Film maker Suman Ghosh screens his latest feature film, "Shyamal Uncle Turns off the Lights" (2012, 65 minutes)

 

Movie Screening and Discussion with Filmmaker: Thursday, April 3

 

Director and screenwriter Suman Ghosh will be screening his latest feature film, "Shyamal Uncle Turns off the Lights" (2012, 65 minutes). The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with Ghosh. The event is free and open to the public. Ghosh's visit is sponsored by the program in Film and Media Arts (FMA) and the Departments of Economics and English.  Refreshments will be served. Please contact Dr. Pallavi Rastogi (prastogi@lsu.edu) for more information.

 

Suman Ghosh is currently an Associate Professor of Economics at Florida Atlantic University. He was trained in film at the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance at Cornell. His first film, "Amartya Sen: A Life Reexamined"(2002),  was a documentary feature on India's sole living Nobel Laureate. His first feature film, "Podokkhep" ("Footsteps," 2006), premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. The movie was screened at various film festivals worldwide including in Cannes, New York, New Delhi, Karlovy Vary, and Seattle. "Podokkhep" won the Silver Lotus Award for Best Regional Feature Film (Bengali) and the Best Actor award for Soumitra Chatterjee at the 54th Indian National Awards in 2008.

 

Ghosh's second feature film, entitled "Dwando" (2009), was selected as part of the Indian Panorama Section at the International Film Festival of India in Goa the same year. "Nobel Chor" (Nobel Thief, 2010), starring the popular Bollywood movie star Mithun Chakraborty, was screened at many film festivals internationally, including Busan, BFI London, Mumbai, Bangalore and Dhaka. It won the Best Indian Film Award at the Bangalore International Film Festival in 2011. "Shyamal Uncle Turns off the Lights" was selected for screening at the Busan International Film Festival in Korea in 2012 and for the India Gold Competition Section at the Mumbai Film Festival.

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Synopsis of "Shyamal Uncle Turns of the Lights":  Shyamal Uncle, an eighty-year old retiree living with his wife in Paikpara (an old Kolkata neighborhood), notices one day that the street lights near his house are left on even during the day. He finds it unconscionable to let this waste go and decides to take action. He talks to a number of people - from the local vendor to the local political leader; from the electricity officer to the police officer. But no one even bothers to listen to him and he is given the runaround. Even his wife is skeptical of his endeavor. Drawing a contrast with the mundane existence of his personal life, the film is a story of Shyamal Uncle's journey as he fights the brush offs, insults, and skepticism with one single goal—turn off the lights.

(From http://shyamaluncle.com/synopsis.php)