2022 Emerging Artists Showcase
MAA
Sunday, March 6th, 2022
Denver Sie FilmCenter
Synopsis
Filmed over the past two years in Kolkata, India; Ontario, Canada; and Denver, Colorado, Maa is a documentary film following a fatigued octogenarian's dream of gazing upon Niagara Falls before her last breath. Told from the perspective of the daughter, who is also the filmmaker, it is a film about deferred dreams. As the film progresses, it begins to delve into broader, more universal themes touching on depression through the lens of loneliness and the influence of spiritualism. In March 2020, global pandemic hit the world, the West Bengal Government declared a lockdown due to COVID-19, and Maa's trip to see the Niagara Falls, got cancelled a second, and perhaps the final time, during the production of the film. This shifts the documentary's tone and the Falls metaphor to that of her loved ones who elude her in an unrelenting pandemic. The film follows her through five months of complete isolation inside a 932 sq ft. apartment, and suicidal ideation, during all-India lockdown. As Maa's health deteriorates, so do her chances of seeing the Falls and her daughter that lives half a world away. As the film concludes, the fight has left Maa. Her lust for life has been swept away by the fury of the pandemic. Forced into further isolation, the film Maa is a testament to the year 2020, which challenged the human spirit in ways unknown to us.
Filmed over the past two years in Kolkata, India; Ontario, Canada; and Denver, Colorado, Maa is a documentary film following a fatigued octogenarian's dream of gazing upon Niagara Falls before her last breath. Told from the perspective of the daughter, who is also the filmmaker, it is a film about deferred dreams. As the film progresses, it begins to delve into broader, more universal themes touching on depression through the lens of loneliness and the influence of spiritualism. In March 2020, global pandemic hit the world, the West Bengal Government declared a lockdown due to COVID-19, and Maa's trip to see the Niagara Falls, got cancelled a second, and perhaps the final time, during the production of the film. This shifts the documentary's tone and the Falls metaphor to that of her loved ones who elude her in an unrelenting pandemic. The film follows her through five months of complete isolation inside a 932 sq ft. apartment, and suicidal ideation, during all-India lockdown. As Maa's health deteriorates, so do her chances of seeing the Falls and her daughter that lives half a world away. As the film concludes, the fight has left Maa. Her lust for life has been swept away by the fury of the pandemic. Forced into further isolation, the film Maa is a testament to the year 2020, which challenged the human spirit in ways unknown to us.
Contact Information
www.surcreations.com
Film Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/MaaDocumentary
@Maadocumentary
www.surcreations.com
Film Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/MaaDocumentary
@Maadocumentary
Roma Sur
Roma Sur is a screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, residing in Denver, Colorado. After having lost her father at the age of four, she and her sister were raised by their mother in one of the most unsafe cities of India. Not surprisingly, her characters are usually fierce, independent women, or young adult, who know how to give adversity a tight backhand. She writes young adult and female driven dramas with levity, that are a cross-pollination of her immigrant experience of living in the US for twenty years, and her childhood in India.
She has also served as an Executive Producer on two award-winning web series and directed and produced four award-winning documentaries. She has been teaching fiction and non-fiction writing at the University of Colorado, since 2009. Sur leads the study abroad film production program to Mumbai, titled Bollywood Connections, at CU Denver.
Roma Sur is a screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, residing in Denver, Colorado. After having lost her father at the age of four, she and her sister were raised by their mother in one of the most unsafe cities of India. Not surprisingly, her characters are usually fierce, independent women, or young adult, who know how to give adversity a tight backhand. She writes young adult and female driven dramas with levity, that are a cross-pollination of her immigrant experience of living in the US for twenty years, and her childhood in India.
She has also served as an Executive Producer on two award-winning web series and directed and produced four award-winning documentaries. She has been teaching fiction and non-fiction writing at the University of Colorado, since 2009. Sur leads the study abroad film production program to Mumbai, titled Bollywood Connections, at CU Denver.