Shankar’s Fairies

Feature film, in post production

A little girl and a man from a village, the family servant, share an imagination that sees wonder everywhere in their beautiful house. Underlying this we see that there are two utterly divided worlds of city and village, modern education and illiteracy, master and servant, adult and child, which all produce irresolvable conflicts and a realisation of the pathos of the Indian social situation, and indeed, the world in general. Set in Lucknow, 1962.

 

Children Playing Gods

Documentary, 61 mins, DVD, 2008 (Hindi with English subtitles)

During the festival of the Ramlila, the streets of the city of Varanasi, India, are transformed into dramatic stages, where the “gods”  descend onto the earth and ‘play’, in the form of children. A group of actors, artists, and teachers worked with children from a  Ramlila neighbourhood to teach theatre, history, and self-identity. They encountered support and prejudice from the community and a child’s world unforgiving in its realities and universal in its imagination and discoveries. This film is about their journey.

 

Anupriya 

Documentary, 30 mins, 2006

Commissioned by University of Michigan’s South Asia Outreach Centre to distribute in Michigan public schools as part of a unit on South Asia.

 

Images of Indian Children

Documentary, 30 mins, 2005