I am not Here | A Film on Migrants

I am not Here tells the story of migrant domestic workers who leave their countries in search of security and to provide a life-line for their families back home. Migrants today undergo perilous journeys, risking death, deportation, arrest, physical and sexual violence in the hope of finding a life with dignity. Migrant domestic workers make an indispensable contribution to the homes and societies in which they work. Yet, particularly when they are undocumented, they live in the shadows, afraid to complain and denied rights and services that we take for granted. This is a film about three remarkable women and their search for a better future.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between Ashvin Kumar, Director, Christina MacGillivray, Co-Producer & Lead Researcher, Jeroo Mulla, Former Head of the Social Communications Media Department, Sophia Polytechnic, and Shai Venkatraman, former Mumbai Bureau Chief, NDTV 24/7.

Ashvin Kumar is an Oscar® nominee for the film Little Terrorist, a two-time winner of the National Film Award for Inshallah, footballand Inshallah, Kashmir, and a voting member of the European Film Academy. Kumar’s other drama-fiction works include Road To Ladakh (Irfan Khan) The Forest (Jaaved Jaffery) and Dazed in Doon. He began working as an actor and director in theater after which he founded one of the first digital post-production studios in India in 1996. He is now in pre-production with his new Kashmir drama, a coming of age film called Noor.

Christina MacGillivray is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Mummy Daddy Media, a company that creates fresh, original video stories for brands and companies. She has produced short films in India, China, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, the US and Malaysia. Christina is a former President William J. Clinton Fellow. She began her career in foreign policy, reporting on topics such as nuclear security, global power dynamics, Islamic separatism in China and human / wildlife conflict in East Africa.

Jeroo Mulla was formerly the Head of the Social Communications Media Department, Sophia Polytechnic where she taught film appreciation and supervised student documentaries. She continues to teach film and media studies as visiting faculty at various institutes across the country. She was the first recipient of the Professor Satish Bahadur Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film Studies in South Asia at the Alpaviram Film Festival at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Shai Venkatraman is the former Mumbai Bureau Chief for NDTV 24/7, and is currently part of the research and ideas team for On Air with AIB. In her journalism career spanning over 17 years she has reported extensively on gender rights, public health, law and politics for TV as well as publications like Mint, The Telegraph, Dawn and Express Tribune. She has a Masters degree in broadcast journalism from Northeastern University. She was granted the 2010 Women’s Edition fellowship instituted by Population Reference Bureau, USAID.

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