The U.S. premiere of the Tamil film “Om Obama” will be held on Oct. 25 at 3:00 p.m. at Doc Films at the University of Chicago’s Ida Noyes Hall. The screening will be followed by Q and A session with director Janaki Vishwanathan.
According to its website, Doc Films is the longest continuously running student film society in the nation, looking back on a more than 75 year old history. Founded in December 1940 as the International House Documentary Film Group, the group initially focused on “the realist study of our time via nonfiction film,” but the documentary alone could not sustain the organization. So within a few years, the group’s programs expanded to include fiction and experimental films, a mixture that it maintains to this day.
“Om Obama” is a comedy based on a true story about the citizens of Tamil Nadu, who pray for the victory of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Believing that their prayers helped Obama win the presidential race, one of the candidates in the state’s local elections says that he can get Obama to visit. Hearing that the entire state is eagerly awaiting Obama’s arrival, an American journalist and her crew investigate the claim that Obama is coming.
Vishwanathan is best known for her National Award-winning debut film “Kutty” (2001) in Tamil, based on Sivasankari’s novel, which focuses on the issue of child labor. She also directed her second film in Tamil “Kanavu Mei Pada Vaendum” which deals with the issues faced by Devadasi women. “Kutty” also won the Special International Jury Prize at the 2002 Cairo International Children’s Film Festival.
Vishwanathan also made her debut in Hindi in 2011 after a seven-year hiatus with “Bakra.” The film, a social satire, set in the backdrop of rural India, starred Anshuman Jha of “Love Sex Dhoka” fame, as well as theater actors Suruchi Aulakh, Faiz Khan and Yoshika Verma.
The Oct. 25 screening of “Om Obama” is made possible by Nitha Fiona Nagubadi’s distribution company Mango Networx. “Media, film and newspapers are ways that people expose themselves to other cultures,” Nagubadi told the Hyde Park Herald. Nagubadi said even though she went to work in the corporate world after obtaining degrees in business, computer science and psychology, she still felt the desire to create the film distribution company in order to get more Indian film screenings in the United States. “A person’s worldview is based on their individual worldview so there are many other worlds left out,” Nagubadi said. “There is a gap in storytelling that needs to be filled.”