In Person: O Seeker by Gavati Wad

Gavati Wad’s O Seeker (2024), recently screened at DIFF, was one of the few experimental films at the festival. Shot on 16mm, O Seeker moves through dream and reality as well as science and spirituality with equal ease as an unnamed searcher seeks answers to life and life after death. In the aftermath of the pandemic, where the scale of grief has been unimaginable, coming to terms with loss—especially the suddenness of it—leaves its own sets of unanswered questions. The use of analogue film allows for the materiality of the form itself to address some of these questions as celluloid contains, within it, its own traces of time. Adrift in reverie, the filmmaker expertly weaves together performance, memories, interviews and documentation to comment on the nature of spectacle in the present political moment. With a magician’s sleight of hand, Wad works in several registers to explore questions of nature, being and belief.

Wad spoke to us about why she made the film, the experience and wonder of working with analogue film, exploring the poetry of science and the logic of alternative practices as well as treating serious issues with a sense of play.

Gavati Wad is an artist and filmmaker based in Pune, working with 16mm celluloid through camera and cameraless techniques. Her research focuses on cultural interpretations of scientific phenomena and social legislation in India. She holds an MFA in Film/Video from the California Institute of the Arts and serves as the Artistic Director of Experimenta, India.

(Featured Image: Still from O Seeker [2024] by Gavati Wad. Image courtesy of the director.)

Recorded on 10 November 2024.

To learn more about DIFF 2024, read Mallika Visvanathan’s interview with the founders Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam and watch the previous episodes of In Person with Udit Khurana as he discusses his film Taak (2024) and Jhansy Giting Dokgre Marak on her film Chaware (2023).