary by alluding to recent police brutality across university campuses.
Creating a narrative from the memories and stories of collective power, resistance, and violence, Paul arrives at a coherent study of an abuse of power that is situated in Delhi, but that is easily recognizable almost anywhere in the world.
- Mariam Zaidi
OFFICIAL SELECTION
2021 International Film Festival Rotterdam
2021 Sheffield DocFest
Pallavi Paul
Video artist and film researcher Pallavi Paul works with video, installations, and performance. She started her scientific career with a study of literary science, and has now completed her PhD in film studies in New Delhi. Paul’s work has been shown at, among others, the Tate Modern in London, Contour Biennale in Mechelen, Belgium, and the Mumbai Film Festival.
10 Nov, 2021
to 19 Nov, 2021
An Active Listener will be available to offer one-on-one peer support for viewers who may find the content of this presentation triggering. More info on how to access here.
Q&A with Pallavi Paul, moderated by Bedatri Choudhury
Bedatri is a culture journalist and documentary film professional. She has managed documentary projects at Doc Society, Working Films, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, and CAAM, among others. An alumna of the NYFF Critics Academy, Sundance and SXSW Press Inclusion Initiatives, the National Critics’ Institute, and Berlinale Talents, she lives in New York City. Presently, she is the Managing Editor of Documentary Magazine and a programmer with DOC NYC.
In a society different from what we know, a hotel in Taipei welcomes suicidal people and assists them in committing the act by providing several methods that they can choose from. Over the course of one night, a receptionist starts to defy the rules and develops an unusual friendship with a hotel guest who can't make up her mind if she wants to live or die.
The shorts in this program include works screened two decades ago at Desh Pardesh, as well as films made last year by a cohort of South Asian and Indo Caribbean emerging filmmakers who participated in Inside Out Festival’s Short Film Lab.
Shy, sheltered, middle-aged Joshua lives with his elderly parents and is desperately lonely as he longs for a wife. When he’s suddenly forced into a caretaking role for his family, Joshua goes further adrift into isolation, and his Scarborough bungalow feels like a prison. Help arrives unexpectedly when his cousin Marisol flies in from overseas to help—except now, Joshua finds himself confronted with emotions and experiences he’s never had before.
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