FU 377 + A Night of Knowing Nothing

FU 377
Neelu Bhuman, India 2014, 5 min. 

A Night of Knowing Nothing
Payal Kapadia, France/India 2021, 97 min. 

In Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing, letters found in a box at a Mumbai film school tell the tale of a tense intercaste relationship between two characters only known as K. and L. As L. pushes K. away, the letters change from Hindi to Bengali and the imagery around them ebbs and flows to reflect the struggles and student protests currently shaking India. Similarly mobilizing found footage, FU 377 takes a lighter tone as a queer daughter is comforted by her mother before the two rush off to join a protest against homophobic legislature.

Promona Sengupta is an academic, an activist and a curator currently finishing her PhD at the International Research Center Interweaving Performance Cultures at FU Berlin. She co-founded Mo’Halla, a pop-up space for progressive art, culture and politics, based in Berlin. She has worked as a curator for Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi and on various international exhibitions throughout Asia.