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First Person Festival: The Girl from Foreign

Presented by First Person Arts at Painted Bride Art Center

November 8, 2009

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Sadia Shepard, daughter of a Christian/American father and Muslim/Pakistani mother, understood the complexities of a multi-cultural household. What made her melting pot overflow was the discovery that her grandmother had been born Jewish. Compelled to reclaim her roots, she travelled to India to discover the history of the Jews of India, believed to be descendents of the lost tribes of Israel. She brings this journey to life in her memoir The Girl from Foreign and her film In Search of the Bene Israel, which she presents at the festival. Music by the Lenny Seidman Tabla Choir and a buffet by Ekta Indian Restaurant evoke the tastes and sounds of her unusual history. Sadia Shepard received a BA from Wesleyan University, an MA from Stanford University and was a Fulbright Scholar to India in 2001. Her film screened at the 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center and is touring Jewish film festivals around the world. She was a producer of The September Issue, a documentary about the making of Vogue magazine, which won the Excellence in Cinematography Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The Lenny Seidman Tabla Choir was formed in 1996 as part of Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra which began in the same year. The tabla choir explores the melodic, harmonic, dynamic, textural and compositional potential of several tabla players.