The film primarily traces American-born filmmaker Ellis R. Dungan’s years in India. Born in 1909, Dungan reached India in 1935 intending to stay for 6 months but ended up staying for 15 years. During this period, he brought many technical innovations to the developing Tamil Film Industry of the 1930s and ‘40s, and infused a sense of professionalism into its filmmaking.
Trailer with English subtitles.
2013 – 80 min – documentary
Directed by: Karan Bali
Language: English, Tamil, Hindi
Subtitles: English
Format: BlueRay
An American in Madras primarily traces American-born filmmaker Ellis R. Dungan’s years in India. Born in 1909 and hailing from Barton, Ohio, Dungan reached the shores of India on February 25th, 1935 intending to stay for 6 months but ended up staying for 15 years! During this period, he brought many technical innovations to the developing Tamil Film Industry of the 1930s and ‘40s, and infused a sense of professionalism into its filmmaking. All this, without understanding a word of the language! Dungan directed the great Tamil superstar MGR’s first film, Sathi Leelavathi, as well as famed Carnatic vocalist MS Subbulakshmi’s most famous films, Sakuntalai and Meera. The film traces Dungan’s Indian connection right up to 1994, when on a trip to India, the Tamil Film Industry felicitated him in Chennai for his contribution to its development, a good 43 years after he had left India!
Festivals so far:
- The Chennai International Film Festival, Chennai, December, 2013
- Mumbai International film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (MIFF), Mumbai, February 2014
- New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), New York, May 2014 (Best Documentary Nominee)
- South Asian International Documentary Festival (SAID), Seattle, June 2014
- London Indian Film Festival, London, July 2014
- International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, Trivandrum, July 2014
About the director
Karan Bali (Lawrence School, Lovedale, 1986, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, 1989) graduated from the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, with specialization in Direction in 1993. With Mumbai as his base, he has been making mainly documentaries besides being first assistant director on two feature films, Everybody Says I’m Fine and Matrubhoomi – A Nation Without Women. He teaches filmmaking and is also the co-founder and content-in-charge of Upperstall.com, an analytical portal on cinema of the sub-continent. An American in Madras is his first feature length documentary.