Documentary reveals the overlooked life of activist Kasturba Gandhi

Feb. 15—Cynthia Lukas' journey is coming full circle.

The filmmaker will premiere the documentary, "Kasturba Gandhi: Accidental Activist," at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, at the Santa Fe Film Festival.

"Being selected to the Santa Fe Film Festival means the most to me because I've been showing my films here for years," Lukas says. "I'm thrilled to come back and show what I've been working on for the last five years."

Lukas says the documentary is the first feature film on Mahatma Gandhi's wife and reveals information about her and her husband that only a few Gandhi scholars have known.

The narrator is acclaimed actor of film and television, Naveen Andrews.

Lukas began the film while she lived in Santa Fe. The production took the filmmaker to India, South Africa and U.K. as she filmed at Gandhi sites, and interviewed Gandhi relatives and scholars. She worked with Santa Fe-based editor Molly McKinley.

In 2019, Lukas moved from Santa Fe to Kansas to care for her 93-year-old mother and completed the documentary. She has dedicated it to her mother, Margaret Lukas, now 96.

"When I was co-producing two documentaries on Gandhi's life, I was stunned to learn there was no feature film about her, who was with him every step of the way," Lukas says. "I made it my mission to correct history."

Born in 1869, she was the wife of 62 years to an icon of the 20th century, whose disciples include Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. But Gandhi, the Master of Nonviolence, credited her with teaching him about nonviolence. Then she became one of the first women activists in modern history, creating a legacy for women today to follow by taking action in their communities for freedom and human rights.

The film's subtitle, "Accidental Activist," references how unlikely this true story is.

When Kasturba Gandhi was growing up in a small traditional Indian village in the late 19th century, she expected to become a traditional Indian wife and mother. But when her parents married her to Mohandas Gandhi at the age of 13, her life was turned upside down. She became a wife and later a mother, and then a woman who led a march of women for women's rights, and going to prison in 1913.

"The biggest obstacle from a technical point of view is there isn't a lot of archival photographs of her," Lukas says. "I was extremely fortunate that the Gandhi Foundation was able to give me footage of her. They wanted me to make the definitive biography of her."

The documentary is slated to premiere on PBS beginning March 1 in honor of Women's History Month.

'Kasturba Gandhi: Accidental Activist'

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19

WHERE: Unitarian Universalist, 107 W. Barcelona Road, Santa Fe

HOW MUCH: $10, plus fees, at santafefilmfestival.com