Memory of a Light is a visual essay on nostalgia for the childhood house. What makes the experience of the first home so unforgettable? Does the core of this experience lie in the structure and design of the house or in things that cannot be measured, yet make impressions on the senses? From memories of architectural details to accounts of lived experience, the film moves between many rooms, many corners of a past and windows of the present, exploring the core of the childhood home.
Sandhya Kumar is a film and communications graduate of San Francisco Art Institute and Jamia Millia University, New Delhi. Her 2012 documentary, ‘O Friend, This Waiting!’ won the Indian National Film Award for Best Arts/Cultural Film, for its unconventional exploration of the Devadasi tradition in South India through the medium of love-poetry. Sandhya’s films have traveled in India and internationally, with screenings at the Mumbai International Film Festival, The Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, SF MOMA, The 3rd I South Asian Film Festival, Film South Asia, Kathmandu and International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala. She had received film grants from the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) and the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) and has been an ATSA fellow at ARThink South Asia.
Sandhya has worked as an assistant director with artist Amar Kanwar on the film and art installation,The Lightning Testimonies, and as a visual arts curator for the Red Poppy Art House, San Francisco, and Mocha Art House, New Delhi. She is a trustee of Vikalp Bengaluru, a filmmakers’ collective committed to creating platforms for documentary films to reach wider audiences. She also conducts workshops and training sessions on the filmmaking process for learners of all levels.