Private Project

Passage

Finding herself in a state of limbo, an Indian woman revisits her immigration journey and voyages through a tempestuous emotional landscape of memory, identity, belonging and the illusion of the American Dream.

  • Asavari Kumar
    Director
  • Asavari Kumar
    Writer
  • Siddharth Zutshi
    Producer
  • Asavari Kumar
    Producer
  • Shaivalini Kumar
    Art Direction
  • Shaivalini Kumar
    Production Design
  • Asavari Kumar
    Production Design
  • Katherine Dallimore
    Production Design
  • Olivia Pellicer
    Character Animation
  • Katherine Dallimore
    Secondary Animation & Color
  • Millie Woodcock
    Motion Graphics & Compositing
  • Asavari Kumar
    Motion Graphics & Compositing
  • Shruti Kumar
    Music Composition & Sound Design
  • Madame Gandhi
    Narration
  • Eva Reistad
    Sound Engineer
  • Mario Ayala
    Website & Digital Design
  • Debarpan Das
    Website & Digital Design
  • Supernova Design
    Production Company
  • asavari kumar
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 15 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 15, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    7,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16.9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Universe Multicultural Film Festival 2020

    United States
    Best Animated Short
  • San Francisco Independent Film Festival 2020
    San Francisco
    United States
    Jury Prize - Best Animated Short
  • Los Angeles Animation Festival 2019
    Los Angeles
    United States
    December 7, 2019
    Silver - Best Experimental Short
  • International Shorts 2019
    Southbank
    Australia
    Finalist - Best Animated Short Film
  • New Generations – Independent Indian Film Festival 2019
    Frankfurt
    Germany
    Short Film Wallah Award
  • LA Femme International Film Festival 2019
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Best Animated Short
  • Indie & Foreign Film Festival 2019
    New York
    United States
    Best Animation
  • Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2020
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Official Selection
  • Adirondack Film Festival 2020

    United States
    Official Selection
  • Annual Copenhagen Film Festival 2020
    Copenhagen
    Denmark
    Official Selection
  • Pune Short Film Festival 2020
    Pune
    India
    Official Selection
  • Fort Myers Film 2020
    Fort Myers
    United States
    Official Selection
  • American Documentary & Animation Film Festival 2020
    Palm Springs
    United States
    Official Selection
  • IFFSA Toronto 2020
    Toronto
    Canada
    Official Selection
  • Global Impact Film Festival 2020

    United States
    Official Selection
  • Austin Asian American Film Festival 2020
    Austin
    United States
    Official Selection
  • Splice Film Festival 2020

    United States
    Official Selection
  • International Migration Film Festival 2020

    United States
    Official Selection
  • Show Me Justice Film Festival 2020

    United States
    Official Selection
  • Queens World Film Festival 2020

    United States
    Official Selection
  • Garden State Film Festival 2020

    United States
    Official Selection
  • International Changing Perspectives Short Film Festival 2020

    Official Selection
  • Seattle Asian American Film Festival 2020
    Seattle
    United States
    Official Selection
  • Jaipur International Film Festival 2020
    Jaipur
    India
    Asia
    Official Selection
  • North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival 2020
    Fargo
    United States
    Official Selection
  • Factual Animation Film Festival 2019
    London
    United Kingdom
    Official Selection
  • SOUQ Film Festival 2019
    Milan
    Italy
    European
    Official Selection
  • St. Louis International Film Festival 2019
    St. Louis, MO
    United States
    Official Selection
  • ANIMAINE The Maine Animation Festival 2019
    south portland
    United States
    Official Selection
  • Tasveer South Asian Film Festival 2019
    Seattle
    United States
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Asavari Kumar

Asavari is an Animation Director from New Delhi, India currently based in Los Angeles. She owns and operates the collective - Supernova Design through which she creates commercial and personal projects while collaborating with POC and women artists. Her client list includes - Google, Youtube, Slack & Disney amongst others.

Asavari’s films, installations and graphic narratives have been showcased at national and international film festivals and exhibition spaces including the Los Angeles Zine Fest, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Pune International Film Festival, La Gaîté Lyrique and Maison des Metallos. Her projects have also been featured in Kyoorius Design Magazine, Cartoon Brew, STASH and Animation Reporter Magazine.

Through her body of work, Asavari uses character driven storytelling to parse cultural and political identity and generate a discourse surrounding ideas of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ and find where her own narrative intersects with those around her.

Asavari holds a BFA in Animation Film Design from the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), and an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

After the presidential elections of 2016, like many others I felt an ominous paradigm shift. Rising anti-immigrant sentiment and white nationalism mixed in with the horrors brought to light by the MeToo movement, created a perfect storm of fear, disillusionment and helplessness. Passage was created in response to these forces while exploring the intersecting narratives of varied immigrant experiences. The film is based on my own immigration experience and hopes to steer the conversation away from divisive discourses within the immigrant community and shift focus towards more hopeful and inclusive narratives and discover overlapping experiences. I chose to be intentional not just about what I make but about who I worked with. In the creation of this project I sought out collaborators and artists that believed in the ethos of the film and were conscious of the lack of representation of women and POC artists in the entertainment and media Industry. The team is spread across Los Angeles, San Francisco, Copenhagen, New Delhi and Norwich, bringing a wealth of professional and cultural insight to this film.