Private Project

CONFERENCE OF THE MOTHS

In a 12th-century epic, Wise Hoopoe had upheld the moth and flame as an epitome of love. Now, committed to self-care, the moths have decided to shun the flame. Can Hoopoe once again show his fellow creatures the light? CONFERENCE OF THE MOTHS is a 2-D paper cut-out stop-motion silhouette-animation film that is both a gentle parody and an homage to the 12th-century Persian epic poem THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS. Drawing out classical Indo-Persian motifs of light and darkness, of the moth and the flame, the original epic’s Wise Hoopoe returns to once again impart lessons on love, care, and connection for our current day and age.

  • Samhita Sunya
    Director
  • Samhita Sunya
    Writer
  • Ali Bandeali
    Writer
  • Parda Pictures
    Producer
  • Samhita Sunya
    Key Cast
    "Narrator"
  • Ali Bandeali
    Key Cast
    "Moths"
  • Rabih Alameddine
    Key Cast
    "Wise Hoopoe"
    (Novels): KOOLAIDS: THE ART OF WAR; THE PERV: STORIES; I, THE DIVINE; THE HAKAWATI; AN UNECESSARY WOMAN; THE ANGEL OF HISTORY: A NOVEL; THE WRONG END OF THE TELESCOPE
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 43 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 20, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States, United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon
    Eugene, OR
    United States
    March 9, 2025
    World
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Samhita Sunya

Samhita Sunya comes to filmmaking by way of her career as a film historian. She is currently an Associate Professor of Cinema in the Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures at the University of Virginia. She is the author of SIRENS OF MODERNITY: WORLD CINEMA VIA BOMBAY (University of California Press, 2022), which is an account of the widespread, international popularity of Hindi song-dance films during the Cold War-era 1960s. Raised in Houston, Texas by South Asian immigrant parents, she has lived and worked in India, Lebanon, and Turkey. Her scholarship has been praised for its "rare... vulnerability," for its focus on histories of love and cinephilia, and for the transregional and global dimensions of its historical research. Her first short film, CONFERENCE OF THE MOTHS (2024), draws on her familiarity with an array of artistic, literary, and cinematic genealogies of poetry and visual culture across South/West Asia. Her film, like her scholarship, is driven by a conviction that these genealogies and stories have so much to offer contemporary filmmakers, as we seek to render not only the world that we live in, but also the world in which we aspire to live.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

CONFERENCE OF THE MOTHS is a film that I co-wrote with my now ex-partner Ali Bandeali, as we worked through the months-long process of a separation that became final. He and I are Pakistani- and Indian-American, respectively. We both grew up in Texas, and we were lucky that our families supported our relationship from the outset: as an Indian-Pakistani romance, many remarked that ours was the stuff of Bollywood movies. So, too, was the fact that when our relationship started to unravel, our mothers’ and aunties’ well-meaning advice was, “Make a baby, it will fix everything!” (Spoiler alert: We did not make a baby.) Instead, we decided to make a film, as a journey—both within the film and outside of it—of learning to love and to let go without fear.

On the practical side of setting out to make a film, Ali and I had to also pick through our skills and limitations. We lacked experience with directing actors, recording live sound, or dealing with the intricacies of lighting and makeup. But, we both knew that we wanted to make something zany and magical and heartfelt, that I could make paper puppets, that I could draw on my academic knowledge of South/West Asian literary, musical, and artistic forms, that Ali could compose music and edit, and that we had access to a University camera, a public library’s sound recording studio, and the brilliant novelist Rabih Alameddine’s gorgeous voice.

Our script emerged from two conversations that fortuitously coalesced: one, over our shared irritation with the individualist, product-driven rhetoric of care in the contemporary world; and another, over the curious absence of the moth and flame--despite being one of the most iconic motifs of Indo-Persian poetry--from a visual repertoire spanning miniature paintings, textiles, carpets, mosaics, and carvings. It thus feels like nothing short of magic to have made a film for the first time as part of working through the end of a relationship, and to have in the process brought the moth and flame, the Wise Hoopoe from the 12th century Persian epic THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS, and Rabih Alameddine’s voice acting debut to the big screen.