Filmi 21!
Filmi Toronto’s South Asian Film Festival Celebrating 21 Years!
December 9th-10th, 2023
21st Filmi: Toronto’s South Asian film festival
Harbourfront Centre
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Rock the Cradle follows the journey of a troubled inner voice of a new mother, as she finds herself trapped in a dark space with her new baby. She struggles to find her own voice in the voice of many others, as she grapples with Post Partum Depression.
Director Biography – Asis Sethi
An alumna of TIFF SERIES ACCELERATOR 2023, WOMEN IN DIRECTOR’S CHAIR and a former PLAYBACK MAGAZINE’s 10 to Watch, Asis Sethi is a South Asian Canadian filmmaker who graduated from Humber College where she currently teaches film and television directing. Her career in broadcasting spans over 15 years as a producer and a host on lifestyle shows. Asis has created over 100 hours of content for television. Her REMI Award winning short on menstruation, ‘A BLOODY MESS’, was screened at 30 film festivals. Her 16-episode documentary television series on Sikh shrines in India, ‘DARSHAN DEKH JEEVA’, was funded by the OMNI DOCUMENTARY FUND. She directed a documentary on post 9/11 effects on turban wearers titled ‘THE COLOURFUL CROWN’ which premiered on OMNI Television nationally. Her short film on postpartum depression titled ‘ROCK THE CRADLE’ was funded by the CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS and will start the film festival run in 2023.
Asis is an alumni of CINEFAM’s LIMITLESS program through which she developed a proof of concept for her feature ‘SLAM DUNK, SEHAJ!’. It was supported by the CFC/NETFLIX CALLING CARD ACCELERATOR and also won Caribbean Tales’ THE BIG PITCH at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022. The feature project has also received development funding through the CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS. Asis has been chosen as one of the 25 pitch participants for the NETFLIX BANFF DIVERSITY OF VOICES Fellowship for the BANFF WORLD MEDIA FESTIVAL 2023.
Asis is also a mentor at WIFT Toronto and the M Film Lab.
Director Statement
Fly Away Films is comprised of wonderful Canadian women, some of whom are relatively new mothers. Grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic were two mothers on our team who had just given birth. Born out of a poem, we all spoke to each other about our experience with Post Partum Blues, Post Partum Anxiety, and Post Partum Depression. When we were casting for this role, the natural choice it seemed was Gauri Prasad to play Pari. Gauri had experienced Post Partum Depression and completely understood the world of Pari – a world filled with doubt, pain, guilt, and everyone’s voices and pressure.
Women experience such physical and mental changes in their lives, and it is at this time, that they are so vulnerable. When we shared our experiences with each other during the writing process, we also came across an article of a South Asian woman who died by suicide in California, and it was much later realized by close family and friends that she had Postpartum Depression.
We wanted to open a dialogue within our families, within our friends, to facilitate a dialogue about mental health. That six-week check up with the OB is not good enough. More support is required. Through our films in the past and through ‘Rock the Cradle’, I want to continue to engage our community in dialogue about women’s health and the social stigma attached to discussing mental health.
The shoot was challenging, to say the least. Gauri wanted to quit after the first two hours of shoot, because of the sheer mental toll she felt Pari was experiencing. The house we were shooting in experienced leakages because of the bathtub being filled in two of the scenes. Despite the hurdles, we felt this was an important story to tell. Many women go through Post Partum Blues, at the very least, and go through hormonal changes. When we called a wrap at the end of Day Two, I spoke briefly about why this story was so personal and important to me, as a mother of two, and the co-writer, a mother of one. There were many tears, with several crew members coming up to me well after the wrap, to tell us about personal experiences, and an acknowledgment that they could have been more present for the new mothers in their own lives, be it their sisters, friends, or themselves. A close friend told us after the shoot, that he knew that his mother was suicidal shortly after she gave birth and this film gave him that moment of realization of how significant Postpartum Depression can really be.
We were, of course, encouraged by the fact that our script was selected as one of the top ten scripts in Landed Entertainment’s Short Script Competition. We also received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. We hope to continue on our journey of telling stories that our close to our hearts, but also shed light on key issues of importance within our community.
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