Preceded by shorts:Meena Nanji's Voices of the Morning (U.S., 1992) poetically charts a woman's resistance to the acculturative forces of Islamic law. Rejecting the role of dutiful daughter or wife, she seeks a place outside the restrictions of family. Sarita Choudry stars. (13 mins, Color, 3/4" video, From Video DataBank)In Seven Hours to Burn (U.S., 1999) artist Shanti Thakur mixes abstract sequences with disturbing archival footage to narrate the story of her Indian father's and Danish mother's wartime experiences. Both parents survived cataclysms based on ethnic and religious purity. (9 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist)In a house inhabited by ancestral spirits, three generations of Indian women reside, each with their own hauntings. The eldest, Sarasu, feels her life slipping away as age diminishes her world; her widowed daughter Yashodha has soured under the pressure of maintaining the household; and the youngest, Kala, is fascinated by the forbidden places where the bhutas, the spirits, dwell. Set in a small village in South Kanara, India, Anula Shetty's Pãddana fills its story with delicate details that evoke the rhythms and rituals of this Tulu community. The Pãddana is a unique narrative song tradition that typically centers on a female character. Shetty's film unfolds as if it were itself a song, lyrical, cadenced, and told through evocative images. As the past and present merge in Pãddana, these women must grapple with their legacy-to one just a fading memory, to another an onerous burden, and to the third a mystery to unlock. (40 mins, In Tulu with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From the artist)