Starting Feb. 18, the first-ever Asian Studies Film Festival began with a mesmerizing BBC documentary entitled “Ganges.” Two other Films, “Welcome to Sajjanpur” (Feb. 25) and “Sita Sings the Blues” (March 4) completed the series at the Cline Library with this year’s focus on India.

Asian Studies Program Coordinator, Bruce Sullivan, expressed how the diversity of these three films only hints at the full scope of Indian life. Sullivan related this inevitable shortcoming to an analogy of  blind men and an elephant. All of the blind men have a piece of the elephant and think they know what it is, but none of the blind men can see the entire picture.

“they are a tiny tiny corner, in spite of three different films, as different as films can be,” Sullivan said. “It’s like the old story that shows up in Indian literature of the blind men and the elephant. They all have a different piece of it and these films, even if we had 15 films in the series, would only get a slice of it [India].”

The first film, “Ganges,” is a startling nature documentary encompassing the Ganges River and its influence on the heavily populated region of surrounding India and Bangladesh. While examining the Ganges River’s effect on the culture and all-around lifeblood of the region, this film also portrays the variety of animals and habitats associated with the area.

The second film, “Welcome to Sajjanpur,” takes on more of an entertainment slant. Set in a developing village in India, this film explores life in Sajjanpur through the eyes of satirical letter-writer. All in all, the main character learns the hard way, how not to put his emotion into an everyday letter.

“Welcome to Sajjanpur” was suggested by Sanjay Joshi, a professor at the History Department, because of the role it takes on serious issues.

“You will see local politics, violence, cast, class, sexuality, rural unemployment , migrant labor, the global market of human organs. All of these things and how they are impacting the people who live in this village called Sajjanpur,” Joshi said in an introduction for the movie.

The third film, “Seta Sings the Blues” is an animated feature film created almost entirely by the artist Nina Paley. This film expands on the festival’s diversity with a unique production examining truth, justice and the treatment of women. Sullivan further expressed his admiration in how the lone creator undertook this feat.

“It’s a purely original independently done production. A one woman show. She [Nina Paley] wrote, directed, produced, raised the money, did the animation on her own computer. She did this all herself, it’s quite extraordinary.” Sullivan said.

Joshi also mentioned the importance of the depth each film possesses in portraying India, and the questions each raises in the world today.

“A lot of folks have seen ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and that becomes, for them, their only exposure to India. What were trying to do is again, present variety.The first film focused on a bit of the natural landscape. This one [Welcome to Sajjanpur], is sort of a slice of social life from a village in India, but a modernized village. What does modernization do? How does modern Politics work? The last film is really about the extent to which the past sort of lives on and it can still be a resource for the present.”

Both Sullivan and Joshi hinted at the topic of next years Asian Studies Film Festival being China and expressed their anticipation for other events to come this semester from the Asian Studies Program.

“We have a concert coming up in April [Pandit Rajeev Taranath] and we have a talk by Wendy Doniger, which is one of the biggest names in the study of Indic traditions. She’s at the University of Chicago and she’ll be coming over to give the Cline lecture,” Joshi said.