Videography
I HOPE YOU REMEMBER THIS MOMENT
When I was 20, my father fell into a coma due to a fungal brain infection. While he was struggling to stay alive, I remember feeling stressed about the fact that I don't remember exactly what his voice sounds like. That stress to remember my father as he was, started me on a journey to think critically about the idea of memories and the constant reconstruction of them. Using a multitude of formal elements, from Super 8 to animation, this film explores the temporal links between one's past, present, and future and a quest to learn how to live with yourself when every moment that has led to the present, is getting morphed and reconstructed in your mind. How do you preserve sublime moments of beauty that have made you who you are? How will you remember this moment?
A Loss Of Me
When you’re just a figment of someone else’s being, are these even your thoughts? The most creative is the most personal but the most personal are the hardest to make. This film was the most difficult to write and conceptualize because it is so personal to me but finishing it has been quite the liberation. Losing or even altering a piece of your identity can be difficult to process and this film was my medium to do that.
Tween Crisis
This film is about collaboration and could not have been made without it either. The film focuses on two Northfield residents who are part of a band called Telenovela. The aim was to explore their art, their friendship and their decision to stay in Northfield. Featuring performances by Telenovela, this film is a product of collaboration and a testament of bonds created between people through art.
Our Backyard
This film is an attempt to raise awareness about the lack of affordable housing in Northfield. Made for a local organization called ‘Neighbors United’, it highlights the 'not in my backyard' mentality that exists within the more affluent part of Northfield. A big part of Northfield lives in a very condensed area and most of the community isn’t even aware of the hardships that lower middle class people are facing when it comes to safe and clean living conditions. With a vacancy rate of abismal 0.3%, Northfield lands in one of the most expensive places to live in the US. This film is a part of a task force that will be shown in city council meetings and around the community to make these grave situation known to the community.
Wait
There is a small running trail next to a highway in Northfield where I spend a significant amount of time, watching cars pass by, not even knowing what they are missing. I wanted to point at the indifference of those drivers to the beautiful scenery they miss every time they pass by. Things that could’ve instigated joy in us. When our lives become so fast paced that we only care about the destination and forget about the journey, we miss moments or things that can bring us joy. Maybe it is important to take a step back and just notice things around us.
Different Mornings
As someone living in a foreign country, I often feel my idea of home and childhood memories are a distant idea of the past, yet something that defines my present. Thus, I wanted to make my self portrait a link between my past and my present. The film draws parallels between my life here in the United States (through the visuals) and that in India (through the audio).
Rules of the Road
I have always thought of narrative whenever the word “film” comes to mind. Thus, my primary focus is always the story. However, with the help of the fabulous documentary filmmaker Alejo Moguillansky and choreographer Luciana Acuña, I was able to explore movement just as much as narrative. Rules of the Road is probably my favorite project and a hilarious experience into exploration of movement in film.
The heart is the Last Frontier
The Heart is the Last Frontier was a devised theatre production by Carleton College in collaboration with Pig Irons Theatre Company, Philadelphia. The film focuses on the process of collaboration and art creation employed the performers rather than the performance itself and works as a gateway to understanding devised theatre technique.
Digging up a History
Made for an archaeological expedition in Northfield, Minnesota, the film focuses on oral histories surrounding a now demolished, Waterford mill. Once the hub of economic and social development in Waterford county, today there’s only a handful of people who remember its existence, let alone its past glory.
Arya Misra is a film student at Carleton college currently pursuing bachelor’s degree in Cinema and Media studies. She has been working as a freelance artist collaborating with local businesses and artists to do what she loves: create something that facilitates artistic expression. She has also been the acting assistant for documentary filmmaker Cecilia Cornejo on her project The Wandering House and will be presenting her work at the public art conference ‘Imaging America’ in Albuquerque, NM this October.