Her Corner Of The World: A short film collection

Log Kya Kahenge (Rafina Khatum, 40 min)
An Orphanage of Memories (Rayit Qazi, 21 min)
The Cycle (Arpita Mukherjee, 27 min)

Log Kya Kahenge

In Ahmedabad, India - a city scarred by the 2002 riots - Gulnaz breaks barriers as a community radio jockey.
Gulnaz is the first female breadwinner in her family and the first woman in her area to work outside the home. Despite having no formal education in media, she became a voice for many. Through her show Shahernama, she challenges patriarchy, amplifies the voices of the marginalized and fosters interfaith understanding in an increasingly divided society.
Amidst her fight for social change, Gulnaz also grapples with her own struggle for freedom and autonomy. This is the story of a young Muslim woman daring to dream differently in a patriarchal society determined to silence her.

_________________________

An Orphanage Of Memories

In a small village of Kashmir, Farah, the caretaker of a small piece of land has lost her husband under tragic, unexplained circumstances. Feeling overwhelmed with grief, Farah clings onto her late husband’s memories. Under threat of her home being uprooted by the prospect of a new buyer, Farah finds a new lease of life when she discovers the saplings her husband brought to their kitchen garden. Just as she is done planting them, she discovers small rat droppings around the garden. With this Farah dives deep into a point of no return as she dedicates her life towards protecting the saplings at the cost of affecting her sanity.

Orphanage of Memories is a protest against how the average Indian views Kashmir in movies - where the focus is always on the landscape and never on the people. the makers were keen on telling the story of an individual and not the serenity of Kashmir. 

About the director:
Rayit Hashmat Qazi is an independent filmmaker from Kashmir, who is currently working in Mumbai, India. He has worked as an assistant to International as well as Indian directors on TVC’s for the last 6 years. From Jim Sonzero to Rob Cohen and Harvey Brown, Rayit has been a right hand to a wide array of filmmakers while working with Bang Bang Films on brands as diverse as AIRTEL, Tanishq, Britannia, Pepsi, Loreal, etc. In addition to this Rayit has worked as an assistant director on the critically acclaimed Mukti Bhawan that went on to premiere at the Venice Film Festival amongst other international film festival giants.

_______________________

The Cycle

THE CYCLE tracks a day in the life of a young Punjabi housewife in Chandigarh, India who is obsessed with losing weight as she joins a cycling club and grapples with the cost of individuality and freedom. 

About the director:
Arpita Mukherjee is an award winning director and writer based in  NYC. Arpita directed Running, a short film written by and starring Danny Pudi, which won Best  Short Film at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival and has been featured in New Filmmakers  LA, The Indian Film Festival of LA, the New York Indian Film Festival, CAAMFest and many  others. Arpita is the co-writer of the National Award winning film Gulmohar which was  released on Hulu and Disney+ Hotstar in March 2023, along with director/co-writer Rahul V.  Chittella. She also won the Filmfare Best Screenplay Award for the film in 2023. She has  developed projects for WIIP, AMC, Sony, and Netflix. And she has just completed her short  film The Cycle.