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In Focus: Payal Kapadia
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Institute of Contemporary Arts
A Night of Knowing Nothing, dir. Payal Kapadia, France / India 2021, 97min., Hindi and Bengali with English subtitles

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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. 

The film initially lends itself to investigative fictional storytelling before exploring the political contradictions of contemporary India. Combining a mixture of found footage, sketches and her own material, Kapadia – an alumna of the Film & Television Institute of India – repositions the work of fellow students at other educational establishments, charting the fractious relationship between a nation’s youth, its rigid caste structures, its families and its far-right government. Among many other ideas and leads, A Night of Knowing Nothing also aims to reimagine the role of a film school in this turbulent and often violent political epoch. 

A Night of Knowing Nothing premiered in the UK as the Opening film of FRAMES of REPRESENTATION 2021
 
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06:00 pm
Sun, 01 Dec 2024
Cinema 1
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