I for India (70 minutes)

A bittersweet time capsule of alienation, discovery, racism and belonging, this is a chronicle of immigration in Britain, as seen through the eyes of one Asian family and their movie camera. In 1965, Yash Pal Suri left India to pursue his medical studies in England. He immediately bought two sets of home movie equipment; one he sent to his family in India, and the other he kept for himself. For forty years, this extended family exchanged “cine-letters,” chronicling their daily lives. As time passes and the planned return to India becomes an increasingly remote possibility, the joy and curiosity of the early exchanges give way to the darker reality of alienation, racism and a family falling apart. A bitter-sweet time capsule of alienation, discovery, racism and belonging, “I for India” is a chronicle of immigration in sixties Britain and beyond, seen through the eyes of one Asian family and their movie camera. In Hindi and English, with English subtitles.The screening will be followed by a panel with BorderWork(s) faculty Phil Stern and Sumathi Ramaswamy.

Cosponsored with the BorderWork(s) Lab and the Center for South Asian Studies.