CHRISTINA MACGILLIVRAY
ANIMATION
Exile and Belonging series: An award-winning animated, non-fiction reporting project
Directed and Reported by Christina MacGillivray
Exile and Belonging showcases the unique stories of migrants, shedding light on the diversity of individual experiences of migrants from around the world. The film uses the voices of real people, paired with animation to protect the identities of those who remain undocumented. Each story highlights the diversity of migrant experiences, yet all are unified by the uniquely human audacity to imagine a better life and strive to create it.
Exile and Belonging was created with comedian Hari Kondabolu, recently honored by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for "his ability to unite people of all backgrounds and beliefs in laughter while raising issues of social justice and inequality." The New York Times called Kondabolu "one of the most necessary political comedians working today."
See the series on the United Nations website here.
The Taj Mahal's Historic Gardens Restored
Directed and Produced by Christina MacGillivray
The site across from the Taj Mahal in Agra, India was a mystery for historians until relatively recently. Given the site across from the Taj includes a foundation mirroring the tomb, many historians speculated the Emperor originally imaged a second Taj Mahal created in completely in black marble to mirror the existing brilliant white Taj Mahal.
However, Emperor Shahjahan created a garden paradise across from the Taj that would have rivaled the gardens of Versailles being built at roughly the same time outside of Paris. This film details this mystery.
It was commissioned by the Archeological Survey of India and the World Monuments Fund as part of a four-part series detailing the restoration of key Mughal historic gardens in Agra near the Taj Mahal. Historic images used from The British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, The British Library and others.
Roli Books has chartered planes to capture images of the Taj Mahal, delved through the dustiest archives to find long forgotten portraits of Maharajas and Nawabs, founded a newspaper with the best journalists in the country and consistently led in bringing the most beautiful illustrated books to India. It is India's Taschen Books. Founded in the 1970s in New Delhi, Roli Books commissioned this film to commemorates 40 years of publishing.