Film

DESPERATELY SEEKING HELEN
82 min, docudrama

Director Eisha Marjara's story takes us first to her childhood in snowbound small-town Quebec and then to Mumbai, India, where she desperately tries to track down Helen, a famous movie star in the world's largest dream factory.

Helen becomes a passage into Marjara's real world--her unsettling youth, life-threatening anorexia, and the devastating 1985 Air India bombing, which took the lives of her mother and sister. This film revisits the '70s pop culture of Marjara's youth and enters the fascinating world of the Bombay movie industry--"Bollywood."

Awards
Special Jury Prize - 15.Internationales Dokumentarfilm Festival: München

Prix de La Semaine de Critique 52. festival internazionale del film Locarno

UN MOT TEL IDÉAL 3 min, experimentale

An anti-romantic cinematic ode from the words of Montreal writer/poet Mélanie Robert about a mistress’s loveless one night affair with a married man in a dismal motel room.

Poème anti-romantique de la poète et écrivain Mélanie Robert à propos d'une histoire sans amour entre un homme marié et sa maîtresse dans une chambre de motel.

HOUSE FOR SALE
18 min, drama

A stranger shows up posing as a home buyer at a suburban house that is up for sale. As the owner’s wife gives her a tour of the place, she recalls a memorable night when a fatal promise was made.

Awards
-Crystal Cactus Award, Best Short Trans Film
(Out in the Desert Film Festival)
- Best Canadian Short Film (FairyTales Queer Film Festival)
-Best International Menʼs Short Film (North Carolina GLFF)
-Best Performance, Atif Siddiqi
(Mosaic South Asian Int’l Film Fest)
-Best performance, Atif Siddiqi (Fetisch film festival)
-Audience Award (Image+Nation Film Festival)

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THE TOURIST
25min, drama

“I don´t know how a two week vacation had turned into a six month exile, but extended holidays always seemed to come naturally to me“

Eisha Marjara´s film tells the story of Ron, a Canadian tourist with a camera, serving as his window to the world. Being on a never-ending holiday recovering from a heartbreak after his wife left him for another man, Ron winds up in Oktoberfest-driven Munich, where he falls for an actress engaged to famous film producer Bernie.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN
10 min, experimental

“The incredible shrinking woman eats chocolate cake and wonders about the aerobic possibilities of sex. She’s caught in a vise of food lust and Barbie culture, like everybody else. Marjara shapes it all with sophisticated understanding of both the issues involved and the melodrama they demand.”
Cameron Bailey NOW magazine
4 ***

Festivals/ Awards
-Asian American Int’l Film Festival, New York, NY
-3rd Rendez-Vous with Madness Film & Video Festival, Toronto
-Images Festival of Independent Film & Video, Toronto
-WTN, “Eye of the Story” TV series
Award: Honourable Mention 5th Semana de Cine Experimental de Madrid, Spain.

VENUS
95 min, dramatic comedy

Genders, generations and cultures collide in this comedy about a modern family unit. Venus is a beautiful and heartfelt story of a South Asian transgender woman who sees her life turn on its head when she meets a “white” teenaged son she did not know she had.

Cast: Debargo Sanyal, Jamie Mayers, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Zena Daruwalla, Gordon Warnecke, Amber Goldfarb, Pete Miller, Judy Virago, CT Thorne.

Awards
Winner of Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) EDA Award for Best Female Directed Feature (Whistler Film Festival 2017) - Audience Award for Best Feature (Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival 2018) - Best Narrative Feature (Cinequest Film Festival 2018) - Best Actor - Jamie Mayers (Transgender Film Festival, Germany 2018) - Best Trans Performance - Debargo Sanyal (Transgender Film Festival, Germany 2018) - Best Feature Film (Mix Milano Film Festival) - Best Director - Eisha Marjara (Cincinnati Indian Film Festival, 2018) - Best Screenplay - Eisha Marjara (MISAFF, 2019) - Best Actor - Debargo Sanyal (MISAFF, 2019)

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