A New Normal
The doors are closed. There are no more screenings of this film.
Synopsis: A New Normal’ is a short film created using Augmented Reality, that subverts the limitations of digital intimacy, to create a story about warmth, hope and family.
Language
Run Time
Starring
Vijaya Lakshmi (Mom)
Anshul Kumar (Dad)
Directed by
Produced by
Composer
Production Designer
Saloni Ramteke
Director's Statement
As we learn to keep social and familial connections alive amidst the pandemic and rely heavily on digital media, I realize this has been my own ‘normal’ for most of the past decade. After immigrating to the US from India, my ability to travel home and be physically present with my family became limited, particularly after the 2016 elections. Thinking about home and belonging today, my thoughts go to my sister in Copenhagen and my parents in New Delhi. Using Augmented Reality as a storytelling tool for this film, allowed me to see the evolving definition of ‘home’ through the eyes of my family. Shot entirely in my apartment while sheltering in place, this film is a product of remote collaboration between artists based in Copenhagen, Madrid, New Delhi, Mumbai and Los Angeles. In ‘A New Normal’ my everyday digital conversations with my family are overlaid with AR versions of my parents and sister in my environment, to co-create a mixed reality experience that for the time being, is the closest thing I have to the feeling of home.
Director's Bio
Asavari is a Filmmaker & Visual Artist from New Delhi, India currently based in Los Angeles. She owns and operates the studio Supernova Design through which she creates commercial and personal projects while collaborating with POC and women artists. Select clients include – Warner Bros., Google, YouTube & Disney. Asavari’s award-winning films, new media work and graphic narratives have been showcased at numerous festivals and exhibition spaces. Select showings include the Los Angeles Zine Fest, Ottawa International Animation Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival & the American Documentary and Animation Festival. Her projects have also been featured in Kyoorius Design Magazine, Cartoon Brew, STASH and Animation Reporter Magazine. Drawn to cross-cultural narratives, Asavari uses character-driven storytelling to parse her evolving cultural and political identity. Through her body of work, she hopes to generate a discourse surrounding ideas of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ and find where her own narratives intersect with those around her. Asavari holds a BFA in Animation Film Design from the National Institute of Design, and an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts. She is a former artist in residence for Adobe Aero and is currently exploring how Augmented Reality can be a compelling medium for telling personal stories.