Local Is The New Global

She may divide her time among New York, Kampala and New Delhi, but don't call Mira Nair a global filmmaker. "I'm sitting here looking at films that are a product of global culture, and they don't have a soul," says the director of Monsoon Wedding , who was in Germany this month for the Berlin film festival. " Monsoon is so specifically local."

Okay, but it's a locality with a really busy airport. The Indian wedding of the title may be an arranged marriage accompanied by Bollywood-style singing and dancing, but the groom is an engineer who lives in Houston. Extended...