Payal Kapadia is a Mumbai-based filmmaker and artist. She studied Film Direction at the Film & Television Institute of India. Her work deals with 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. Her film ‘Afternoon Clouds’ premiered at Cinefondation, Cannes film Festival in 2017. Her experimental documentary and What is the Summer Saying had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival Berlinale Shorts in 2018. It went on to receive the Special Jury Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam in 2018.
Indian Filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s feature film,” A Night of Knowing Nothing” has been selected as a part of the Directors” fortnight section at the 2021 Cannes film festival, the organizers announced on Tuesday. According to the official website of the fortnight section, other features in the 24 strong lineups include Joann Hogg’s “The souvenir part II,” Ali & Ava” by clip Barnard,” future by Pietro Marcello, Alice Rohrwacher and Francisco Munzi, and ‘Europe’ by Haider Rashid.Payal Kapadia who divides her time between Mumbai and Paris is returning to the prestigious European film ‘Gala’ after she took her short film ” Afternoon clouds” to its 2017 edition. An Indo- French production, ” A Night of Knowing Nothing” will also be screened at the Marseille festival of documentary film in July.
Kapadia’s film, Last Mango Before The Monsoon (2015), also won the FIPRESCI Prize and was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. A brief of the film on the Marseille festival website reads: “A university student in India, writes letters to her estranged lover, while he is away. Through these letters, we get a glimpse into the drastic changes taking place around her. Merging reality with fiction, dreams, memories, fantasies, and anxieties, an amorphous narrative unfolds.”
Emmanuel Carrere’s Ouistreham is the opening film of the fortnight, with Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir receiving a special screening. The curtains on the fortnight section will be brought down by Rachel Lang’s Our Men. The Cannes Film Festival will begin on 6 July and conclude on 17 July.
Currently, Payal is working on making her first feature film ‘All We Imagine as Light’ which she developed at the PJLF, Three Rivers Residency, Rome. She was selected for the Cinefondation Cannes Residency in Paris as well as the Berlinale Talents Programme in 2019.