Last week, Programs Manager, Diana Lee and I went to the New York Theatrical Premiere of Amu,  the story of a young Indian-American named Kaju who visits her home country for the first time since the age of five.

In Kaju’s efforts to discover the “real India,” she unravels the story behind her adoption and her refuge in the United States. Her life is directly linked to the 1984, four-day, Anti-Sikh genocide in the heart of New Delhi.

For Shonali Bose, director of Amu, the story of Kaju, is used to bring to light the the political situation in India and four days of genocide after the assassination of Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi. When asked about her motivations in making the film, she said that above all her aim was to shed a little bit of light on the tragic, state-sponsored massacre that had been denied by the Indian government for years.

Mira Nair introduced Amu and eloquently commented on the importance of telling our own story. Her words had particular strength because this was an Indian film made by an Indian woman, offering a very intimate portrait of a charged and controversial political situation.

While storytellers should aspire to have no nationality or cultural baggage, seeing an Indian experience from the perspective of an Indian woman has a different weight. This is not to say, however, that the immigrant experience can’t be told truthfully by a non-immigrant or that the civil rights struggle can’t be accurately told by a white filmmaker. These lenses carry their own weight. But knowing that this was a film aiming to reconcile a very personal and political history made me read it differently. And I think this is what Mira Nair meant when she talked about the importance of telling our stories.

During our post-movie dinner, Diana and I got to chatting about what lenses, films, stories told by whom, legitimize the voice or history of a community, a country, a historical recount… Questions we had no answers for, but that all of those in media making and distribution should ponder on.

We also talked about storytelling techniques—what is needed to capture an audience, get distribution and ultimately, make money.  As the ex-Director of Asian CineVision, these are issues she always brings up. Diana said, “I loved the film, but at the same time, it can be so sad that filmmakers have to resort to storytelling techniques that have nothing to do with their message. If the story aimed to offer powerful insight into a tragic massacre that it has not been able to reconcile, it loses strength. The message gets muddied up by delving too deep into love story, telenovela type, pull at your hearts strings drama.” While it was a powerful and compelling story, the issue of the 1984 Sikh riots were probably not done justice in the edit room.

All in all, the New York Theatrical experience of Amu  brought to light issues of community voice, storytelling techniques and distribution, issues that all of us making media or working in media should have as daily bread, but too often ignore.