A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING

(2021, India, 90m, Hindi/Bengali/English/French) dir Payal Kapadia w/ Bhumisuta Das. Introduction by Associate Professor Suvadip Sinha (University of Minnesota).

Through fictional love letters found in a cupboard at the Film and Television Institute of India, we meet L, a film student writing to her estranged lover while he is away. Gradually we’re immersed in the drastic changes taking place at the school and in the lives of young people across the country as they take to the streets to protest widespread discrimination.

In her debut film, Payal Kapadia deftly merges reality with fiction, weaving together archival footage with student protest videos to create a vital tapestry of the personal and the political. With its dreamlike editing rhythms and a revelatory use of sound, A Night of Knowing Nothing is both an essential document of contemporary India and a nostalgic look at youth fighting the injustice of their time.

DCP Courtesy of The Cinema Guild.

This screening was made possible by the University of Minnesota Imagine Fund.

Archives on Screen brings rare, unseen archival films from around the world to movie screens in the Twin Cities. This quarterly series highlights new restorations of rediscovered global cinema with a specific emphasis on silent film and political cinema.

7:00 – FREE. 40 TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR WHEN THE CINEMA OPENS AT 6:30PM.