Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night, an award-winning documentary on outsourcing work to India, is being screened this month in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
NEW DELHI: Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night, an award-winning documentary on outsourcing work to India, is being screened this month in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Told from the perspective of an Indian living in the US, the film journeys into India’s call centres. A world in which telemarketers acquire Western names and accents to service the telephone-support industry of the US.
This film incorporates animation, live action, and archival footage to explore the complexities of what it terms as “globalisation, capitalism, and identity”.
In 2005, the film already has won awards at Uruguay, the Humboldt film festival, Next Frame Film Festival and Rosebud Film and Video Festival.
Directed and written by Indian American Sonali Gulati, this film will be shown at the Urban World Film Festival in New York, on June 22 and 24, at the Artwallah Festival in San Pedro Los Angeles on June 24, at the 29th Asian American International Film Festival in New York on July 16, and via WYBE Public TV station in Philadelphia, on August 2 and August 5.
With a run-time of 27 minutes, the film has been described as giving “a behind-the-scenes look at outsourcing through interviews with workers competing fiercely to staff the steadily increasing number of call centres based in India”.
Internet Movie Database —the biggest movie site in the world— called it a personal narrative documentary film told from the perspective of an Indian living in the US.
James Bart of the US said, “I watched this film in New York and was totally blown away by it. I had no idea about the extent, breadth and scope of globalisation and the consequences it has on people’s lives all over the world. It pushed me to think beyond one’s Americentric perspective on the job market.”
Also commended has been the “filmmaker’s sense of humour”, which makes this an “extremely watchable film”. Animation sequences are used to form a contrast and juxtaposition to archival images. There’s also a personal diary and travelogue structure to the film.
Gulati, an Indian immigrant living in the US, has said in interviews that the film started with a phone call to “Harry”, a telemarketer who could get her name right and happened to be in New Delhi.
She journeyed to India in 2003, to study the world of call centres and language institutes where telemarketers acquire American accents.
She said, “It was an eye-opening experience for me and made me question my preconceptions. I really thought I was going to experience walking into a sweatshop-like environment.”
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