Director Shuchi Talati’s work often challenges ingrained notions of gender, race, identity–and sex. The latter is delicately and boldly portrayed in A PERIOD PIECE, Talati’s latest short film that tells the story of a sexual encounter that quickly turns physically and emotionally messy. Geetha is an order-loving Indian American woman who has sex for the first time with Vehd. When period blood stains Geetha’s pristine sofa, her unapologetic negotiation of the situation abruptly normalizes sex during menstruation. 

Talati’s choreography of the bodies and sex, wholly natural in its unsterilization, is a refreshingly honest portrayal. The camera follows the messiness in a frank manner, making it routine, questioning the enduring taboo of menstruation, and Geetha’s command of the situation is a stock-taking of the shame that has, shamefully, been cast on women.     

DIRECTOR

Shuchi Talati is a filmmaker from India whose work challenges dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, and South Asian identity. Her most recent short film, A PERIOD PIECE, was selected for SXSW 2020. Shuchi is in development for her first feature, GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS, a coming-of-age film set in a conservative boarding school in India. It has been selected for Berlinale Script Station, Jerusalem Film Lab, Cine Qua Non Script Lab, Film Bazaar Co-Production Market, and is fiscally sponsored by Women Make Movies. Shuchi’s work has also been recognized by Berlinale Talents, the New York State Council for the Arts, and the Women in Film endowment.