Mardistan, The Royal Women Association, Silent Voices
Oct 19, 2015
Various directors
Co-presented with the Seattle South Asian Film Festival
Tickets available through the SSAFF website
Tickets available for pre-purchase here
Mardistan
(Harjant Gill, 2014, India, 28 min)
Mardistan (Macholand) is an exploration of Indian manhood articulated through the voices of four men from different generations and backgrounds. A middle-aged writer trying to make sense of the physical and sexual abuse he witnessed studying in an elite military academy, a Sikh father of twin daughters resisting the pressure to produce a son, a young 20-year-old college student looking for a girlfriend with whom he can lose his virginity, and a working-class gay activist coming out to his wife after twenty years of marriage. Together, their stories make up different dimensions of what it means to be a man in India today. Mardistan (Macholand) starts a conversation on critical issues including patriarchy, son preference, sexual violence and homophobia in a nation increasingly defined by social inequalities.
The Royal Women Association
(Robinder Uppal, 2015, Canada, 20 min)
THE ROYAL WOMEN ASSOCIATION tells the story of a group of South Asian women in Calgary who have banded together to overcome the isolation and loneliness so common among older members of their community. The women break out of their shells and overcome their demons by sharing songs, poetry, food, and laughter at the group’s monthly meetings. As they plan an event that calls attention to domestic violence in the community, one member, Sarbjit, tries to come to terms with the trauma of her own past.
Silent Voices
(Pritha Chakraborty, 2014, India, 26 min)
Playful teenage girls are growing up with the dream of successful extension of a suburban music band. Through the assent of growing up, they travel through the real world and get confined to usual challenges. It is a personal story where the author, in introspection, gauges on her immediate world of compulsions – muted freedom, repressive family pressure and early motherhood. The director evokes the plaguing impasse and the process of ensuring reconciliation women go through in the realm of seamless submission.