An American Holiday

It is more of an immigrant story for me. I got help from Film Independent, an US-based organisation that promotes young independent filmmakers. They were awarding fellowships to young women filmmakers and the films had to be between five to 10 minutes, themed on “Tradition”. So I thought of using an American tradition and looking at it from the point of view of an outsider.

Was it inspired by a real incident?

The 2012 incident in the US where a white man walked into a gurudwara in Wisconsin, and shot at the devotees, left a scar on everyone. I wanted to reflect on that incident, which happened a decade after 9/11.

Was this project inspired by your own experiences of moving to the US?

I was 18 when I moved from Gomti Nagar, Lucknow to Hampshire College, Massachusetts for my undergraduate degree in Film and Literature. I too shared the same level of anxiety as the characters in the film. When I first went to Target (a local superstore) in the US, I would panic. I remember walking around the college campus and breathing clean, fresh air. I was in awe. There are moments when you feel exhilarated and moments when you feel traumatised. There is in-your-face racism and sugar-coated racism too. I drew from two opposite experiences: being exhilarated and anxious. I feel that anyone moving to another country undergoes a mixed reaction.

You have focused more on the cinematography rather than characterisation. Why is that?

Since this was a short film, we could not build on the issues the characters faced. Meena Singh, my Director of Photography worked on the shot design. When I was writing the script I wanted to focus on extreme close-ups and ambient sounds such as the whistle of the pressure cooker, the sound of peeling vegetables, and the tinkling of anklets.