Followed by a virtual Q&A with filmmakers, moderated by curator Devika Girish

In the last decade, a new wave of experimental film has emerged in India, giving fresh life to an otherwise marginal tradition in a country dominated by commercial cinema. Female filmmakers have been at the forefront of this wave, deploying the tactics of women’s storytelling—fractured image and sound, diaristic modes, a blend of myth and fantasy with documentary—to craft films that are doubly oppositional: They resist both the totalizing norms of narrative cinema and the oppressive contours of an increasingly intolerant nation. 

This program presents a curated selection of recent experimental shorts by Indian women filmmakers, including Shambhavi Kaul, Nehal Vyas, Payal Kapadia, Eshwarya Grover, Utsa Hazarika and Trisha Bhattacharya. The program offers a distinctly feminist perspective on India—and experimental image-making—today.

Co-sponsored by the Colgate Arts Council, the Office of Equity and Diversity, Asian Studies, and Core Communities