Sep 11, 03 Aradhana Seth on her film DAM/AGE
Also, a discussion of Jhumpa Lahiri's writing by Inprint's Krupa Parikh.
Music from "Weaving My Ancestor's Voices" by Shiela Chandra.
ARADHANA SETH is a documentary filmmaker and production designer. Seth grew up in India and has worked extensively there and in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. She began her career in feature film in 1988, working as an assistant director on In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, which chronicles the life of students in the hip Delhi School of Architecture. On that film she first met its writer, Arundhati Roy. Her routinely praised production design credits include Deepa Mehta’s Fire(1996), Earth (1998) and the forthcoming Water (2003).
DAM/AGE chronicles the bold campaign against the Narmada dam project in northern India and the contempt of court case which led to a prolonged case against Arundhati Roy and eventually a one-day jail sentence in spring of 2002. In a clear and accessible manner, the film weaves together a number of issues that lie at the heart of politics today from the consequences of development and globalization to the ever more urgent need for state accountability and the freedom of speech.
Born in India and trained as an architect, ARUNDHATI ROY was awarded the coveted Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, The God of Small Things, which has been translated into more than 30 languages. In reviewing the novel, John Updike said, "Treading Roy's maze, we learn a great deal about a 'vast, violent,
circling, driving, ridiculous, insane, unfeasible, public turmoil of a nation.' " Roy is also the author of three collection of essays War Talk (2003), Power Politics (2001), and The Cost of Living (1999), as well as numerous articles.
