This month, we’re screening Taala te Kunjee (Lock and Key), directed by Shilpi Gulati, in which five recovering addicts at a rehabilitation centre in Punjab, India struggle to establish new relationships with their pasts, revealing the deep impact of addiction to drugs and alcohol in the state. 

The documentary is available to stream from 1 November (Friday) to 8 November (Friday). 

Shilpi Gulati is a filmmaker, scholar, and educator. Her artistic practices engage with feminist and queer narratives, visual and performing arts, and issues of identity, home, and nationhood in South Asia. She is a two-time recipient of the President's National Film Award in India for her documentaries "Qissa-e Parsi: The Parsi Story" (2014) and "Taala the Kunjee: Lock and Key" (2018). Shilpi has also been awarded the Fulbright Fellowship for her research at Columbia University, New York (2018-19), and the Getting Real Fellowship by the International Documentary Association, Los Angeles (2024-25) to develop research on contemporary documentary and to build a global, and peer-to-peer network of practitioners. Recently, Shilpi served as the Festival Director for the Digital Disruptions Film Festival 2024, an event focused on community-based collaborative media practices enabled by new media technologies. Her previous film and research work have been commissioned by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, the Ministry of External Affairs, UNICEF, the American Jewish World Service, and the US Consulate.

 Process:

•  Once you sign-up and your request is accepted, you will receive an email from our team on Friday, 1 November 2024 with the screening link and password. We request that you keep the link and password to yourself to safeguard the film against piracy. The link will be active for 7 days.

 For queries, write to us at raisaw@himalmag.com