Film director:
Shashwati Talukdar and P. Kerim Friedman
Producer:
Shashwati Talukdar and P. Kerim Friedman
About the Producer:
Shashwati Talukdar, Director/Producer/Editor, began her career as an assistant editor on one of Michael Moore's TV shows. She has worked for HBO, BBC, Lifetime, Sundance etc. Her films have screened at the Margaret Mead Festival, Berlin and the Whitney Biennial, and numerous art galleries around the world.
P. Kerim Friedman, Director/Producer/Camera, is an assistant professor at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan, where he teaches linguistic and visual anthropology. He is a founding member of the group anthropology blog Savage Minds and a documentary filmmaker.
Film synopsis:
Over 60 million Indians belong to communities imprisoned by the British as "criminals by birth." The Chhara of Ahmedabad, in Western India, are one of 198 such "Criminal Tribes." Declaring that they are "born actors," not "born criminals," a group of Chhara youth have turned to street theater in their fight against police brutality, corruption, and the stigma of criminality — a stigma internalized by their own grandparents. 'Please Don't Beat Me, Sir!' follows the lives of these young actors and their families as they take their struggle to the streets, hoping their plays will spark a revolution.
