Jala Do -- Torch the Pyre. A documentary essay about the Bombay riots of the early 1990s, told from the Muslim minority point of view. The video draws the conclusion that the "politicization of religious fundamentalism threatens ..... democracies around the world." [Sawnet review]

Nupur. 8 min, 35mm. Nupur is a little Indian girl who is visiting her ancestral house for the first time.

The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Won an Honorable Mention at the 1994 Semana de Cine Experimental in Madrid. Desperately Seeking Helen (80 min). To the Indian film mecca of Bollywood and back, Marjara seeks out her childhood film idol, Helen. From Amritsar to Trois Rivieres, Desperately Seeking Helen enters a world of fantasy and unimaginable realities, as Marjara navigates cultures and memory to find a sense of self. Who is Helen? A diva of Indian cinema, the world's biggest dream factory. She has performed in more than 700 films. More than a movie star, she is a glittering figure of desire and playfulness, the mistress of a thousand disguises, yet always herself. Juxtaposing forceful personal narrative with Hindi song and dance numbers, Desperately Seeking Helen is a compelling account of self-discovery and a moving reflection on the power of movies.

From the Burning Embers. An indictment of sati, highlighting the story of Roop Kanwar. The film places the incident in the context of the increased strength of religious fundamentalism in India in the 1980s, and the government's cowardly passivity in order to gain votes.

The Shattered Pearl, directed by this husband-and-wife team, reports on the war in Sri Lanka, the human rights abuses, and the women who continue to struggle for justice and peace. [More about the film.

Coconut/Cane and Cutlass. 1993, 30 mins. An Indo-Caribbean lesbian ruminates about exile and identity... overlaid with stories of indentured Indian laborers brought to the Caribbean generations ago...mixes location footage from Guyana with drama, poetry and dance... Special Mention at the Turin Lesbian and Gay film festival. Rented or sold by Women Make Movies, Inc., 462 Broadway, Suite 500, New York, NY 10013. Tel: (212) 925-0606

Skin Deep. The search for femininity and how it permeates the self-image of contemporary Indian women. 1998. 83 min. Script by Paromita Vora. [Summary from Loyola University filmfest] [Review in the Hindu] [Review in the Times of India]

Flesh and Paper. A 26-minute film in which lesbian writer Namjoshi and others discuss her life and work, with readings of her poetry. Born into an Indian royal family, She now resides in England. Her poems, fables, and novels are characterized by her wry and satirical humor, informed by both a lesbian consciousness and a deep Indian cultural
framework.

Voices of the Morning. shows a young woman growing up under orthodox Isalmic law and her attempts to find her own identity. The film's third person narrative and appearances by Mississippi Masala star Sarita Choudhury make for an affecting birth-to-maturity account of a woman's troubled relationship with her Islamic upbringing. Available from NAATA

Sushma Narain started her career with the Reserve Bank of India, and after a decade took to writing, teaching, and visual media. More about her and her films, including where to get them. Breaking the Barriers. 1999 Looks at the state and community's response to domestic violence. Indian Women: From Rhetoric to Reality. An eight-part series. 1997- 98 - At the Crossroads examines the overall impact of the constitutional mandate of equality for the sexes. Women and Violence takes a macro-level look at violence against women, tracing the causes and the agencies of it perpetuation. Women and Health is a cultural enquiry into the poor health status of Indian women and links this to their status in society. Women and Media argues for the mainstreaming of the alternative media streams. Women and Law documents the changes in law made possible by the activism of women and an enlightened judiciary. Women and Education explores how contradictory policies, traditional attitudes and biases and large scale economic deprivation have scuttled attempts at equating the sexes through education. Women: Their Work and Their Worth suggests that the failure of the women workforce in gaining due recognition for their work is caused in part by the gender division of labour. Beyond the Personal documents the active participation of women in the village panchayats of West Bengal.

Warrior Marks, 1993. A film with Alice Walker exploring the controversial reality of female genital mutilation in Asia and Africa. [Sawnet reviews & newsclips] Memsahib Rita. "Shanti's face is brown and painfully Indian, even though her mother was a beautiful white woman. Can Shanti survive in London's East End, with the ugliness of racism around her and the bitter memories of a mother who committed suicide, unable to take the pressures of an interracial marriages In this unusual fictional short, studded with fantasy and magical realism, there are some surprising answers."

The New Puritans: The Sikhs of Yuba City. Forced economically from their farms in the state of Punjab, the first Sikh immigrants came to California in the early 1900s, creating a rural life that mirrored their native India. This film lucidly portrays the cultural and generational conflicts faced by all immigrant groups. [Sawnet review] Available from NAATA.

Gargi Sen directs films with the Magic Lantern Cooperative. Her films (and more info about them) can be obtained from Magic Lantern Foundation. Because of Our Rights, 1989. The struggle of forest dwellers to re-establish their lost traditional rights. Niyogi Zinda Hai, 1992. Bhilai workers struggle even after the murder of their leader Shankar Guha Niyogi in Sep 91. Ballad of Builders, 1993. English/Hindi/Tamil, 60 min. The rights of construction workers. Carrying their Voices, 1995. English, 9 min. Video in the activities of an NGO in Rajasthan. In Search of Green Gold . 1995 English, Hindi, 45 min The relationship between tribes and forests. Where Healing is a Tradition . 1997 English , 30 mins. Presents traditional women healers who practise folk medicine in communities with no other access to medical services. A Healer is Born. 1997 English, 40 mins. Women in a draught-prone area near Pune are empowered by their understanding of the political economy of health. A Journey together. 1998 English, 70 mins About 4 women, the founders of Action India in Delhi. Of Hosts and Hostages. 1998 English (with subtitles), 81 mins, PAL. Effect of tourism on ecology, economy, culture, focusing on Goa. Innette Perunthachan . 1994 Malayalam, English 26 min. About the marginalization of wood craftsmen of Kerala. Indravadan Modi . 1995 Hindi, 26 min c BiTV. Real-life story of the owner of one of India's leading pharmaceutical companies. Imagine Kalpana . 1997 English, 30 min. About Kalpana Dutta, an eminent freedom fighter.

Just a little red dot. An award winning video about the value of cultural diversity and the importance of eliminating discrimination. This is a true story shot by the teacher, Mitra Sen, in Tam O'Shanter Junior Public School, Toronto. A student new in her ESL class from Sri Lanka, gave Mitra a package of little red dots. After placing one on her forehead and explaining that "In Hindi, it's a Bindi". Other girls asked to wear them too. They were teased so much at recess that they took them off. Mitra's grade 5 students renamed the Bindi's "cool dots" and set about to educate fellow students about the significance of Bindis in the Indian culture and the need to respect the customs and traditions of all cultural groups.
Film web site from Sandalwood Productions.

Nandini Sikand is a New York filmmaker and television producer, who also teaches Indian Cinema at Hunter College. She can be contacted at nsikand@yahoo.com. Don't Fence Me In is the coming-of-age story of a young woman in post-colonial India, which weaves together old home movies, poetry, photographs, letters, and a voice-over narration. 55 min, 1998. "It is the experiences of our parents that mirror the worlds that we know only from stories, impressions and memories.... to begin at the personal and move towards the universal: therein lies understanding", says Nandini Sikand in India Today, 18 Jan 99. Bhangra Wrap explores the world of hip-hop, rap and Bhangra of young South Asians in Canada and New York. Available from NAATA .

Khush Refugees. Rahul, an immigrant from India, and Dante, an ex-marine from suburban Ohio, try to assimilate into San Francisco's gay culture only to find that in a community of exiles, one is always a refugee. Singh has created a sensitive docu-drama that captures two individual coming-of-age stories intertwined with mutual experiences as "outsiders." Available from NAATA

Meera Syal is an actress and novelist who writes for television and film. Her film credits include Sammie and Rosie Get Laid, A Nice Arrangement & It's Not Unusual. She wrote the screenplays for My Sister Wife, and Bhaji on the Beach. Sawnet biography. Memory Pictures

Retro/Action explores the psychological experience of trying to remember. Snake-Byte. Appropriating transcripts from a prime-time news show, this video looks at the career of a criminal, Charles Sobhraj. (With Dina Mendros) Unable to Remember Roop Kanwar for a Performance piece by Ananya) examines the middle class values that support Sati. Ravings of a Geometry Lover What do Pythagoras, beans and travel have to do with each other? My Life as a Poster. A fake autobiography designed to stimulate debate about cultural representations. Rumination and Advice from Dr. Abbey Polk explores ideas about sexual promiscuity and takes a humorous look at sex. Any Number You Want explores the quantification of chaos. My Feet Remember Movement examines `body memory.' Some of these may be available from NAATA, otherwise contact

Tania Trepanier is a bilingual, bisexual woman who grew up in the Comoro Islands, Malawi and Trinidad. Her artistic and academic work addresses issues around cultural and sexual identity. Sugar and Spice Radha and Anna are expecting a visitor from India. In anticipation of her aunt's arrival, Radha uncharacteristically covers up evidence of her relationship with Anna, while Anna is determined to impress Durga Aunty with her Indian chai. Unexpected outcomes follow Durga's arrival, leaving the audience to determine for themselves what Durga Aunty thinks of the two women's relationship.

Smoke/Smokescreen 18 mins.An experimental documentary shot in Washington DC and in India, Smoke / Smoke Screen shows us both the Indian process of preparing a meal and the filmmaker's process of preparing the finished film.

When Women Unite: The story of an uprising. Produced by Nata Duvvury. The film narrates the incredibly moving story of the anti-arrack (state-supplied distilled liquor) movement that led to the eventual ban of arrack sales in Andhra Pradesh in 1995. The movement started when a group of women participating in a literacy program started questioning their oppressed status. Spurred into action by the killing of a village woman (who was beaten to death by her drunk husband when she tried to prevent him from molesting their daughter), they took on the men of the village, the powerful arrack contractors, and the repressive state machinery in a valiant struggle that demanded a stop to the endless supply of arrack to their village (the only village tap dispensed water once in two days while the arrack shop received its supplies twice a day). The movement took hold and spread across the state over a period of four hard-fought years. It was a true grass-roots movement; even today it has no identifiable leaders.
The movie documents the incredible courage of these women, their political and social consciousness and their steady realization that, through struggle, they could control their own destiny.
This video is available through the non-profit organization Media for International Development. Cost for organization:

Paromita Vohra has produced, directed and written several documentaries and features for PBS and other television shows. She is co-writer for the feature film in development, Waiting for the Mahatma (dir: Srinivas Krishna) and writer for the documentary/fiction Skin Deep (dir: Reena Mohan). She is currently working on a film about the displacement of textile workers in Central Bombay. See links for more info about obtaining copies. A Woman's Place. A documentary about women, law, and social change around the world for PBS. Annapurna: Goddess of Food. A documentary about a women's cooperative in Central Bombay for TVI. A Short film about Time.

Motia Khanna is a slum in the poorest district of Delhi. It contains some 5000 shacks on a government-owned site which was cleared for redevelopment 20 years ago, but which was squatted before the rebuild- ing could begin. This film uses fiction and documentary techniques to look at the harsh realities of life for the children of Motia Khana. Bandit Queen, directed by Shekhar Kapur The story of Phoolan Devi, India's so-called Bandit Queen, whose band of dacoits spread fear along the Chambal Valley in the 80s. The film was controversial both for its graphic scenes of rape and violence, and its factual inaccuracies.

Homai Vyarawalla is a professional photojournalist from India who documented the death of Gandhi and the visits of international luminaries. She shares her impressions of the people she photographs. This film, a long overdue tribute, suggests she gained less fame than she deserved because she was Asian and a woman. Available from Filmakers
Library. Dancing Girls of Lahore Because these Pakistani women are the descendants of courtesans, they inherit a somewhat questionable trade today.Available from Filmmakers Library. Death Sentence, by Prakash Jha This dramatic Indian feminist thriller follows the path of a woman, Ketki, from servile wife to glorious avenging goddess, heroic in her efforts to save herself and her "sisters." Horrified by the brutal murder of a mother and her young daughter, accused respectively of adultery and witchcraft, Ketki reveals to the community that these women are casualties of a corrupt patriarchal socio-economic system. Inevitably, a death sentence falls on her head. But this distaff warrior fights back. Division of Hearts. Ordinary people from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh talk about their tumultous experiences during Partition. The Driver, directed by Manish Acharya. 16 min, 1999. The arranged marriage in the Indian community is often based on the expectation that the man will protect and the woman will nurture. This film examines the results when the implicit contract within such a marriage is broken.
Duo, by Mani Ratnam. an epic melodrama spanning some four decades in the lives of two men who exercise massive influence over their country as friends and rivals. Anandan (Mohanlal) is an ambitious actor who becomes an action hero after paying copious dues, while Selvam (Prakash Raj) moves from screenwriting and poetry to success in politics. [Sawnet review] Home Filmed in India, Home is a narrative film which explores issues of homeland, resettlement and identity as seen through two Indian women's choices and dreams. One, an Indian American journalist, returns to India for the first time since her teenage years, while the other, a young student, struggles with her father's strict, rigid expectations. Produced/directed by Michelle Taghioff. Available from NAATA. Father, Son and Holy War, by Anand Patwardhan. [Sawnet review]

Herr Puntila in Sri Lanka. A Finnish director stages Bertold Brecht with amateur Sri Lankan actors. Hijab: An Expression of My Soul . Directed by Irum Shiekh and Juveria Abdul-Aleem, 1998, 20 min. About immigrant/American-born Muslim women who wear hijab (a head scarf and modest covering of the body) in the United States. It provides a space to the Muslim women to express their voices and explain the meaning and purpose of hijab and why they choose to practice it in the Western culture. By asserting their identity, these women challenge the audience to decide for themselves if the use of hijab is a liberation or oppression.
In Memory of Friends, by Anand Patwardhan. Documents the violence in Punjab.
In the Name of God, by Anand Patwardhan. About the rise of the BJP, filmed before the Babri Masjid was razed. Kasthuri; A South Indian film star. A succesful woman with a glamorous career who does not challenge the traditional values of S. Indian culture. Available from Filmmakers Library.
Kumar Talkies, by Pankaj Rishi Kumar. About the only cinema in Kalpi, a small town in northern India. Leaving Bakul Bagan, by Sandeep Ray This moving documentary follows the filmmaker's cousin's imminent departure from India to pursue studies in the U.S. Torn between familial and national loyalties and her desire to travel and experience profoundly personal freedoms this film captures one young woman's embarkation into the world outside what she has known. Available from TWN Masala, directed by Srinivas Krishna. Deemed too controversial for the 1992 International Film Festival of India, Masala is a cutting edge black comedy that refuses to conform to politically correct expectations. Meet Krishna (Saeed Jaffrey, star of My Beautiful Launderette & Gandhi), he's just your average blue god who meets up with the mortal Krishna (played by director Srinivas Krishna), a young ex-junkie who is trying to balance family, culture and tradition while finding a job and kicking the habit at the same time. Memories of Milk City, by Ruchir Joshi. Contemporary images of Ahmedabad juxtaposed with verse. Mirch Masala, directed by Ketan Mehta.