PARAMITA, directed by Re-Take Oakland filmmaker Kirthi Nath was featured on KPFA Radio’s Women’s Magazine – Buddhism, Spirituality and healing from Racism, Sexism, Suffering on August 10, 2026 before their film event, Cinema as Prayer: A Night of Queer South Asian Films.
Kirthi Nath (PARAMITA) and Lata Mani (Longing Suite) were in conversation with Lisa Dettmer about their films and the ways spirituality lives inside both the films and their filmmaking practices. This radio program also features Lisa in conversation with Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad, author of The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, exploring Baldwin and Lorde through a Dharmic lens.
PARAMITA bears witness to Prajna Choudhury’s 25-year journey of coming out to her traditional Bangladeshi mother. Told with intimacy and tenderness, the film invites us into a meditative experience as Prajna connects with Buddhist practice and nature as gateways for intergenerational healing.
Longing Suite is a lyrical exploration of awakening to the feminine Divine. Building on a cycle of poems written by Mani in the 1990s, the film traces the arc of a heart-mind-body awakening to the sacred in all that exists.