DAM/AGE
A Film by Aradhana Seth with Arundhati Roy
Sun, Nov 2, 4 pm
Roxie Theatre
San Francisco
"An inspiring documentary that charts Arundhati Roy's
progress, her political activism and her poetry, with bold accomplishment.
An urgent and vital film." - The Guardian (UK).
DAM/AGE traces writer and activist Arundhati Roy's bold
and controversial campaign against the Narmada dam project in India which
displaces up to a million people. The author of ‘The God of Small Things'
which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1998, Roy has also published ’The
Cost of Living' a book of two essays critical of India's massive dam and
irrigation projects, as well as India's successful detonation of a nuclear
bomb.
As the film traces the events that led up to her imprisonment,
Roy meditates on her own personal negotiation with her fame, the responsibility
it places on her as a writer, a political thinker and a citizen. The film
shows how Roy chose to use her fame to stand up to powerful interests supported
by multinational corporations and the Indian government. For her, the story
of the Narmada Valley is not just the story of modern India, but of what
is happening in the world today, "Who counts, who doesn't, what matters,
what doesn't, what counts as a cost, what doesn't, what counts as collateral
damage, what doesn't."
In a clear and accessible manner, the film weaves together
a number of issues that lie at the heart of international politics today:
from the consequences of development and globalization to the urgent need
for state accountability and the freedom of speech. (India/USA, 50 min, Color
(2002), Hindi and English with subtitles.)
Short film:
'Mangoes' by Bani Abidi, playfully explores the reminiscences
of a Pakistani and an Indian woman eating Mangoes. (Pakistan, 3 min, vhs, Color
(2000), Urdu and Hindi with English subtitles)
Sunday, November 2, 4:00pm
Roxie Theatre, San Francisco
3117 16th Street (at Valencia Street)
tickets
Co-presented by Ekta at
3rd I's South Asian International Film Festival