What We Carry: A Short Film

• • 3ARTS MATCH
  • 103% contributed

STRETCH GOAL!!! We’ve officially reached our $6K goal—thank you so much for your amazing support! Now we’re stretching to $10K to invite more actors to be featured extras, help cover post-production and festival submissions so this project can reach its fullest potential. Every bit helps us take it further!

Set inside a local aid center in Chicago, What We Carry is a powerful short film about two women who sense a growing tension when an outsider disrupts the rhythms of their community space. As past and present begin to collide, they must choose how far they’ll go to protect what they’ve built. What We Carry tells a story we rarely get to see onscreen—one where women of color lead with instinct, dignity, and quiet strength. With your support, this film will bring a tender, urgent story of care, memory, and resilience to the screen.

About This Project

What We Carry unfolds inside the quiet hum of a local aid center—paperwork, rice bags, fluorescent lights, laughter in the margins. Suriya, a South Asian woman with sharp wit and a deep well of empathy, runs the frontlines with grace and grit. Her colleague Marianna, grounded and perceptive, is the first to sense something is off when a well-dressed “researcher” from the city arrives. What begins as a polite visit slowly sharpens into something heavier. What unfolds is a quiet battle of wills, where care becomes resistance and silence holds more power than speech. Through a final flashback to Suriya’s childhood in India, where she narrowly escapes initiation into the Devadasi system, we gain a deeper understanding of her inner fire and her unyielding drive to protect the vulnerable.

What We Carry tells a story we rarely get to see onscreen—one where women of color lead with instinct, dignity, and quiet strength.  It centers moments of emotional truth that are too often invisible: a glance exchanged when words fail, a joke cracked in the face of tension, a decision made in silence that protects an entire community. I’ve witnessed these moments firsthand, working in both legal and creative spaces where care becomes a quiet form of protection. What We Carry honors the people who show up, hold space, and protect others in ways that are often unseen but deeply felt.

As a dancer, actor, and storyteller working across disciplines, I view this film as part of a larger conversation I’m engaging in through movement and live performance: about women’s agency, survival, and the power of community-based care. My research into the Devadasi system as part of a larger commission with Chicago’s Prop Thtr has deeply informed this project’s themes of bodily autonomy, caste, and the politics of “What We Carry”.

This film is a tribute to the work I’ve seen across Chicago’s nonprofit community, from legal aid to arts-based outreach. It’s shaped by my personal experience supporting a dedicated immigration lawyer, and by my time as a teaching artist working with refugee communities. What We Carry honors the people who show up, hold space, and protect others in ways that are often unseen but deeply felt.

What We Carry will be filmed in Chicago with a local, multi-disciplinary creative team. The film will premiere through festivals, community screenings, and educational platforms with facilitated conversation and engagement. Your contribution directly supports a BIPOC and women-led team of Chicago artists, helps us pay fair wages, and allows us to create a high-quality short film rooted in truth and artistry. By donating, you’re not just funding a film. You’re making space for stories like this to exist—with all their nuance, vulnerability, and heart. If you believe in the power of care, in women who protect without applause, and in the quiet resistance of staying present, this story is for you.

At its heart, this film is a love letter to the women who keep our communities intact, even when no one is watching.

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $10
  SANCTUARY FRIEND: Social media shout out ($10.00 is tax deductible.)
• $25
  Above + Your name in the film credits ($25.00 is tax deductible.)
• $50
  Above + A digital mini-pack of behind-the-scenes photos + personalized digital thank-you note ($45.00 is tax deductible.)
• $100
  Above + Private early access to the finished film ($90.00 is tax deductible.)
• $250
  Above + Invitation to a live virtual Q&A with the team + a digital PDF of the shooting script ($230.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  Above + Your name credited as Associate Producer in the film & on IMDb + 2 tickets to a Chicago community screening ($470.00 is tax deductible.)
• $750
  CREATIVE COLLAB CIRCLE: Above + A 1-on-1 Zoom or in-person session with Shalaka to talk about the film, your own creative work, or to exchange ideas about storytelling, community, or movement AND Dinner with the cast and crew. ($700.00 is tax deductible.)

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Shalaka Kulkarni

Make a Wave Awardee

Shalaka Kulkarni (she/her) is an interdisciplinary dance artist who bridges the ancient and contemporary. Her work revolves around the ideas of female identity, questioning societal norms, celebrating gender fluidity, and empowering marginal voices. Kulkarni began training in Bharatnatyam in India. …

View Shalaka Kulkarni's profile

• 2 updates
• 43 supporters

• Update 1: Reached our $6000!

  Posted on September 07, 2025

   

  Thank you!!!!!! We have reached $6000! 

  3Arts will let us stretch our goal which means with your support, we are now guaranteed to receive whatever we raise. 
  
  

  Updates on production side-

  We have secured our locations and music for one of the features dance pieces. We also have secured our actors and in process to confirm our crew. 

  Update 2: Stretch ing

  Posted on September 07, 2025

   

  We’re so excited and deeply grateful for this momentum. Let’s keep it going so we can honor our cast and crew—beyond just their passion and sweat—and carry this film through post-production, where the vision truly comes to life. 

   

  Our stretch goal is to do a graceful split between 8000-10,000. 

• Thank you to the following for contributing to 3Arts with the recommendation that we support this project.

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Ajitha Reddy

  • Pooja Rangnekar

  • Elgin Bokari T. Smith

  • Ketaki Indurkar

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Sujay Mahajan

  • Tony Sancho

  • Mahesh Kulkarni

  • Kendra Mealy Wilk

  • Ratna a Joshi

  • Chinmay Dhavale

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  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Shailesh Joshi

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  • Nejdet Eden Unluata

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Guy Mikulich

  • Rich Rankin

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  • Suneel Mundle

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  • Stefan Brün

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  • Karen Louis

  • Kelly Quesada

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Ashwaty Chennat

  • Wannapa Pimtong Eubanks

  • Matthew Weinstein

  • Preeti Veerlapati

  • Sarah Najera

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  • Chaitanya Tambe

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