Remembering Kurdi
Director: Saumyananda Sahi | Duration: 64 minutes | Language: English
‘Remembering Kurdi’ is an English documentary by filmmaker Saumyananda Sahi. It witnesses the brief resurfacing of a census town submerged for three decades by the Salaulim dam, in Goa. Through the explorations of a young man and woman in search of their ancestral home and history, the film is an allegory for the universal quest to preserve memory and so also a sense of belonging.
The screening of the film was followed by a discussion between Gurucharan Kurdikar and academic Rashmi Sawhney. Find out more in the blog by Mediator Abigail Silversmith.
About the Director
Born in Bangalore, Karnataka, in 1986, Saumyananda Sahi was the youngest participant in the Talent Campus India (2004), and the Berlinale Talent Campus at the Berlin International Film Festival (2005).
Over the last ten years Saumyananda has worked on both documentaries as well as fiction features with filmmakers such as Thomas F. Lennon, Kamal Swaroop, Arun Karthick, Anamika Huksar and Anne Aghion. His work has been screened in Film Festivals around the world, including at Sundance, Rotterdam, Locarno, Hot Docs and IDFA.
Saumyananda graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi, with a distinction in Philosophy, and studied Film Cinematography in the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He founded Skreen Films with his wife, Tanusree Das.
About the Discussants
Gurucharan Kurdikar was an inhabitant of Kurdi. He has vivid memories of his childhood in Kurdi but is based in Mumbai.
Rashmi Sawhney is a Bangalore-based academic and writer whose work deals with cinema and visual culture. She is currently Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at Christ University, Bangalore. Rashmi lived in Ireland for eleven years, where she did her PhD and later took up a Lecturership at the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice (www.ctmp.ie). Prior to joining Christ University she was Associate Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Her research, teaching, and publications have dealt with gender, migration, and more recently science and speculative fictions in the context of cinema.
Connected Exhibit and Programmes
Animas by Brian House - exhibit presenting the pollution of a river in Colorado
India’s Water Problems Have Simple Solutions by Mihir Shah - a public lecture on a new approach to water management