Eisha Marjara

Eisha Marjara is a Canadian film director. With a background in photography, Montreal filmmaker Marjara has written and directed several award winning films, including the feature documentary Desperately Seeking Helen, The Incredible Shrinking Woman and the 2006 German-Canadian short The Tourist. House for Sale (2012) has won over six awards in its first year alone in various international film festivals. Marjara is completing feature film Venus and developing Calorie.

In addition to her film work, her affecting photo series and essay on the Air India tragedy of flight 182 entitled "Remember me Nought" was featured in the fall 2013 issue of Descant magazine (Toronto). Her debut novel Faerie (Arsenal Pulp Press) came out to rave reviews earlier this year and received a star review in US Publisher’s Weekly. Critics called her young adult novel, “polished and poetic”, “a page-turner,” “Marjara, writing in Lila’s affecting voice, delicately captures the deep insecurities of teenhood, the pressure of trying to fit into one ideal of beauty, and the complexity of anorexia with lovely, flowing prose, underscoring the devastating effects that mental illness can have on an entire family.”

Marjara, along with her family, is a Sikh.[1]

Career

Although her film The Incredible Shrinking Woman already achieved international recognition in 1994 and received an Honourable Mention at the Semana de Cine Experimental de Madrid, it was the feature National Film Board of Canada docudrama Desperately Seeking Helen that put her name on a list of promising new talents to critics around the world. The movie shows the filmmaker on a journey to India, exploring her own Indian roots by following the career of acclaimed Bollywood movie star and vamp Helen Richardson Khan. The movie received the jury award of the Munich documentary film festival in 2000 as well as the Prix de La Semaine Critique at the Locarno International Film Festival the same year. Marjara's Canadian-German co-production The Tourist had its first showing at the 24th Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois in 2006.

Marjara is completing feature film Venus and developing family drama Calorie. Venus is a dramedy about a 30-something professional who transitions into a woman then discovers that she is the father of a fourteen-year-old boy. The film is produced by Joe Balass of Compass Productions Inc., the executive producer Kevin Tierney (Bon Cop, Bad Cop, The Trotsky).

Personal life

Marjara is the daughter of father Dr. Harinder Singh Marjara,[2] and mother Devinder. She had two sisters, Seema and Amita.[3] She grew up in Trois-Rivières, Quebec,[4] and she lived in Trois-Rivières, Sainte-Foy, and Montreal.[5] She attended Concordia University, enrolled in Communications Studies.[4]

Her mother and Seema died on Air India Flight 182.[6] Her family members were flying on Air India to visit relatives.[1] Seema had just graduated from Centennial Regional High School.[7] Eisha was not on board because she was being treated for anorexia nervosa, and her father was teaching a summer course at the time.[1] Both Eisha and Amita Marjara along with father Harinder were interview subjects of the documentary Air India 182.[3]

Filmography

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Reinhart, Anthony. "Three relatives of Air India victims revisit lost innocence." The Globe and Mail. Wednesday June 16, 2010. Updated Thursday August 23, 2012. Retrieved on November 22, 2014.
  2. ↑ Badami, Anita Rau. Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? Penguin Books India, January 1, 2006. ISBN 0670999415, 9780670999415. p. 404.
  3. 1 2 "Air India 182 Press Kit" (Archive). Air India 182 (film) official website. p. 11/12. Retrieved on October 22, 2014.
  4. 1 2 Black, Barbara. "Air India disaster hit Concordia hard" (Archive). Concordia's Thursday Report. April 21, 2005. Volume 29, No. 14. Retrieved on November 22, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Eisha Marjara" (Archive). Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois (RVCQ). Retrieved on November 22, 2014.
  6. ↑ Reinhart, Anthony. "Three relatives of Air India victims revisit lost innocence" (Archive). The Globe and Mail. Wednesday June 16, 2010. Updated Thursday August 23, 2012. Retrieved on October 22, 2014.
  7. ↑ Semenak, Susan. "Happy honors grad left prom early to rest up for ill-fated flight to India." The Montreal Gazette. Wednesday June 26, 1985. p. A1. Retrieved on Google News (p. 1/111) on October 22, 2014.

Further reading

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