The lives of sleep-deprived parents Kallia and Ram take a surreal turn when Kallia’s mother demands an exorcism is performed on their baby.

Bio:
Prashanth Kamalakanthan is a filmmaker and professor born in Tirupati, India and raised in North Carolina. He has a background in music, documentary and photography, and has been named Filmmaker of the Year at Duke University, a Gotham Marcie Bloom Fellow in Film, and recently as one of the “25 New Faces of Film” by Filmmaker Magazine. Formerly an instructor in the VCUarts Cinema department, he has directed and edited short documentaries for The New York Times, Mother Jones, The Nation, and Tribeca Film Institute, as well as several award-winning narrative short films that have played festivals worldwide. His debut feature, Have a Nice Life (2021), was followed by New Strains (2023), which won the Tiger Special Jury Award at IFFR.

Artemis Shaw is a Greek-American filmmaker, producer and educator from New York City. She gained a Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia University, and a MBA-MFA in Filmmaking from NYU Stern School of Business and Tisch School of the Arts. Shaw has taught film students at Tribeca Film Institute, Ghetto Film School, Museum of the Moving Image and Thaden School. Her short film Real Talk won the Clive Davis Award for Music in Film, and the Jury Prize for Best Arkansas Connection at Fayetteville Film Festival in 2020. She co-directed IFFR 2023 selection, New Strains (2023) with Prashanth Kamalakanthan.

About New Richmond Filmmakers: A sampling of the city’s thriving filmmaking community, this series celebrates emerging voices in Richmond’s up-and-coming film scene. Screenings will be followed by a Q & A with the filmmakers and VCU Cinema faculty. Presented by the Institute for Contemporary Art and Yossera Bouchtia.

About First Fridays: First Fridays are a Richmond tradition in the Broad Street Arts District. The ICA welcomes all to linger from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for evening art viewing, food trucks, and other exciting programming.