Between Two Worlds: An Evening with Mira Nair
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:30 pm Ives Concert Hall, Midtown campus
In the hands of a talented director, a movie can be a profound and compelling meditation on important ideas. When placed in the hands of someone as truly gifted as Mira Nair, it can also be brilliantly entertaining.
Renowned film director, writer and producer, Mira Nair was raised in India and schooled at both Delhi and Harvard universities. She now lives with her husband and son in New York.
She began her career making documentaries on the streets of Delhi. Her first feature film, Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay! won 25 international awards, including two at the Cannes International Film Festival for “Best First Feature” and “Most Popular” entry.
Her critically acclaimed and commercially successful films include Mississippi Masala, an interracial love story starring Denzel Washington; Monsoon Wedding, described by Roger Ebert as “a joyous film that leaps over national boundaries and celebrates universal human nature; Hysterical Blindness, winner of three Emmy Awards; and William Thackeray’s classic, Vanity Fair, starring Reese Witherspoon. She also adapted Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake into a film, which Joe Morgenstern, film critic of the Wall Street Journal, describes as “a saga of the immigrant experience that captures the snap, crackle and pop of American life, along with the pounding pulse, emotional reticence, volcanic colors and cherished rituals of Indian culture”. The Namesake was the 2008 “One Book, One Community” read co-sponsored by the Danbury Library, the Danbury Public Schools and Western Connecticut State University.
Ms. Nair is currently filming Amelia, starring Hilary Swank, about Amelia Earhart, and is in pre-production for the film Shantaram, starring Johnny Depp.
Along with David Hockney and Mario Vargas Llosa, Nair is a mentor at the Rolex Protégé Arts Initiative, and her company Mirabai Films, recently established Maisha, which is dedicated to the support of visionary screenwriters and directors in East Africa and South Asia.
For the President’s Lecture, Ms. Nair will discuss the craft of filmmaking as well as the issues she explores in her films; the tug of competing worlds felt by millions of immigrants and ways to bridge the gap between cultures. A natural on stage (she began her career in film in front of the camera, not behind), she challenges audiences to think about assumptions, stereotypes and prejudices, and how these manifest themselves in our relationships. Through clips from her films and personal anecdotes, Ms. Nair shows how film can challenge racial and gender stereotypes and generational assumptions.
This President’s Lecture is co-sponsored by the 2008 “One Book, One Community” partnership.
For more information, call the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486 or the Office of the President at (203) 837-8754.
