Crossing Lines is a poignant and heartfelt film about the struggles of growing up in and contending with two different physical and emotional worlds—India and America, Indian parents and American peers, Diwali festival and Homecoming ritual, Hinduism and Judeo-Christian values, and Hindi and English. Filling a deep chasm in the public record of immigrant experiences, Indian-American Indira Somani's honest yet tender and moving biographical portrait of her relationship with her father, a first-generation Indian immigrant to the United States, sketches a more universal story of the problems that Asian immigrants face in reconciling homelands with adopted lands. Traveling visually through Somani's life experiences in America and in India, viewers of this compelling film will accompany an Indian-American daughter's difficult and fulfilling journeys across nations and cultures to understand her father better. In the end, the film leaves you with wanting more: How will Indira continue to explore her links to India and to her father's history? How will she, as a woman, find a way to bridge the gap between the American way with the Indian way? Crossing Lines will be a valuable resource for educators teaching in the areas of U.S. ethnic diversity, Asian diaspora, immigration and generation, gender and culture, and South Asian studies.
Radhika Parameswaran, PhD
Professor, School of Journalism
Indiana University
