After a session on Goodness Gracious Me, I usually get students to watch Hanif Kureishi’s My Son the Fanatic in an attempt to talk about cultural citizenship and the ways in which religion has become an increasingly important fault line. And until now, I’ve never found a film like My Son the Fanatic that might help us talk through these issues in the context of South Asian-Americans. Mississippi Masala only gets us so far. Last night, I learned about “Punching at the Sun,” a film that takes on the question of what race, nationalism, and citizenship mean for South Asian muslim youth in post-9/11 Queens, NY. Here’s the trailer, and you can watch the entire film on Jaman:
Links to reviews and interviews with the filmmaker Tanuj Chopra here.
February 20, 2008 at 11:01 pm |
Wanted to let people know that when they go to http://www.jaman.com/a/download/?f=punching-at-the-sun
ANd click download, they’ll get 2 free movies! You can use one for Punching and the other for whatever you like.
One of my favorites is the award winning Amu about the 1984 riots in Delhi
http://www.jaman.com/a/Amu/video/0_AbzfMPNeoA
Enjoy !
February 22, 2008 at 2:39 am |
Gosh, Aswin, I don’t remember you telling me about this blog of yours. Fantastic work – I’m now going to become a faithful reader – and student – of this blog! Sudhir