BETWEEN THE FRAMES is a film program in Redmond that uses visual storytelling to promote and deepen our understanding of different histories, traditions, and cultures.
These films, situated in the Black North American and South Asian contexts, are linked by themes of memory, acceptance, self-love, and the complexities of the diasporic experience. In particular, they explore and disrupt the deep connections between internalized racial biases and colorism within and between Black and South Asian communities.
Rewatch the program on YouTube
This program features:
WHAT’S YOUR BROWN NUMBER? (2015, India, 4:31 mins)
Directed by Vinnie Ann Bose; Produced by Studio EeksaurusKAALA (2019, India, 15:24 mins)
Directed by Tarun Jain; Produced by Nasira Khan
ABOUT THE FILMS + ARTISTS
WHAT’S YOUR BROWN NUMBER? (2015, India, 4:31 mins)
Directed by Vinnie Ann Bose; Produced by Studio Eeksaurus
What's Your Brown Number? is an animated satire on colorism that questions the nuances of idealized beauty based on skin tone in India.
VINNIE ANN BOSE
VINNIE ANN BOSE is an Indian born animator, living and working in France since 2018. She holds a Bachelors in Animation Film Design from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India and a Masters in Animation film direction from Joined École de la poudrière, Valence, France.
What is your Brown Number? was part of an incubation student project that Vinnie made while studying at NID under the mentorship of Suresh Eriyat of Studio Eeksaurus.
She is currently working on a short film project titled "Sulaimani" and a TV series project for children titled "Mousse & Bichon", as author and director.
KAALA (2019, India, 15:24 mins)
Directed by Tarun Jain; Produced by Nasira Khan
Kaala (Black in Hindi) is a short socio-political film specifically on hate crimes against African nationals that occurred in New Delhi, India in 2016 and 2017.
TARUN JAIN
TARUN JAIN is an acclaimed filmmaker from New Delhi, India. His short film, Amma Meri has screened in over 48 festivals including the Oscar Qualifying Tampere Film Festival, IFFI Goa, MIFF, IDSFFK, and Dharamshala, India.
His latest film Kaala (2019) is based on the racist attacks on the Africans in New Delhi, India. Kaala (2019) had its world premiere at the Oscar Qualifying Cinequest Film and VR Festival in the USA and also played at Rapid Lion Film Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was screened at the Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals (CoSAFF), a first of its kind event that brought together seven well-established South Asian film festivals across North America in 2020.
Moderated discussion led by Dr. Nalini Iyer
DR. NALINI IYER
NALINI IYER is Professor of English at Seattle University and current holder of the Theiline Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair for the Humanities. She teaches postcolonial studies including South Asian and African writing, and courses on postcolonial and transnational feminisms. Her research focuses on three interrelated areas: the hegemony of Anglophone writing in South Asia, South Asian diaspora studies, and Partition Studies. Her publications include the following: Other Tongues: Rethinking the Language Debates in India (co-edited with Bonnie Zare, Rodopi 2009); Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest (co-authored with Amy Bhatt, University of Washington Press 2013); and Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays in Memory, Culture, and Politics (co-edited with Amritjit Singh and Rahul K. Gairola, Lexington 2016/Orient Blackswan 2016). She is the Chief Editor of South Asian Review and the first woman to hold that position in the journal’s forty-year history.
This program was organized by Savita Krishnamoorthy
Media design by Chile Dulce
Presented by Black Cinema Collective (BCC)
www.blackcinemacollective.org
This project is supported in part by grants from the City of Redmond and 4Culture