New York-based filmmaker Shundell Prasad is back in Guyana to film the movie…
– interested persons are asked to audition for various parts in the movie
FILMMAKER Shundell Prasad is back in Guyana, this time to shoot for her second film, “The Festival of Light”.

The movie, which will be filmed in Guyana and various locations in the United States, will deal with the issue of illegal/legal immigration and the oftentimes detrimental effects immigration has on the children of the diaspora.

Shundell Prasad

According to the script of the movie – written by Shundell, ‘Reshma’ (one of the main characters) is a rebellious young girl living in Queen’s New York whose only memory of a happy family time was during a Diwali festival in a village of Guyana. She was then four years of age.

Almost immediately after that Diwali celebration Reshma and her mother, Meena, migrated to Queens, NY, without her father, who was not allowed to accompany them because of immigration issues.

Meena subsequently remarried an older man and Reshma grew up to become a rebellious teenager who could not define her own identity, lost in the crucible of the netherworld of placelessness, except for her memory of that fateful Diwali night in her home village in Guyana.

“The Festival of Light” is a story of a young girl’s search for an identity that is bound in a nexus between her father and one memorable Diwali night. That search would lead her back to Guyana and the rainforest regions, to the Mazaruni prison, to a life-shattering disappointment.

Star of the movie will be 17-yr-old Canadian-based Melinda Shankar, who stars in several television series and who has achieved international fame as an actress.

Shundell plans to begin shooting from the end of January and is currently locking-in locations and doing auditions and casting.

She is inviting interested persons to audition today or tomorrow at the Aracari Resort on the West Bank of Demerara, for the following parts in the movie:

** Krhisna, Indian boy, age 7-10

** Ravin, Indian/Portuguese boy, age 7-10

** Asha, Indian girl, age 4-6

** Young children, ages 2-4

** Indian girls, ages 12 – 18

** Villian’s role – Indian male, 50-55

** Indian girl, age 20-25

** Well-built men, ages 20-35

** Indian male, age 20

** Indian male, age 50-60

** Male, age 40-50

** Male, age 30

** Indian male, age 25-35

** Indian male, age 30-40

** Male, age 25-30

** Male, age 40-50

** Indian male, age 45-55

** Indian female, age 45-55

Filming began on September 1 in New York and continued through Diwali.

‘The Festival of Light’ is the third film from Writer / Director, Shundell Prasad, and her first feature length fictional film venture.

She previously directed the documentary films, ‘Once More Removed’, shot in New York, Guyana and India; and ‘Unholy Matrimony’, shot in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Filmmaker Shundell Prasad during the making of one of her movies on the indian sub-continent

The film’s producer, Greg Rhem, is the Director of Documentary Acquisitions, Original Programming for
HBO and is a veteran of the independent film industry in New York. Rhem and Prasad began their collaboration in 2002 when she interned and later assisted him at HBO.

‘Once more Removed: A Journey to India’, Shundell’s first documentary, was previewed in Albion, Berbice during the Indian Arrival Day celebrations in May of 2006.

There was also a screening of the one-hour documentary at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre in Georgetown during that same week.

The world premiere of the Indo-Caribbean film chronicling a young woman’s search for her roots in India was scheduled for 12th May 2006 during Asian Heritage Month at the Bombay Theater in Fresh Meadows, Queens, New York.

According to Shundell, the film followed her journey as she searched three continents to uncover the reasons for her family’s removal from their native India during British Imperial rule, to British Guiana, and then to North America as successive generations searched for lifestyle enhancement avenues.

Her creative urges has taken her to another milieu of film-making, a blend of fiction and realty. No doubt this journey will prove just as fulfilling as her previous ventures.

This young woman, who has recognized the agony, most often muted within a silent scream for recognition, of the displaced people of the Indian diaspora, many of whom are still trying to define their heritage and identity within the configuration of the human family, is not resting on her laurels after her initial efforts, but she is exploring the synergies that have impelled the migration of peoples over centuries to new lands and new lives, yet with old ties and traditional roots intact.
It is an epic journey, and she should be lauded and encouraged.