Suma Josson is an Indian-American journalist and filmmaker. Her debut feature film ‘Janmadinam’ won three state awards. She has made a number of documentary films on subjects such as ‘
Gujarat: A Laboratory of Hindu Rastra, Fascism’, Bombay's Blood Yatra, ‘One More Day to Live’ and ‘Niyamgiri, You are still alive’ to name a few. She has also published books on
literature.
Early Life of Suma Josson
She was born in the
Indian state of
Kerala. She received her graduation degree in
English Literature from the University of Minnesota, USA.
Career of Suma Josson
Josson started her career as a journalist with the News Agency:
Press Trust of India. She switched over to the visual media in the year 1992. She made her debut as a filmmaker in 1998 with the
Malayalam film Janmadinam. The film deals with the unspoken, unseen and subtle tension between a mother and her daughter. The film starred
Nandita Das and
Surekha Sikhri in prominent roles. It won three state wards and was screened at various international film festivals including the 1999 Berlin Festival.
In the following year, she made her second
Malayalam feature film titled Saree. The film deals with the fantasies of two children who are trapped in between their two worlds which are school and home. It featured Remya, Krishna, Nedumudi Venu, Sreelatha and Priyanka in key roles.
She also made several documentary films. Amongst all which deserves special mention is Gujarat: A Laboratory of Hindu Rastra, Fascism. The film is set in the post-Godhra violence which was unleashed in Gujarat during February 2002. It examines the extent to which the fascist ideologies of the communal forces have infiltrated into the sub-conscious of an ordinary Gujarati Hindu. The film was released in the year 2003. Another documentary which deserves mention is Bombay's Blood Yatra. The film is about the communal riots in Bombay (now
Mumbai). It won wide acclaim in the country and abroad. Her other documentaries include 47 Seconds & After: Latur, Osmanabad, Akbar Padamsee and the Last Image and One More Day to Live (on
V P Singh, as a painter).
Josson is also into literature and is famed as a well known poet and fiction writer. She has authored three books which are Poems and Plays, A Harvest of Light (a collection of plays), and Circumferences (a novel).
Achievements of Suma Josson
Her debut feature film ‘Janmadinam’ won three state awards.
Her documentary film Niyamgiri, You are still alive bagged a first prize in the Short Film, Environment category at the 2010 International Film Festival of India.
