New Delhi: Two special screenings of a documentary titled “1984, When the Sun didn’t Rise” will be held at Wall of Truth Memorial, Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib on November 11 and 12 at 6 PM. The 57-minute documentary chronicles the lives of women who live in Delhi’s Widow Colony, which houses the widows of the Sikh men who were killed in Delhi during Sikh Genocide 1984.
1984, When The Sun Didn’t Rise includes first-person accounts of women who lost their husbands in 1984, and are attempting to come to terms with their loss in different ways. While one widow revisits the locality where her husband was killed, another makes peace with the idea that her missing husband could, in fact, be dead. Although the documentary incorporates other voices in the form of a legal expert and a politician accused of abetting the violence, the conversations with the women – with their paradoxical blend of vulnerability and resilience – remain the focus of the narrative.
Image used for representational purpose
Director Teena Kaur Pasricha hopes that her work will shed new light on a neglected chapter of history and provide victims with a measure of peace. “I know that there will be no justice for these women,” she said. “My research revealed that to me. The only atonement is for the government to recognise that this was a state-planned massacre that took place for four days, not riots”, a report in Scroll.in quotes her.
Teena Kaur Pasricha’s documentary is the recipient of Busan International Film Festival’s prestigious fund called Asian Network and Documentary fund or “AND” Fund in 2015. Selected for Work in Progress Lab of “DOC WOK” of Doc Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animated Films, Germany in 2014 and the trailer was pitched in DOCEDGE, Kolkata in 2012. It received the “BEST DOCU. FEATURE award” in DC Asia Pacific Film festival, USA on March 18, 2017. The film premiered in India in IDSFFK Kerala on June 18, 2017.
Seminar by Sikh Forum in Delhi on November 10