Arpita Kumar

When Sita rents her womb out to a Canadian woman, her commercial surrogate status opens a legal and ethical can of worms. The film culminates in tragic irony when both the body of a pubescent female child and Sita become sites for opposing narratives on the role of the feminine and of the commodified. There are no villains in the films, just people with pressing needs.

A short narrative funded by Film Independent, My Dear Americans is about a Sikh woman’s defiant spirit. A recent immigrant to the U.S, Tejpreet is reluctant to embrace her new American identity. In contrast, her husband celebrates everything that mildly reeks of America. On America’s most patriotic holiday, the fourth of July, they have a threatening racist encounter that crushes the Sikh man’s enthusiastic spirit. Witnessing her husband’s devastation, Tejpreet makes a choice against hate and turns the situation around, if only momentarily.