A lecturer at Newcastle University has been selected to open a prestigious film festival.
Dr Geetha Jayaraman said she is delighted that her film, Run Kalyani, will be opening the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF).
The feature-length Malayalam-language film - a drama about duties, dreams and desires - is nominated for three awards including best film, best director and best actress.
Dr Jayaraman, a lecturer in film practice in Newcastle University’s Film@CultureLab, said: "We are thrilled to be opening this oldest and prestigious Indian festival abroad and consider it an honour to be nominated for three awards.
"Making the film has been an intense experience and at times the ride has been rough but like Kalyani, we keep going forward."
The film tells the story of Kalyani, a young cook who lives with her ailing aunt in a rundown traditional house in Trivandrum, in Kerala, India.
Dr Jayaraman describes the film as drawing viewers into the daily life of Kalyani and her experiences with grief and grit, sorrow and strength.
Dr Jayaraman grew up in Kerala, India, where she studied her Bachelors and Masters degrees in English Literature.
The passionate writer then embarked on her media career as a journalist, later moving into television as a presenter and producer and a film critic.
And Geetha went on to receive wide critical acclaim for her first television documentary, The (A) Miss World, which focused on the clash of thoughts and controversies surrounding the Miss World competition in India in 1996.
Geetha lived in India until she fell in love with an English man, who soon became her husband and Brighton became her second home in 2001.
Dr Jayaraman said: "In 2003 my husband gave me a video camera as a gift. This changed my life and a secret desire blossomed.
"I then returned to India to make my first film, Woman with a Video Camera, in Kerala, which had hardly any woman filmmakers then.
"I have since gone on to produce many documentaries and writing, most notably the multi-award-winning, Grierson nominated Algorithms on young blind chess players, directed by Ian McDonald..
"Looking back, I can say that it was my experience as a journalist and film critic, my constant negotiation of theory and practice that culminated in my filmmaking.
"In 2018, 10 years after I got a development award for my first fiction script, I decided to stop looking for funds from the industry and plunged into my first fiction film, Run Kalyani."
Her debut feature fiction film premiered at the Kolkata International Film Festival in November 2019, where it won the Special Jury Award.
Since then it has screened at Bangalore International Film Festival and International Film Festival of Thrissur, where it won the FIPRESCI-India Award.
It is also listed in the Top 20 Indian films of 2019, voted by FIPRESCI-India. Its preview screening at Soorya’s Ganesham was a huge success with widespread press coverage.
This artistic film has been hailed as the first l’cinema feminine from India, it has had support from eminent figures in India, from politicians like Shri Shashi Tharoor and Shri M A Baby to film artists like A R Rahman, Vidya Balan, Manju Warrior amongst others.
Watch the Run Kaylyani trailer by following this link: https://youtu.be/Zj0ryolwW3E
