At a time when corporate power has made everyday life a veritable struggle for working people, comes the documentary “Déjà vu”. Framed against the backdrop of Indian farmers’ protests - the largest such mobilization in recent times – the movie chronicles voices that are rarely heard: small family farmers in the United States -- oft-ignored and conveniently marginalized. Over the last four decades, these American farmers have lived through sweeping market reforms and steady corporatization of agriculture. But how did the reforms turn out? Who benefited? Who lost out? The farmers, the consumers, or the corporates? In exploring these questions, Deja Vu offers a unique perspective. An untold American story becomes a cautionary tale for another country, and indeed for the world. And along the way, the documentary traces how corporate oligarchies came to amass such unbridled economic and political power – with devastating consequences for the society. Déjà Vu takes the viewer on this “back to the future” ride, where past meets future – a glimpse of what the future might portend.
A leading member of the team that invented CMOS image sensor technology that ushered in digital camera revolution - Bedabrata Pain was an award-winning senior research scientist at NASA and Caltech. He holds over 90 patents and is an inductee to the US Space Technology Hall of Fame. With his debut film Chittagong (2012), he won the Golden Lotus in the Indian National Awards as well as many international awards. Earlier, he was the executive producer of internationally acclaimed Amu (2005) and the documentary called Lifting the Veil (1997). He is currently working on several feature films and web-series in India and in Hollywood. Dr. Pain is a technology consultant for the prime movie-camera maker RED Digital Cinema. He received his B. Tech. degree from IIT Kharagpur in 1986, and his Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University in 1992, and taught in UCLA from 1998-2008, and has received prestigious awards such as the Lew-Allen Award, NASA Inventors Award, and IIT Distinguished Alumnus Award.
The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is the oldest, most prestigious film festival screening premieres of feature, documentary and
short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the Independent, arthouse, alternate and diaspora genres.
