Society for Art & Cultural Heritage of India and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco invite you to a special SACHI annual event:

Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University and SACHI, Society for Art & Cultural Heritage of India present:

Borrowed Fire: The Shadow Puppets of Kerala
A film by Anurag Wadehra & Salil Singh

Thursday, January 21, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Stanford University, Cummings Art Building,
Lower Level, Room 4
Free to the public
Film running time: 48 minutes

On the southwestern coast of India an extraordinary performing art has evolved over many centuries. It is known as Tolpava Koothu – “the Play of Leather Shadows”. Performed in special outdoor theatres facing temples of the goddess Bhadrakali, it enacts the story of the Ramayana, a sacred Hindu epic.

Borrowed Fire documentary, set in South India, exquisitely captures this tradition on film. The struggle of the last surviving scholar and master-puppeteer to practice and preserve an ancient performing art provides a rare and poignant glimpse of a flame on the verge of extinction. Q & A with filmmakers Anurag Wadehra & Salil Singh follows the film screening. For more information about this documentary and the filmmakers, visit www.kathanjali.com.

For inquiries call 650.918.6335 or email info@sachi.org
For directions go to campus map. For directions call 408.971.0323. Free Sunday street parking