San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival3rd I

Film

MY MOTHER INDIA

2:00 pm, November 2, Roxie Theatre
Director: Safina Uberio
Country: Australia (2001)
Running Time: 52 mins; 35mm color
English



My Mother India is a powerful, personal and engaging documentary. Safina Uberoi, the narrator, tells the story of her mother, an Australian who married an Indian PhD student and moved to India, her father, a Sikh turned liberal atheist turned Sikh again, and his parents, a guru and a feisty skeptic. But what starts off as a quirky lighthearted family story about personal identity and movement between cultures touches on darker issues of group identity, with the family on the edge of the communal violence sparked by the 1984 attack on the Sikh temple at Amritsar and the assassination of Indira Gandhi. My Mother India touches on complex issues with sensitivity and balance.

Short films:

'Artifact 1968', by Andaleeb Firdosy uses footage from an inherited Super 8 film and explores the relationship between document and ritual.
USA, 6 min, Digital Video, Color (2003), English

'Laxmi', by Mandrika Rupa, is a coming of age story of an Indian girl growing up in colonial New Zealand in wartime, 1942.
New Zealand, 10min, vhs, Color (2000), English

'Tired of Dancing' by Alka Raghuram is an experimental film about a young girl who is sold off under the pretext of marriage.
USA, 4 min, Digital Video, Color (2003), English

Q & A with filmmakers Firdosy and Raghuram following screenings.

Co-Presenters

Girls on Film, Women of Color Screening Series
Global Exchange

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