I am Tejimola
Director:Aditav Dowerah
Screenwriter:Aditav Dowerah
Cast:Aditav Dowerah, Aditi Chitre, Skye Mahanta, Chelsie
Producer:None
Cinematographer:Aditav Dowerah
Running Time:7 min
Region:India
Year:2025
Language:Assamese
Production Company:None
SYNOPSIS
While getting ready for the day, the protagonist feels the presence of something sinister, and soon comes to face it. During their confrontation, they turn to a childhood story for strength.
Tejimola-he moi is an animated short film that re-tells a classic Assamese folktale, through the eyes of our protagonist’s personal experiences. It talks about queerness, gender expression, and fluidity as a form of resistance.
Director Biography
Aditav Dowerah is a designer from Assam, India. He graduated from IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay, with a Dual Degree in Communication Design. Primarily a visual artist, he tries to explore tangibility and nuances in his pictures and storytelling, and has a love for layered narratives. He enjoys keeping his hands busy (and messy) with printmaking, and baby-talking to animals.
Director's Statement
I believe the beauty of folktales is that although they are oftentimes fantastical in nature, they stay grounded in some core truths or meanings of life. There is always some value or learning that one can draw from them, which makes them timeless——which is why they stay with people for generations. Tejimola’s story stayed with me since the first time I heard it, and while working on this project, the folktale seemed an obvious parallel to revisit and build this queer narrative around. I think retellings and adaptations are powerful in this sense——it makes people rethink their entire perspective in a way. It displays something that is very familiar to people, and then adding the unfamiliar to it forces one to reflect and rebuild their worldview. And I think this questioning of the norm is what the world needs more of.





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