My project Mater Mortis, which was 104% funded on Seed&Spark during the before-times in 2019, is currently in the sound/color stages of post-production. I’m looking forward to submitting it to festivals as soon as it’s wrapped. For the Seed&Spark campaign pitch video head here or just watch below. I’ll be sharing more as we get closer to the end.
This is the most personal project I have made to date. This film was really an opportunity to tell stories about South Asian people (MY people) through genre film. I learned from a young age, that the only way to tell the stories of your own people is to tell them yourself. The only way to be more than a punchline, or a stereotype is to go out and do the work. Mater Mortis is my first foray into truly doing that.
Mater Mortis follows an Indian American family, fracturing under the weight of their matriarch’s illness. In this story, the illness is the zombification of the family matriarch, and it highlights the unspoken things between a father and son struggling to deal with their relationship without her.
As a film, it is meant to explore the taboos around mental illness in South Asian communities, as well as the patriarchal relationships between fathers and sons. It is based on my own personal experiences dealing with my mother’s bipolar disorder, and the effects it had on our family. I am excited to share it with the world when it is done. And after that, I look forward to taking my next step into telling more stories about my people.
