HOLLYWOOD KALI: An Archival Exploration of Kali's Influence on Hollywood

THE HOLLYWOOD KALI: an archival exploration of Kali's esoteric influence on Hollywood

In this illustrated lecture, Uma Sanasaryan traces the Goddess Kali's presence in Hollywood and uncanny historical parallels across cinema and pop culture. She presents archival research and short video works on the unbroken tradition of devotional sculpture and tantric ritual at the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Founded in 1930 in the heart of Hollywood, the Society is devoted to the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, the Bengali mystic saint who worshipped Kali.

Uma Sanasaryan is a Los Angeles–based artist working under the moniker Soup Commie. Her creative practice moves between the studio and the altar: ritual statues, experimental films, interdisciplinary storytelling and food as ceremony. From 2008 to 2025 Uma sculpted the Kali statue for the annual Kali Puja at the Vedanta Society in Hollywood - an unbroken devotional and sculptural tradition that dates back to 1948. Uma's devotional practice with Kali spans more than three decades and grounds everything she makes. When the late minister of the Vedanta Society, Swami Swahananda, called her the Imagemaker, Uma took the title to heart, immersing herself in the study of sacred art, statue animation, and worship across traditions and cultures. Though her years sculpting for the Vedanta Society ended in 2025, she remains the Imagemaker in all aspects of her creative and spiritual life.

Uma documented the experience of Kali statue making in her award-winning 2021 film Imagemaker. She is currently writing The Hollywood Kali, a book grounded in the study of the Vedanta Society archives that traces sacred image-making from 18th-century Bengal to Kali's love affair with Western modernity, cinema, and Los Angeles. Her zine Thus Spake The Hollywood Kali, a companion to this ongoing Kali work, is available online and in select bookstores.

Ticket price: $12 (in-person event only)

Please email events@prs.org or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.