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In Focus: Payal Kapadia
Institute of Contemporary Arts
29 Nov - 4 Dec 2024



To coincide with the release of her latest work, All We Imagine as Light, the ICA presents a focus on one of the most remarkable emerging names in contemporary cinema, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia.

Recipient of Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix earlier this year, All We Imagine as Light captures the many shades of working-class life in Mumbai with a poignant and deeply affective humanist approach. This stunning first fiction feature has shed further light on Kapadia’s practice throughout the years, and on her distinct approach on that which is not easily visible, hidden somewhere in the folds of memory and dreams. It is between minor, ephemeral feminine gestures where she tries to find the truth that makes up her practice.

This sophomore feature follows A Night of Knowing Nothing, a work framed by fictional letters from a female student to her estranged lover that address issues of artist production as well as the political complexities of contemporary India. Developed throughout the end of her studies, the film was critically acclaimed and highly regarded on the festival circuit, following its world premiere presentation at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2021. The film subsequently premiered in the UK at the ICA, which also distributed the film across the UK and Ireland.

This focus will also be the occasion to discover Payal’s earlier short works – two of them made as part of her studies in Film Direction at the Film and Television Institute of India. The short film programme will present the rarely screened The Last Mango Before the Monsoon (2015), Afternoon Clouds (2017), and And What is the Summer Saying (2018).
 
Programme



Friday 29 November, 7.45pm: Followed by a Q&A with Payal Kapadia
Daily screenings from 30 November.
All We Imagine as Light
Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s stunning sophomore feature – which follows ICA Distribution project A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021) – is a profound meditation on urban migration and dislocation.



Saturday 30 November, 4.45pm
Short Film Programme
A programme of short films by filmmaker Payal Kapadia, to coincide with the release of All We Imagine as Light.



Sunday 1 December, 6pm
Additional screening on 4 December.
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Payal Kapadia’s bold and distinctive debut feature is an immersive and spiritual work addressing issues of artist production as well as the political complexities of contemporary India. A Night of Knowing Nothing is framed by fictional letters from a female student to her estranged lover.