This summer the Berkeley Art Museum's MATRIX Gallery is exhibiting Doug Aitken's Into the Sun, a multichannel video installation created in Bombay, the center of India's enormous film industry. Aitken's installation is a lyrical glimpse of "Bollywood," with subtle attention paid to the intimate relationship that binds the audience to the glamour and distraction of cinema. The PFA series Staring at the Sun attempts to further refract the view suggested by the MATRIX exhibition, by concentrating on what could be called Indian diasporic cinema, films made by artists of Indian heritage not residing in India. Many of these films, for instance Seducing Maarya, Masala, and Bhaji on the Beach, deal with re-imaginings of the family and are charged with contention. A subtheme questioning the status of women in Indian culture can also be seen throughout the feature films and the many short works, including Pãddana: Song of the Ancestors, Voices of the Morning, and My Life As a Poster. The intriguing documentaries Fearless: The Hunterwali Story and Battu's Bioscope look specifically at Indian cinema, offering new insights into the fascination of film. And the series delves deep into the past with a special evening of American silent films, The Victoria Cross and The Bronze Bell, which exemplify the exoticism that marked the depiction of distant cultures. Steve Seid Special thanks to Jason Sanders. Doug Aitken/MATRIX 185 Into the Sun is on view July 9 through September 3. Wednesday July 5, 2000