Made in India

Showing at the Hot Docs Film Festival: Made in India, written and directed by Rebecca Haimowitz and Vaishali Sinha

Synopsis from the film's website:

In San Antonio, TX, Lisa and Brian Switzer sell their house and risk their savings on a Medical Tourism company that has promised them an affordable solution after 7 years of infertility. Across the world in Mumbai, India, Aasia Khan puts on a burka – not for religious reasons – but to hide her identity from neighbors as she enters a fertility clinic to be implanted with this American couple’s embryos.

These are the scenes that unfold as we watch East meet West in suburbs and shanty-towns, in test tubes and Petri dishes, in surrogates and infertile couples.

“Reproductive Tourism” has become a booming trade, valued at more than $450 million in India, and it’s growing rapidly. Infertile couples in the U.S. pay up to $100,000 for a domestic surrogacy, but they can pay for the same in India for roughly $25,000 (this includes clinic charges, lawyer’s bills, travel and lodging, and the surrogate’s fee). But this growth is occurring within a complete legal vacuum: currently, there are no actual laws on surrogacy in India – only suggested guidelines. And yet the practice continues to expand without regulation or protection.

Made in India is the first feature documentary to show the personal stories of the real people involved — following their journeys throughout the entire surrogacy process. 
Aasia is a 27-year-old mother of 3 who lives in a one-room house in a slum in Mumbai. She laughs with disbelief when she first heard of surrogacy. “A child without a man?! How can that be? There has to be some kind of a… ‘relationship,’ right?!” Aasia’s decision to become a surrogate – to do so without her husband’s consent even – debunks any simplistic characterization of her as an exploited victim.

Lisa & Brian see themselves as fighters: “In the US, if you’re struggling to have a child, you have to be a lawyer or a doctor to afford this. It’s not fair.” They believe hiring an Indian surrogate is their only chance to have a child of their own, and they are sure that they will help Aasia just as she helps them. But when facing accusations of exploitation, Lisa and Brian must defend their choices. “Walk a mile in my shoes before you judge me,” Lisa commands, staring into the camera.

As Aasia and the Switzers’ stories grow increasingly tied together, the bigger picture behind the globalization of the Reproductive Industry begins to unfold, revealing questions of citizenship, human rights, global corporate practices, choice, reproductive rights, commodification of the body, legal accountability and notions of motherhood.

Throughout the film, scenes of America and India are juxtaposed, charting out the obstacles faced by the US couple, and giving an intimate understanding of the surrogate’s life story and motivations. Made in India explores the impact of the decisions of one person on the other. This film reveals the legal and ethical implications behind their choices, and presents the conflict between the personal and the political dilemmas of international surrogacy.

Netflix It: Sita Sings the Blues

Available on Netflix, or free on the film's website: Sita Sings the Blues, written and directed by Nina Paley

Synopsis from AllMovie.com:

Two women having troubles with their men, separated by several centuries, find their stories coming together in this animated comedy-drama from artist and animator Nina Paley. A female cartoonist moves from the United States when her husband gets a new job in India. While acclimating to her new life in India, the cartoonist becomes fascinated with the Hindu folk tale "the Ramayana," in which a beautiful woman named Sita, who was created spontaneously from the Earth, is adopted by King Janaka, pledged to a brave warrior named Rama, and is kidnapped by the demonic leader Ravana. Sita's story is given two visual interpretations at once -- a visually striking abstract version and another which employs a whimsical, cartoony approach and uses vintage recordings of jazz singer Annette Hanshaw for Sita's voice. As the film jumps back and forth between two adaptations of the Ramayana, the cartoonist discovers that her sojourn in India has taken a turn for the worse when her husband falls in love with another woman. Sita Sings The Blues was an official entry at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

In a word: trippy. Nina Paley is just as creative with her take on copyright law, as she explains on the film's website.

The Waiting City

Showing at the Toronto International Film Festival: The Waiting City, directed by Claire McCarthy

Synopsis from the TIFF website:

To adopt a child is to wait, and to wait in a city far from home can be an exciting thing – or a test of all one's resources. In the case of Claire McCarthy's epic, glistening new feature, those on hold are a young Australian couple, Fiona (Radha Mitchell) and Ben (Joel Edgerton), who arrive in Kolkata to claim their adopted child.

Outwardly happy and connected, Ben and Fiona are nonplussed when they discover that their adoption arrangements have hit some bureaucratic snags, even when their Western-style problem-solving skills prove ineffective at helping the situation along. As they dig in for a long wait, they comfort themselves with the assurance that their new daughter Lakshmi, whose picture they have cherished for months, will still be theirs. So, they wait: Fiona works from her laptop while Ben ventures out into the city in search of new experiences and friends. One of these new-found acquaintances is Scarlett (Isabel Lucas), a girl whose easy acclimatization to the rhythms of Kolkata seems to match Ben's own.

As time passes, it also seems to intensify, and the couple respond very differently to the chaos, colour and allure of the city around them. Frustrated by the delays surrounding matters they assumed to be solved, Ben and Fiona inevitably turn on each other, and are forced to confront their differences, long-held resentments and secrets. The hoped-for break in the adoption proceedings does come, but by then there is a question of whether their shattered relationship can, or even should, continue.

But Kolkata doesn't just take, it gives, and McCarthy's deep personal knowledge of the city and its gifts is woven into every strand of the story's fabric. Edgerton and Mitchell provide beautifully articulated performances, ably supported by Lucas, Samrat Chakrabarti as Krishna, a hotel worker they befriend, and Tilotamma Shome as Sister Tessila, a compassionate nun from the adoption centre. Cinematographer Denson Baker's stunning photography captures the vibrant Kolkata with a rich complexity that does true justice to the city and those waiting people within it.

Google Baby

Showing at the Toronto International Film Festival: Google Baby, directed by Zippi Brand Frank

Synopsis from the TIFF website:

Necessity may be the mother of invention. But who is the parent of a child when the sperm comes from Israel, the egg comes from the United States and the surrogate pregnancy takes place in Gujarat, India? Welcome to the brave new world of outsourcing birth. The system is driven by law and economics. In Israel, the practice of using surrogate mothers is marred by legal roadblocks. In the United States, it's expensive. In India, it's affordable, but Western clients want white babies. Israeli director Zippi Brand Frank travels to three continents, following an entrepreneur named Doron who takes globalized business to a new level.

Google Baby skilfully humanizes the people involved at every step of the pregnancy. No one would participate in any aspect of this process without having strong motivations, from the couples who yearn to have a child, to the American women who undergo the gruelling process of fertility treatments to increase egg production, to the impoverished Indian women who carry the child only to have the baby taken away at birth. Wherever she goes, Brand Frank has a knack for gaining access to moments of powerful intimacy and anxiety. She elicits candid interviews and composes images that are worth a thousand words. The film swings from absurdity to profundity, and raises myriad questions about women's rights, gay rights, science, law, ethics, economics, parenting and even hygiene.

A key figure in the narrative is Dr. Nayna Patel, who started the Gujarat clinic that recruits surrogate mothers, houses them for the duration of their pregnancies, then removes the babies by Caesarean section and hands the infants over to paying clients. Patel is blunt about the risks (including fatality), yet persuasive in describing the financial benefits for the destitute surrogates. Like any modern business, her services are advertised on the Internet with a video.

As the director, Brand Frank doesn't interject her own opinions or make snap judgments. She delves into the nuances and grey areas. As shocking as it seems, you might be witnessing the birth of a movement.

Luck by Chance

Showing at MoMA: Luck by Chance, directed by Zoya Akhtar

Synopsis from the film's website:

A starlet and a struggler meet while trying to navigate through the Hindi Film Industry and end up changing each other's lives forever.

Luck by Chance is a slice of film industry life, in which self advancement is the sole motivator. Here, notions of superstition, fate and destiny may underline every decision, but it is the gigantic egos, the grand desires and the small opportunities that converge to form strange patterns.
Patterns that we call kismet.

In such an unpredictable climate, is success and failure what others define for you or is it something you decide for yourself?

The New York Times review is here.

Firaaq

Showing tomorrow at MoMA: Firaaq, directed by Nandita Das

Synopsis from the film's website:

Firaaq is an Urdu word that means both separation and quest. The film is a work of fiction, based on a thousand stories.

The story is set over a 24-hour period, one month after a campaign that took place in Gujarat, India, in 2002. It traces the emotional journey of ordinary people—some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who choose to watch silently. As an ensemble film, it fo9llows multiple narratives that are at some times interconnected and at times discreet, yet all are united by their spatial and emotional context.

A middle class housewife closes the door on a woman desperately seeking refuge, and then struggles to overcome her guilt. The loyalty of two best friends is challenged in times rife with fear and suspicion. A group of victimized young men seek revenge as a way out of their helplessness and anger. A modern day Hindu-Muslim couple struggle between the survival instinct to hide their true identities and the desire to assert them. A boy having lost most of his family in the riots wanders through the streets searching for his missing father. A saintly musician clings on to his idealism until an evidence of civil strife shakes his faith.

Through these characters we trace the ways in which violence impacts both inner and outer lives. Violence spares nobody. Yet in the midst of this madness, some find it in their hearts to sing hopeful songs for better times.

Yes Madam, Sir

Showing at the Museum of Modern Art: Yes Madam, Sir, directed by Megan Doneman

Screening tonight and tomorrow as part of MoMA's "The New India" film series.

Synopsis from the film's website:

In these uncertain times comes a heartfelt story of boundless courage, determination, and inspiration…

Filmed in India over six years and narrated by Academy Award winning actor, Helen Mirren, Yes Madam, Sir is a ‘David and Goliath’ epic story profiling Asia Nobel Prize winner, Kiran Bedi – India’s first woman police officer.

Yes Madam, Sir carries the audience through an emotional, tumultuous, frustrating and often hilarious journey of a person who defies all odds, makes history, ruffles feathers, and who triumphs to ultimately affect change from within a centuries-old world.

A modern day Gandhi, Bedi is an intriguing paradox: deified by millions for her commitment to social justice and her public stance against corruption; vilified by the establishment as a publicity seeking, uncontrollable megalomaniac. The true drama lies not in Bedi’s extraordinary audacity, but in the inherent contradictions in her character. In Bedi’s eyes, she fights the fight of the underdog on an ultimately sinking ship.

With her baton at the ready, Bedi will always find a battle. Paradoxically the very qualities that propel Kiran Bedi to triumph could ultimately spell her downfall. The contradictions in Bedi’s character are never so evident than when her work and personal life are paralleled. Through exclusive scenes of Bedi on the job as India’s most controversial police officer, and through intimate home scenes with her father and daughter, and tender moments with her estranged husband, the filmmaker’s uncensored access unravels the truth behind the icon to reveal the most tragic, poignant and comedic moments of the film.

Packed with heart, Yes Madam, Sir is a roller coaster ride of the triumph and frustration, fame and infamy, comedy and tragedy, passion and pain of a sole leader, and a searing insight into a lawmaker who becomes a law unto herself.

Unfortunately, I can't find any trailers or clips, but this movie has been scooping up awards from film festivals left and right, so it is worth checking out. Interview with Megan Doneman is here.