Director Beheroze Shroff Documentary, 22 min., 2004 An examination of the Sidis, descendents of Africans living in modern-day India.
Films for Classroom Use
Serpent Mother
Directed by Allen Moore & Akos Ostor, Produced by Robert Gardner 1985, 28 min. Serpent Mother is about devotion to the Goddess of Snakes and the importance of divine female power in West Bengal Indian …
When Women Unite: The Story of an Uprising
Directed by Shabnam Virmani and Nata Duvvury 80 min Telugu with English Subtitles The film narrates the incredibly moving story of the anti-arrack (state-supplied distilled liquor) movement that led to the eventual ban of arrack …
Who Will Cast The First Stone
Directed by Ahmed A. Jamal and Sabiha Sumar 1989, color, 52 mins., VHS English and Urdu with English subtitles. Examines the impact of Islamization on women in Pakistan, revealing the oppression and injustice which has …
Wheat Cycle
by David Hancock, Herbert DiGioia, Louis & Nancy Dupree Documentary, 16 min., 1975 The people and their labor are bound to the land in the cycle of activities to the sowing to the harvesting of …
We Are Not Your Monkeys
By Anand Patwardhan 5 min., 1996 Recently, the brutal 4,000 year-old Indian caste system and its “divine” justification for class hierarchy has come under attack. Modern scholars examining the Sanskrit roots of Hindu mythology have …
War & Peace
By Anand Patwardhan 90+ min., 2002 Anand Patwardhan’s impressive and impassioned documentary digs beneath the patriotic fervor that followed the nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan in 1998, revealing the essentially political nature of …
Voices of the Sidis: Two documentaries
by Beheroze Shroff DVD (2005) 1) We’re Indian and African 22 min This documentary explores the lives of the Afro-Indian Sidis of Bava Gor village in Gujarat. The Sidis talk about the challenges of their work …
Vaastu Marabu
By: Bala Kailasam 52 min., 1992 India is a country where an ancient civilization survives not only in its artifacts but as a living entity. The Vishwakarmas, holders of architectural and artistic heritage, have maintained …
Turbans
By, Erika Surat Andersen 29 min., 2000 Based on the memoirs of the filmmaker’s grandmother, “Turbans” explores the inner struggles of an Asian Indian immigrant family torn between their cultural traditions and the desire for …