Devi + Conversation with Garrett Bradley & Friends

Director: Satyajit Ray, Satyajit Ray, Satyajit Ray, Satyajit Ray, Satyajit Ray, Satyajit Ray, Satyajit Ray, Satyajit Ray, Satyajit Ray

1960 / 93min / DCP

“A friend explained to me that to be fully devoted to something, one must first fully understand the thing they are devoted to. So to be devoted, to express and exercise devotion, is in fact just as much about knowledge, as it is about commitment. I couldn’t think of a better way to describe how it is to make things. The rules I try to follow in making things… but also in parallel (and maybe contradiction), the pleasure and power that is gained in choosing one’s own kind of knowledge, which maybe lacks clear and immediate, external justification.

“The validity of devotion leaning on something more ambiguous is encapsulated in Ray’s masterpiece Devi. Even if a stretch, the film begs the question of how and to what, in a world where information has been so greatly and unprecedentedly afflicted, do we commit?”—Garrett Bradley

Ray’s baroquely styled depiction of religious fanaticism focuses on a man, Kalikinkar (Chhabi Biswas), who becomes obsessed with the idea that his young daughter-in-law, Doyamoyee (Sharmila Tagore), is the reincarnation of the ferocious goddess Kali. Showing the process whereby his mounting fervor slowly wears away the young woman’s sense of self, Devi’s pointed criticism of the dangers of superstition stirred up much controversy in India, causing it to be banned from export for a time. “Dreamily sensual, ironic… Creates an atmosphere that intoxicates.”—The New Yorker

Pre-screening panel discussion with Garrett Bradley, Sky Hopinka, Linda Goode Bryant, Alexandra Bell, Samora Pinderhughes and Dessane Lopez Cassell on Sunday, April 28, co-presented by Field of Vision.