Shashwati TalukdarMenuHomeBlog4-9 & ½Shashwati Talukdar is an independent filmmaker whose recent films include ‘Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir!‘ (2011) and ‘Wall Stories’ (2014).  Her work ranges from documentary, narrative and experimental and has shown at venues including the Busan International Film Festival, Margaret Mead Film Festival, Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Whitney Biennial. Shashwati worked as an editor in the film and television industry, where she got her start as an assistant editor for a TV show by Michael Moore. Shashwati has taught at NYU, Arcadia and Temple University. Visit Shashwati’s production company: Four Nine and a Half Pictures. Email Shashwati at: shashwati@fournineandahalf.comOver sixty million Indians belong to communities imprisoned by the British as “criminals by birth.” The Chhara of Ahmedabad, in Western India, are one of 198 such “Criminal Tribes.” Declaring that they are “born actors,” not “born criminals,” a group of Chhara youth have turned to street theater in their fight against police brutality, corruption, and the stigma of criminality — a stigma internalized by their own grandparents. Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir! follows the lives of these young actors and their families as they take their struggle to the streets, hoping their plays will spark a revolution. (75 min. 2011) [Learn more.]Wall Stories TrailerWATCH IT NOW! https://vimeo.com/ondemand/wallstories'Wall Stories' is about how a dispossessed saint, a newly minted gentry and generations of painters created a syncretic culture in the Western Himalayas. A pictorial journey through the Garhwal region. Centered around Dehradun between the rivers Ganga and Yamuna, it tells the fascinating story of the history and culture of its people through mural paintings found in the area. Press"Decoding the heart of the scenic Dehradun valley, Shashwati Talukdar travels home through her film, Wall Stories."  Kanika Sharma, Midday, Mumbai. http://www.mid-day.com/articles/gaze-at-garhwals-art-walls/245112Through these ‘pre­colonial Facebook walls’, the filmmaker has tried to connect the region’s history with its cultural, sociological and political past. Sankhayan Ghosh, Indian Express, Mumbai.http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/wall-to-wall/1208051/“Wall Stories” unfolds as a series of journeys to the sites of the murals… what emerges is a fascinating history of the region and its syncretic culture. Bhuddaditya Bhattacharya, The Hindu.http://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/painted-on-a-wall/article5757014.eceScreeningsFestival Internacional de Cine de Huesca, June 2014Kerala Short film and Doc Fest, July 2014IFFFST DOCUMENT ART, Bucharest, Romania October 2014The Sound of BombsBased on the story 'The Ocean of Mrs. Nagai' by Sharbari Zohra Ahmed, 'The Sound of Bombs' is a meditation on war and the act of recovering pain and guilt in its' aftermath. Using archival f