Talks
Borderlands
Samarth Mahajan, Nupur Agarwal, Mahima Venugopalan
What does everyday existence along a border look like? Popular narratives of geographical borders often hinge on conflict, infiltration and national security. But when you look closer, the effect that they have can go far beyond – upending the lives of people who live there.
Directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Samarth Mahajan, Borderlands is an intimate exploration of how everyday lives intertwine with both personal and political boundaries across the Indian subcontinent. It tells the stories of six characters who live along the national borders of our country, on the edges of Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar. Through conversations and observations, the characters reveal their efforts to find meaning in a world beyond their control. Divided families meet, love blossoms across borders, and traffickers get caught in this slice-of-life documentary.
Join us for a screening of Borderlands, followed by the film’s Director, Samarth Mahajan, and Associate Director, Nupur Agarwal, in conversation with Mahima Venugopalan, at The Courtyard.
This event is in collaboration with Lost the Plot and The Courtyard.
We encourage you to use public transportation as there is limited parking available at the venue. Paid valet services will be available.
If you should have any accessibility needs or questions, please write to access@map-india.org prior to registering and let us know the nature of your difficulty and the accommodations that may be required. We will try our best to make the necessary arrangements in consultation with you.
Samarth Mahajan
Filmmaker
Samarth Mahajan is a non-fiction filmmaker passionate about telling human stories from India that remain invisible to the mainstream. His national-award-winning debut feature, The Unreserved, premiered at Film Southasia 2017 and received broadcast & theatrical releases in India. Kazwa, his short documentary on sustainable rural tourism through fireflies has won awards at multiple international film festivals.
Nupur Agarwal
Filmmaker
Nupur Agrawal is a self-taught non-fiction filmmaker and a solo traveller. A graduate from IIT Kharagpur, she quit her job and solo backpacked across India and Southeast Asia for eighteen months before discovering her love for telling stories.
She was the Associate Director & Executive Producer on Borderlands which explores how everyday lives intertwine with borders in the Indian subcontinent. Her short fiction film, Eik Tha Kabootar is a satirical comedy about India-Pakistan relations, shot across both countries and recently released on Zee5. She is currently directing her debut feature-length documentary, Downhill Kargil about the ascent of Women’s Ice Hockey in Ladakh.
Mahima Venugopalan
Curator, Community Cinema Club at The Courtyard, Bengaluru
Mahima Venugopalan is a Bengaluru-based chemical engineer who works in life sciences, but lives and breathes cinema. Encouraged by friends who had made it their life’s mission to hound her for film recommendations every weekend, she started an Instagram film blog, which is a visual directory of her favourite films, with genre, concise plot details and information on where to watch. The page eventually led to her collaborating with The Courtyard to start and curate the Community Cinema Club, where once a month a small yet passionate group of people come together to watch diverse underground films from around the world.
