My name is Anushka Manoj, and I am entering my second year at McGill this fall. I am majoring in Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice studies with a minor in South Asian Studies. My academic interests mainly lie in gender and sexuality, along with feminist theory, world religions, and film. As a queer South Asian woman, the internship at Kabir Centre perfectly aligned with my interests and exposed me to a whole new world of South Asian films, filmmakers, as well as Montreal’s wonderful South Asian community.
As an intern at the Kabir Centre for Arts and Culture, I mainly worked on the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal, an initiative of the Kabir Centre. Kabir Centre for Arts and Culture is a multidisciplinary arts organization based in Montreal, dedicated to promoting South Asian art, music, and dance. The organization aims to promote harmony and mutual respect among the members of the South Asian diaspora living in Canada and to build bridges with the larger Canadian society.
I also had the opportunity to attend the film festival this year and watch some brilliant films from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, and films representing the diaspora from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It also helped me get an insight into the behind-the-scenes of a film festival and everything that goes into organizing it.
After the film festival, my primary responsibilities as an intern included coordinating the pre-screening process. This entailed keeping track of the films submitted to the festival and assigning them to a team of pre-screeners, who then watched and rated the films. I also had the chance to pitch in as a pre-screener myself, which helped me dive deeper into the world of filmmaking and piqued my interest in independent South Asian films and filmmakers. I was also assigned the responsibility of keeping track of our weekly meetings and taking notes. The environment in our meetings made me feel welcome, and I was allowed to share my own ideas and opinions as well. Even though I encountered my fair share of challenges during my internship, my supervisors were immensely helpful and accommodating. Their support helped me understand my work well and successfully complete my internship.
Further, the internship also made me understand how a professional working environment differs from being a student and made me more proficient and competent. Even though I did not receive academic credit for the internship, it has enriched my university experience enormously. Additionally, it fueled my interest in film, which encouraged me to take more courses in the field and explore related clubs on campus. Additionally, I was able to develop more expertise in my minor, South Asian Studies, during the internship.
Lastly, receiving the Archie Malloch Award in Public Learning helped me cover my living costs for the summer and a part of my tuition fee. I am extremely grateful to the donor, the Arts Internship Office, and the Kabir Centre for Arts and Culture for a very successful summer in Montreal. Experiencing the city during the summer along with my internship has been the best learning experience which I will always cherish.
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