Visit Your Local PBS Station PBS Home PBS Home Programs A-Z TV Schedules Watch Video Support PBS Shop PBS Search PBS
Independent Lens
RSS Search Indie Lens

About Program Guide Video Community Cinema Classroom Your Lens Inside Indies

LAKSHMI AND ME
THE FILMTHE MAKING OFTHE FILMMAKERSTALKBACK
Around Independent Lens

The Filmmakers

Nishtha Jain and Smriti Nevatia
Nishtha Jain and Smriti Nevatia

From filmmaker Nishtha Jain:

Apart from hoping that we recognize and question our own comfortable acquiescence in society’s widespread, unfair treatment of domestic workers, I hope the film enables all viewers to reflect on the power relationships they themselves may be a part of. And, I hope the film may be used for advocacy and awareness-building by the fledgling unions that are fighting for the rights of domestic workers.

Also, I hope that the film doesn’t simply remain a story of Lakshmi and Nishtha, but is able to create larger resonances instead. I hope that the film can make viewers question and examine their own relationships with people working in their homes and vice versa.

Currently, the domestic workers in India are organizing themselves and demanding better wages, leave, pension and other benefits. It’s a difficult struggle—especially as they are not even recognized as workers yet being in the unorganized sector—so they need all of our support. I hope the film can contribute to bringing this struggle to the forefront so that more people can join in. I want to distribute the film, possibly in regional language versions, to NGOs and trade unions that are working with domestic workers.

There’s widespread resistance to acknowledging that our comfort is based on someone else’s hardship and on the perpetuation of that hardship. But it’s an opportunity for change: at the individual level as well as through legislation for better wages and benefits for domestic workers.

I’ve been screening the film at a number of colleges and universities and am hoping for even wider dissemination and discussion.

Her three favorite films:

The Gleaners and I by Agnès Varda
Belovy by Viktor Kosakovsky
The 3 Rooms of Melancholia by Pirjo Honkasalo

Her advice for aspiring filmmakers:

First of all, you have to have a story that you are dying to tell. If that’s the case, then nothing should really stop you. You can shoot with a mobile phone and edit on your laptop. It could be a film shot in your home or neighborhood, as long as people are able to connect to it. It’s not the bigness of the budget that matters; it’s not about how great the film looks or sounds—these are secondary to how well you tell your story.

You also have to remember that the subject/topic is not the film. Seeing a film has to be a different experience from reading. If you can create an experience in the film that goes beyond the written word, then it’s worth its while.

What do you think is the most inspirational food for making independent film?

Observing people and life around you—over pots of tea and lots of talk—and when it gets late enough, stronger beverages!

Filmmaker Bios

Nishtha Jain
Director

Nishtha Jain worked as an editor in television before joining the Film and Television Institute of India, where she specialized in film direction. Since 1998, she has been making documentaries and shorts, and briefly worked as commissioning editor for a documentary channel. Among her special interests are the individual and collective narratives that abound in photographic images. Her 2005 film, City of Photos, explored neighborhood photo studios, unearthing the fantasy worlds buried under gritty physical realities. In her current work, she moves closer to people who inhabit her immediate surroundings and whose lives and work profoundly, if implicitly, touch her own.

Smriti Nevatia
Producer

Smriti Nevatia has worked as a film and theater critic. She has been associated with many independent documentaries as well as TV shows in the various capacities of research coordinator, scriptwriter and director. Since 2002, she has been collaborating with Nishtha Jain on several documentary projects and was associate director on City of Photos. She recently wrote the dialogue for a play by sex workers about their own lives. Nevatia is currently working on writing projects and conducting workshops on documentary film.

Read about the making of LAKSHMI AND ME >>

View film credits >>

Share your thoughts on the film in Talkback >>


Tell a Friend top

This Week

OBJECTIFIED
Take a look at our complex relationship with manufactured objects, and find out which object best represents you.

Up Next

BETWEEN THE FOLDS
The stories of 10 fine artists and intrepid theoretical scientists who forge unconventional lives as modern-day paper-folders.

Your Lens

See our newest Flickr group, Eclectic Collections, inspired by HERB & DOROTHY.

View slideshow »

Community Cinema

BETWEEN THE FOLDS
Meet a group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who reinterpret the world in paper, creating a wild mix of sensibilities towards art, science, creativity and meaning.

Find free screenings »

You Might Have Missed

Explore Herb and Dorothy Vogel's collection and see if you have an eye for art with this interactive feature.

Take The Art Collector Challenge »

Talkback

"I'm on dialysis every day and am trying to get a kidney. Thanks for sharing this story, it gives me hope to see someone that is going through the same struggles as I am."

Read more and share your thoughts on D TOUR »

Behind the Scenes

"Our film sees a criminal’s life from a criminal’s viewpoint."

Read more from the JOURNALS OF A WILY SCHOOL filmmaker »

New on DVD

Check out some recently released independent films on DVD to watch in the comfort of your home.


Independentlens Newsletter
Your email address:


Home | The Film | The Making Of | The Filmmakers | Talkback | Film Credits | Get the DVD | Site Credits watch preview LAKSHMI AND ME home page
IL Home Home | About | Program Guide | Video | Community Cinema | Classroom | Your Lens | Inside IndiesContact Us Get the Newsletter
Pressroom     © Independent Television Service (ITVS). All rights reserved. | PBS Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Credits