Film invitation: A Night of Knowing Nothing
The CIES Cinematic Spaces of Education Film Festivalette is showing the movie “A Night of Knowing Nothing” by Payal Kapadia, a Mumbai-based filmmaker and artist. This film is available for viewing until June 17, 2023. Access is free using the following password: Feature2021
Synopsis:
In 2017, Director Payal Kapadia and Ranabir Das (Indian producer, photographer and editor of the film), began recording student life around them while they were film students at the Film and Television Institute of India. Gradually, with a growing amount of footage from various sources, a unique film began to emerge that captures the main hopes and anxieties of public university students in India today, amidst growing protests and social unrest. The narrative is anchored on a fictionalized, frustrated love story, told through the letters of a female university student while her lover is away. Through her telling of current events, merged with the highly inventive use of documentary material, an atmospheric and suspenseful unconventional story is crafted that at its heart clamors for a more just and open society. As Kapadia has said, “public universities still potentially provide spaces for true freedom… this is the freedom that we need to strive for.”