Canadian Women Film Directors Database
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Quote:
"[After immigrating to Canada from India] I made documentaries about those who were like me, the disenfranchised. A 99-year-old woman who refused to leave her home. A Chinese parking lot attendant who was the first violinist with the Filipino Symphony Orchestra; Louis Lim listened to Beethoven while performing his mind-numbing job at an underground bank in downtown Toronto. A bunch of mixed-race teenagers, Sri Lankan, Indian, Indigenous, Black and Ukrainian, who used theater to deal with their troubled lives that arose from 'not belonging.' [...] I learnt about collaboration and realized that what perhaps drove me was pure anger to prove that we, the colored folk, could also make films in an alien land amidst alien people. That immigrant stories were just as relevant as mainstream ones—a narrative I have held on to for what seems like eons."
-- Deepa Mehta


Source:
Mehta, Deepa. "Pioneering director Deepa Mehta reflects on her immigrant experience: 'Where did you learn such good English?'." Variety, May 16, 2022.