Jalamarmaram (The Whisper of Waters) 4:30, Sunday, October 14 Uris Auditorium, Cornell University

Also screening Tuesday, Ithaca College
Free and open to the public

In the industrial landscape of rural India, the local factory pollutes the water, air and land with impunity. From this landscape, an eight-year-old boy struggles with the death of his father, a political and environmental activist who died fighting the State's dubious politics of development. Through memories of his father's stories, the boy's desires and hopes are displaced onto the mystical presence of a mermaid in a carnival. He begins a plan to take the fictional mermaid away from her sad life at the carnival and from the polluted river he believes is her home. As the real world of oppression and environmental degradation becomes fused with this fantasy world of carnival characters and mermaids, the boy begins to move toward a fuller, yet unattainable, realization of his father's dream. Directed by T.K. Rajeev Kumar. 1999, India, 73 min.

Cosponsored with the Cornell India Association and the South Asia Program.

Festival Homepage / Schedule of Events