Режиссер Сумати Рам создает новый документальный фильм о исцелении после терактов 11 сентября

Music has never been confined to a soundtrack for Texas-based filmmaker and producer Sumathy Ram. She has thought of it as a language capable of carrying ideas across borders, cultures and generations. Having worked across filmmaking, lyric writing, poetry and music production, Sumathy says every creative pursuit ultimately serves the same purpose. “I use my platform to express my views on the balance of power of unity in diversity, and emotional well-being for humanity,” she says. Collaborating with artistes such as Indian music composer, and three-time Grammy Award winner Ricky Kej and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi has only strengthened that conviction she says. “These collaborations give me the strength to continue believing that music is an agent of social transformation. It brings joy to communities, provides spiritual sustenance and offers emotional fulfilment.” Sumathy has collaborated on projects spanning more than 40 countries, including Gandhi: Mantras of Compassion, which brought together over 230 musicians from around the world. “Our commitment is to global peace, harmony and unity. We work together because we want to create meaningful change in society, and we use music as an agent of social transformation,” she says. As part of a triad of directors and producers, Sumathy’s latest venture, Remains of a Day: Grace at Ground Zero, with John W Sutherlin and Rob Olmstead III, extends the idea into documentary filmmaking. Created to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City, the project centres on healing. “The film follows a Lutheran pastor in New York who seeks to inspire hope and resilience in the wake of the tragedy,” Sumathy says. “We recently interviewed him and several others in New York, and we are currently in post-production.” Alongside the documentary, as s librettist, Sumathy has joined creative forces with Georgina Ezra and composer Ganesh B Kumarr for the creation of the original Symphonic Cantata “United We Stand Tall”, honouring those who lost their lives and the resilience that followed. Although based in Texas, Sumathy increasingly sees herself as a global storyteller. “I don’t think of myself only as Indian or American. I feel like a global citizen. I enjoy working on projects from different parts of the world,”she says. Her long-nurtured project Lajjawati, a musical in English that she has been constructing as a cinematic universe, is also guided by that outlook. “Lajjawati has already won more than 100 screenplay awards. I have been working on it for the past 10 years. It is an epic musical story and a tale of ecstasy and agony where desire and destiny play major roles.” For Sumathy, the future of storytelling lies not in working alone, but together. “I believe the future looks promising in collaborating across cultures and generations,” she says. “That is how we honour our Indian stories while opening ourselves to new conversations around the world.” Published - July 16, 2026 04:48 pm IST