Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta receives SFU honorary degree

During Simon Fraser University's four days of convocation ceremonies, nine honorary degrees were given to exceptional individuals.

Among them was acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, who received an honorary degree from SFU on June 10.

Mehta is best known for her Elements trilogy, a series of three films that addressed social issues in India.

Her 1996 dramatic feature Fire launched the trilogy, with the issues of arranged marriage and same-sex attraction stirring up controversy.

She followed it up with 1998 film Earth, about the partition of India and the formation of Pakistan.

Her 2005 film, Water, completed the trilogy, with a drama about widows living in an ashram (a monastery). The film won three Canadian Screen Awards and was nominated for a best foreign-language Oscar award.

In her 2008 film Heaven On Earth, she addressed domestic violence; the film follows a Punjabi woman who travels to Toronto for an arranged marriage, but discovers her husband is abusive.

Mehta also shot the film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children in 2012.

She received a lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Film from the Governor General of Canada in 2012 and appointed to the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada in 2013.