‘Passage’ created in response to growing anti-immigrant sentiment in U.S.
Passage by Asavari Kumar is one of the short films that will be screened by this year’s Fort Myers Film Festival. It’s about and Indian woman who, finding herself in a state of limbo, revisits her immigration journey and voyages through the tempestuous emotional landscape of memory, identity, belonging and the illusion of the American dream.
“The ideas of home, desire, nation and belonging in a multicultural world are beautifully and aesthetically embedded within an animated experience, grasping the viewers immediately,” states New Generations Independent Indian Film Festival about Passage. “Free passage is not the norm in the 21st century. The film rightly formulates 
the desire of an imagined homeland in a world turning more authoritarian in the wake of reshuffling global and local power relations.”
The 5-minute animation was created by a multicultural team of women and POC artists. Asavari Kumar and Siddharth Zutshi co-produced the film, 
with art direction by Shaivalini Kumar, narration by Madame Gandhi, original score and sound design by Shruti Kumar, animation by Olivia Pellicer, Katherine Dallimore and Millie Woodcock and digital design by Mario Ayala.
“In the creation of this project we sought out collaborators and 
artists that believe in the ethos of the film and are conscious of the lack of representation of women and POC in the entertainment and media Industry,” says Kumar on her website. “Our entire team is remote based and spread across Los Angeles, San Francisco, Copenhagen, New Delhi and Norwich, bringing a wealth of professional and 
cultural insight to this film.
Although Kumar and her team created Passage primarily using digital 2D frame by frame animation, they did incorporate motion graphics and 3D animation in some sections.
“We were mindful 
to make sure all three styles blended together to create a fluid visual essay where each segment flowed into the next one,” Kumar notes.
Kumar wants everyone here to know that she and her team are thrilled to share their film’s message and story with the audiences at 
FMFF.
Passage will be shown at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 22 during Shorts Block Two.
October 9, 2020.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.