AMARTYA SEN: A LIFE REEXAMINED is a documentary about the life and work of Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics, and the first Asian to win the coveted prize since it was first awarded in 1969. Not an adulatory exposition, the film is a trenchant examination of the assumptions behind Sen's Social Choice Theory, which won him the Nobel. Master of Trinity College at Cambridge, and Professor of Population and International Health at Harvard, Sen's research has ranged over a number of fields in economics and philosophy. A prolific writer of influential books such as Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (1981), Collective Choice and Social Welfare (1970), and Development as Freedom (1999), Sen is a fellow of both the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The film is framed by a conversation between Sen and Professor Kaushik Basu, Sen's student and fellow economist, and is interspersed with commentary from other Nobel Laureates, renowned scholars, and politicians who have a close understanding of the life and work of Amartya Sen. Some of those interviewed include Kenneth J. Arrow (Nobel Prize in Economics, 1972), who laid the foundation for the Social Choice Theory, Sugata Bose (Professor of History, Harvard University), Ashim Dasgupta (Finance Minister of West Bengal), Paul Samuelson (Nobel Prize in Economics, 1970), Timothy Scanlon (Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University), Manmohan Singh (Former Finance Minister of India, Congress Party), and his mother, Amita Sen. Using extensive footage from Sen's birthplace in India, his college in Calcutta, and at his current abode at the Masters Lodge in Cambridge, the documentary also captures the on-the-ground reality of rural literacy programs, on which Sen has pinned such great hope and trust for the improvement of the lives of poverty stricken masses.

"This is a superb, well-edited, and thoughtful film on Amartya Sen, one of the most eminent social thinkers of our time. It lucidly explains for the viewer the essential nature of some of Sen's contributions and the social and personal context, and background in which he made them." - Professor Pranab Bardhan, Economics Department, University of California at Berkeley, Editor of the Journal of Development Economics

"A compelling portrayal of Sen's intellectual accomplishments as well as of the world that shaped and inspired him. This is an important film." - Professor Arvind Rajagopal, Department of Media Studies, New York University

"A welcome effort. Such experimentation with alternative medium can only enrich the field and bring excitement back into the chalk-and-board classroom." - The Telegraph ** 2004 Association for Asian Studies Film Festival ** 2004 Annual South Asia Conference, University of California at Berkeley