Eisha Marjara is a Canadian film director and writer. With a background in photography, Marjara has written and directed several award-winning films, including the feature documentary ''

Desperately Seeking Helen ''Desperately Seeking Helen'' is a 1998 documentary by Eisha Marjara, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It documents the life of the Bollywood star Helen and also discusses Marjara's process of self-discovery.Ali, Firdaus.In search ...

'' (1998) and ''The Incredible Shrinking Woman'' (1994). Marjara's forthcoming feature film is titled ''Venus''; it has yet to be released. In addition to her film work, her photo series and essay on the bombing of Air India Flight 182, in which her mother and sister were killed, entitled "Remember me Nought" was featured in the fall 2013 issue of ''Descant'' magazine. Her

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, titled ''Faerie'' (

Arsenal Pulp Press Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, focusing primarily on underrepresented genres such as und ...

), received a star review in ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

''.

Career

Marjara's 1998

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

'' received critical acclaim and brought her international recognition. The movie depicts Marjara on a journey to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, exploring her own Indian roots by following the career of acclaimed

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

movie star and

vamp The VaMP driverless car was one of the first truly autonomous cars Dynamic Vision for Perc ...

Helen Richardson Khan. The movie received the jury award of the Munich Documentary Film Festival in 2000 as well as the Prix de La Semaine Critique at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

the same year. Marjara's Canadian-German co-production ''The Tourist'', a short film, had its first showing at the 24th Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois in 2006. Marjara is completing feature film ''Venus'', a dramedy about a 30-something professional who transitions into a woman then discovers that she is the father of a fourteen-year-old boy. The film is produced by Joe Balass of Compass Productions Inc. and executive producer

Kevin Tierney Kevin Tierney (August 27, 1950 – May 12, 2018) was a Canadian film producer from Montreal who co-wrote and produced the most popular Canadian film of all time at the domestic box office, ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'', for which he earned a Golden Re ...

(''

Bon Cop, Bad Cop ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'' is a 2006 Canadian dark comedy-Thriller (genre), thriller buddy cop film about two police officers – one Ontarian and one Quebec, Québécois – who reluctantly join forces to solve a murder. The dialogue is a mixture of E ...

'').

Personal life

Marjara is the daughter of father Dr. Harinder Singh Marjara, and mother Devinder. She had two sisters, Seema and Amita.Air India 182 Press Kit

Archive
. ''Air India 182'' (film) official website. p. 11/12. Retrieved on October 22, 2014. She grew up in

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, and she lived in Trois-Rivières, Sainte-Foy, and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. She attended

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

, enrolled in Communications Studies.Black, Barbara.
Air India disaster hit Concordia hard

Archive
. '' Concordia's Thursday Report''. April 21, 2005. Volume 29, No. 14. Retrieved on November 22, 2014. Her mother and her sister, Seema, were killed in the bombing of

Air India Flight 182 Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi–Bombay route. On 23 June 1985, it was operated using Boeing 747-237B registered ''VT-EFO''. It disintegrated in mid-air en route from Montreal to Lond ...

; they had been flying to visit relatives.Reinhart, Anthony.
Three relatives of Air India victims revisit lost innocence
" ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

''. Wednesday June 16, 2010. Updated Thursday August 23, 2012. Retrieved on November 22, 2014. Seema had just graduated from Centennial Regional High School.Semenak, Susan.
Happy honors grad left prom early to rest up for ill-fated flight to India
" ''

The Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

''. Wednesday June 26, 1985. p. A1. Retrieved on

Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google rel ...

(p. 1/111) on October 22, 2014. Eisha was not on board because she was being treated for

anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gr ...

, and her father was teaching a summer course at the time. Both Eisha and Amita Marjara along with father Harinder were interview subjects of the 2008 documentary ''

Air India 182 Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal– London– Delhi–Bombay route. On 23 June 1985, it was operated using Boeing 747-237B registered ''VT-EFO''. It disintegrated in mid-air en route from Montreal to L ...

''. Marjara, along with her family, is

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

Filmography

* ''The Incredible Shrinking Woman'' (1994) * ''

'' (1999) * ''The Tourist'' (2006) * ''Lolita Diaries'' (2008) * ''House for Sale'' (2012) * ''Un Mot tel Idéal'' (2016) * ''

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

'' (2017)

References

External links

*
Official Site of the National Film Board of Canada on "Desperately seeking Helen"Index of articles
from the ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Marjara, Eisha Film directors from Quebec Canadian women film directors Living people Canadian people of Indian descent Concordia University alumni People from Trois-Rivières Year of birth missing (living people) Asian-Canadian filmmakers

Career

Personal life

Filmography

See also

References

Further reading

External links