NYIFF 2018

Festival Pass: $250 general admission; $200 IAAC members.
Includes all regular screenings and special events, Centerpiece and Closing Night screenings & parties.
Does not include Opening Night.

Opening Night
NORTH AMERICA PREMIERE OF RAVI JADHAV'S NUDE
Monday May 7, 2018 @ 6.00 pm. Auditorium 1
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Avenue @ 12th Street, NYC.

May 7th Tickets: Red carpet, cocktail party, opening Night film screening, post-screening discussion with Director & cast, Afterparty.
Tickets: $50 general admission; $45 IAAC members.

May 6th + 7th Tickets(2 wonderful evenings): Gala on the Cornucopia Majesty Yacht on May 6th: Gala on board the Cornucopia Majesty Yacht. Dine and dance while sailing around the NYC harbour. Live auction, jazz band, premium bar, gourmet dinner, dance performance, Mira Nair & Salman Rushdie speak + May 7th Red carpet, cocktail party, opening Night film screening.
Tickets: $500; $380 IAAC Members.

NUDE
North America Premiere
2018 | India | 110 mins | Marathi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Ravi Jadhav
Cast - Kalyani Mulay, Madan Deodhar, Shrikant Yadav, Neha Joshi, Chhaya Kadam, Om Bhutkar, Kishor Kadam, Naseerudin Shah

Post-screening discussion with director Ravi Jadhav & cast, Afterparty

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbN-1I1j60g

Synopsis: After her husband abandons her and their 12 year old son for another woman; Yamuna is left with no choice but to move to Mumbai for survival. The job she finds is to be a nude model at an art school. She will do everything to fulfill her dream to help her son lead a successful life in future. But fearing society, she keeps her profession a secret.

Director: Ravi Jadhav was born in Mumbai. He studied Visual Communications and Graphic Design at Sir J.J. School of Art. He is and ad-man and commercial writer turned film director. Ravi’s first feature film Natrang (2010) won National Film Award for Best Film in Marathi language. His every film since then has received critical acclaim as well as commercial success. Ravi has become one of the leading filmmakers in Marathi cinema in last decade. He is associated with some of the significant works in Marathi film and advertising medium in capacity of writer, director and producer.

Tuesday May 8, 2018 @ 6.00 pm, Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

CRD
New York Premiere
2017 | India | 108 mins | Hindi, English & French (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Kranti Kanade
Cast - Mrinmayee Godbole, Vinay Sharma, Saurabh Saraswat, Abhay Mahajan, Isha Keskar.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi5mdz6xofo

Synopsis: A young dramatist rebels against his fascist tutor to form a troop of misfits - aiming to win a prestigious theatre competition. Inspired by real life event 'Purushottam' in Pune, India.

Director: Kranti Kanade is a National Award Winning Director. His new film ‘CRD’ has received rave reviews by Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter, LA Weekly, Screen Anarchy, NDTV, Times Of India, Indian Express, Film Companion, Scroll, Firstpost and others. Namrata Joshi in The Hindu says, “It boldly goes where no Indian film has gone before.” Many major film critics in India have called it a path-breaking film, unlike any seen before.

Kranti’s other film ‘GANDHI OF THE MONTH’ stars the legendary Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Taxi Driver, Youth). His children’s film MAHEK won awards around the world in festivals and CHAITRA won five National Film Awards being India’s official entry to the Student Academy Awards. He studied at UCLA and FTII. Kranti is also an Entrepreneur, a Tree planter who has planted more than 7000 trees and has helped rehabilitate more than 300 destitute children.

Reviews: "Indian film 'CRD' enchanting, audacious, indefinable & infectious." - Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
"Entrancing, vibrant, irreverent, category-defying! Kanadé an assured visual stylist!" - Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
"Allusive, elusive and by turns funny, romantic and tragic, CRD is a film tuned to the pitch of the artist's heart." - LA Weekly
"CRD, An Ethereal Exercise In Art" - ScreenAnarchy
“Subversive & fearless, Kanadé breaks all rules of filmmaking in creating CRD, which boldly goes where no Indian film has gone before.” - Namrata Joshi, The Hindu
“CRD is path-breaking! Classy & magnificently inventive! Unlike any seen in years.” - Saibal Chatterjee, NDTV
“Outstanding, Superb!” - Nandini Ramnath, Scroll
“Masterful, Sharp & Infectious!” - Trisha Gupta, Firstpost
“Hypnotic! Inner-body experience.” - Rahul Desai, Film Companion

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/CRDfilm
www.krantikanade.com

Tuesday May 8, 2018 @ 6.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Take Off
2017 | India | 132 mins | Malayalam (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Mahesh Narayan
Cast - Parvathy, Fahad Fazil, Kunchacko Boban, Asif Ali, Prakash Belawadi, Alencier Ley Lopez, Eric Zachariah

Winner: National Film Awards 2018 - Best Production Design, Special Mention Parvathy and the film.

Post-screening discussion with director Mahesh Narayan.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzYSKjxtKNg

Synopsis: Nurse Sameera, divorced mother of an 8 year old boy makes the difficult decision to take up a job in war-torn Iraq owing to financial liabilities even when her conservative family opposes her decision as she is single. She hastily gets married to her colleague Shahid, who had been romantically inclined to her and had also taken up the Iraq assignment. Ibru, her son, is unaware of parents’ divorce. When she unexpectedly discovers herself pregnant, she is concerned about her job in Iraq and Ibru’s reaction. However she sets off with Shahid and other colleagues to an unsafe country. Faisal, her ex-husband sends Ibru to Iraq to live with her and Sameera needs to explain to her son about the divorce, her remarriage and pregnancy.

Shahid gets himself transferred to Mosul so that Sameera can explain things to Ibru. However, he is taken hostage by the rebel army. She finds an unlikely ally in the Indian Ambassador to Iraq, Manoj Abraham. Soon Sameera, Ibru and her colleagues are also taken hostage in their hospital in Tikrit. Amid the bullets and bombs, Sameera leads the efforts for existence along with her embittered colleagues while the embassy wages diplomatic battles to get them safely back to Indian soil. Under the reassuring flutter of the Indian flag, the nurses are rescued and Sameera, Shahid and Ibru find themselves reunited as a family.

Director: Mahesh Narayan's editorial debut Rathrimazha bagged National award for the best director and Five Kerala State Awards. Having rapidly climbed the ladder as a renowned editor in the Indian film industry, Mahesh proved his expertise in writing as well through the film Mili, that has opened to rave reviews in Kerala. Take Off is Mahesh Narayanan’s directorial debut.

Award: International Film Festival of India 2017.
Social Media Handles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Off_(2017_film)

Tuesday May 8, 2018 @ 6.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

My Pure Land
North America Premiere
2017 | Pakistan & UK | 98 mins | Urdu (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Sarmad Masud
Cast - Suhaee Abro, Eman Malik, Syed Tanveer-Hussain, Razia Malik, Atif Akhtar Bhatti, Tayyab Azfal, Ahsen Murad, Haider Zafar.

Britain's Official Entry Best Foreign Language Film Category, 90th Academy Awards

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdY8bKCVIC0

Synopsis: MY PURE LAND is a film based on a true story. A young woman called Nazo and her mother and sister are called to defend their home after a bitter family feud leads to her father’s incarceration. In their isolated farmhouse in Pakistan, the women find themselves surrounded by armed men hired by their Uncle Mehrban to take back the land. When Nazo’s resistance leaves two of the men dead, an enraged Mehrban calls in a local ragtag militia - two hundred armed bandits. But even with only a handful of bullets left, Nazo refuses to give in...

Director: My Pure Land is Sarmad Masud's first feature. Previously his short film; Two Dosas, funded by Film London was voted best film in their London Calling Plus category by David Yates and then went on to be long listed for both a BAFTA and an Oscar after picking up numerous awards on the festival circuit; winning at London Short Film Festival, Aspen shortsfest, River to River in Florence and Shufflefest voted by Danny Boyle. Sam also wrote and directed Adha Cup which was the first Urdu language drama commissioned by Channel Four, going on to develop it as a six part TV series with the BBC.

Reviews:
https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/my-pure-land-edinburgh-review/5119386.article
http://msenscene.com/2018/02/27/pure-land-honours-pakistani-resistance-heritage/
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1596622/4-pure-land-high-point-feminism/
https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/65074/my-pure-land-one-of-the-finest-independent-films-of-pakistan-yet-forbidden-in-its-own-country/
https://www.ft.com/content/135e0e48-993d-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b

Social Media Handles: Twitter: @SamMasud37, https://en-gb.facebook.com/My-Pure-Land-441996296174816/

Tuesday May 8, 2018 @ 7 pm. Auditorium 5
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Shakespeare Wallah
1965 | India | 122 min | English
Directed by James Ivory
Producer - Ismail Merchant
Screenplay - Original Script by Ruth Pawar Jhabvala
Cast - Felicity Kendal, Madhur Jaffrey, Shashi Kapoor
Genres - Drama

Winner: Silver Bear Award for Best Actress (Madhur Jaffrey), 15th Berlin International Film Festival

Post-Screening discussion with director James Ivory and actress Madhur Jaffrey

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33CCBkosSBw

Synopsis: In 1960s post-colonial India, Tony Buckingham (Geoffrey Kendal) and his wife, Carla (Laura Liddell), are the British actor-managers of a troupe of English, Irish and Indian actors who travel the country mounting performances of Shakespeareâ€™s works. The Buckinghams find themselves grappling with a diminishing demand for their craft as the English theatre on the subcontinent is supplanted by the emerging Bollywood film movement. Meanwhile, Lizzie Buckingham (Felicity Kendal), the couple's daughter, falls in love with Sanju (Shashi Kapoor), a wealthy young Indian playboy who is also romantically involved with the glamorous but vain Bollywood movie star Manjula (Madhur Jaffrey). The Buckinghams must weigh their devotion to their craft against their concern over their daughter's future in a country which, it seems, no longer has a place for them.

Madhur Jaffrey Dubbed the “Queen of Screen and Cuisine,” Indian-born Madhur Jaffrey is an actor, food and travel writer and television presenter. In 1955, Miss Jaffrey studied at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art alongside contemporaries Diana Rigg having won a scholarship there after an audition. After two years in London, she answered an invitation to teach pantomime at St. Michael’s Playhouse in Winooski, Vermont, and then ventured to New York City, where she performed in Off-Broadway productions and short films and toured the United States as a lecturer on poetry. Madhur’s acting breakthrough came in the Merchant Ivory film Shakespeare Wallah, for which she won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actress at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival in 1965 and critical notice at the New York and London Film Festivals. She went on to act in three more Merchant Ivory productions—The Guru (1969), Heat and Dust (1983) and Cotton Mary (1999)—and holds the distinction of having introduced James Ivory and Ismail Merchant to one another in 1959 when she lived in New York. Other films Madhur has appeared in include Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Wolf (1994), Flawless (1999), A Late Quartet (2012) and, most recently, Prime(2005), Today’s Special(2009), Hiding Divya(2010). Frequently recognized for bringing Indian cuisine to the Americas with her debut cookbook, An Invitation to Indian Cooking (1973), Madhur has written more than a dozen cookbooks and appeared on several related television programs. In 2004, she was named an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her services to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and India.

Director: James Ivory was born in Berkeley, California and educated at the University of Oregon, where he majored in Architecture and Fine Arts. His first film, which he wrote, photographed and produced, was Venice: Theme and Variations (1957), a half-hour documentary made as a thesis film for a degree in cinema from the University of Southern California. James Ivory received the 2018 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me By Your Name.

In 1961, Ivory teamed up with Ismail Merchant to form Merchant Ivory Productions, with their films for the most part directed by Ivory and produced by Merchant. Ivory’s first theatrical feature for the newly formed company was The Householder (1963), based on an early novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Jhabvala also wrote the script, her first in what was to become an ongoing collaboration with Merchant Ivory. The Householder holds the distinction of being the first Indian film to be distributed worldwide by a major American Company, Columbia Pictures.

Reviews:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mini-shakespeare-wallah-review-20171214-story.html
http://variety.com/1964/film/reviews/shakespeare-wallah-1200420792/
http://www.indiewire.com/2017/10/shakespeare-wallah-restoration-merchant-ivory-poster-1201893023/
http://www.rediff.com/movies/special/a-shashi-kapoor-movie-you-must-see/20171115.html
https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/11/08/merchant-ivorys-comic-elegy-shakespeare-wallah-offers-an-inimitable-midsummer-in-india/

Tuesday May 8, 2018 @ 9.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Ajji (Granny)
New York Premiere
2017 | India | 104 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Devashish Makhija
Cast - Sushma Deshpande, Sharvani Suryavanshi, Abhishek Banerjee, Smita Tambe, Sadiya Siddiqui, Vikas Kumar, Sudhir Pandey, Jishnu Bhattacharjee.

Post-screening discussion with producer Siddharth Anand Kumar

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw1qGt6aKlI

Synopsis: Little Manda is found raped and dumped in a trash heap in her slum. Her parents are more concerned with survival than dignity and want to forget and move on. The cops are powerless to help as the rapist is a local politician's son. But Manda's grandmother, Ajji, cannot accept the injustice of it all. Can a frail, arthritic and powerless old woman grapple with the big bad wolf? Is there still hope for justice in a cruel world? Can anything act as a deterrent to rape? Ajji is a parable of our times. There are no easy answers.

Director: Devashish Makhija is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, graphic artist, and poet - best known for writing and directing the feature film Oonga which had its world premiere at the New York Indian Film Festival in 2013. He has assiste Anurag Kashyap in Black Friday and written numerous screenplays, notably Avik Mukherjee's Bhoomi (2009), and has authored a series of 49 short stories as the anthology Forgetting published by Harper Collins and directed the multiple-award winning short films Taandav, Agli Baar, El'ayichi, Absent and Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro.

Social Media Handles: https://twitter.com/YoodleeFilms, https://www.facebook.com/yoodleefilms, https://www.instagram.com/yoodleefilms/, http://www.saregama.com/yoodleefilms

Tuesday May 8, 2018 @ 9.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Venus
2017 | Canada | 95 mins | English
Directed by - Eisha Marjara
Cast - Debargo Sanyal, Jamie Mayers, Pierre Yves Cardinal, Amber Goldfarb, Gordon Warnecke, Peter Miller, Zena Daruwalla, Mark Ofearghail.

Post-Screening discussion with director Eisha Marjara

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4keGKCASsrw

LOGLINE: Genders, generations and cultures collide in this comedy about the modern family unit. Venus is a beautifully and heartfelt story of a South Asian transgender woman, who sees her life flipped on its head when she meets a “white” teenaged son she didn’t know she had.

SYNOPSIS: SID is under pressure to marry a nice Indian girl and raise a family. Sid’s Indian mother yearns to have grandchildren. Her dreams are about to come true, but not in the way she could’ve ever imagined. When Sid comes out as a woman, a 14 year old boy named RALPH literally shows up at her door announcing that Sid is his parent.

Ralph is surprised to discover that his biological father is now a woman, but thinks having a transgender parent is pretty cool. But Ralph hasn’t told his mother and step dad that he’s tracked down Sid. And then there is Sid’s boyfriend DANIEL, who has yet to tell his family of his relationship with her. Daniel is nowhere near ready to accept Ralph as a step son and complicate his life further.

Sid’s coming out has a snowball effect that forces everyone out of the closet and become real. What happens when gender, generations and cultures collide to create a truly modern family?

Director: With a background in photography, Montreal-based Eisha Marjara first drew attention with the witty and satirical The Incredible Shrinking Woman. But it was her feature NFB docudrama Desperately Seeking Helen that established her as a groundbreaking filmmaker. The film received the Critic’s Choice Award at the Locarno Film Festival and the Jury Prize at the München Dokumentarfilm Festival. It has been described as “one of the most auspicious film debuts on the Canadian scene.” Her German-Canadian The Tourist (2006) was nominated as best short at the Female Eye Film Festival and her transgender drama House for Sale (2012) received multiple awards at various festivals. Her photo series and essay on the Air India tragedy of flight 182 Remember me Nought was featured in Descant magazine. Marjara has also authored her debut novel Faerie, (Arsenal Pulp Press) about a teenager struggling with anorexia. Faerie has received rave reviews in Canadian and American press. Marjara was recently selected for the 2017 TIFF Studio. She is developing her second feature Calorie with Compass Productions. Calorie was also selected for the 2016 Goa Film Bazaar co production market and for the Praxis Screenwriters Lab.

Festival Awards:
Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) EDA award for Best Female Directed Feature - Whistler Film Festival 2017
Audience Award for Best Feature - Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival 2018
Best Narrative Feature - Cinequest 2018

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/Venusfeaturefilm/
http://compassproductions.ca/en/portfolio/venus/

Reviews:
http://montrealrampage.com/venus-deftly-humorous-humanely-affecting/
https://www.straight.com/movies/1001601/whistler-film-festival-2017-venus
http://queerguru.com/2018/04/venus
https://www.ebosscanada.com/wff17-interview-with-eisha-marjara-director-of-venus/
http://desibuzzbc.com/2017/12/06/eisha-marjara-wins-awfj-eda-best-female-directed-narrative-feature-for-venus-as-whistler-film-festival-announced-its-2017-winners/

Co-presented by NewFest

Tuesday May 8, 2018 @ 9.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Shorts B - Dramatic Stories 1

Perspective
2017 | India | 8 mins | Marathi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Adinath Kothare
Cast - Dinesh Koyande, Prashant Choudappa, Sohan Nandurdikar, Swanandi Tikekar, Amar Khamkar, Arun Hornekar, Umesh Bagade, Arjun Sorte.

Synopsis: The consequences of what happens when a Hindu Idol Deity Procession and a Muslim Death Procession cross paths on a busy junction of a City in India... is a matter of 'Perspective'.

Director: Adinath Kothare is an actor and a producer in the Indian Film Industry. He has acted in over 15 Feature Films and has produced 2 Feature Films and 4 Television Shows.

He has always sought to tackle challenging subjects for films or television as an actor or a producer. The Short Film Perspective is Adinath's Directorial debut. In the currently ongoing national scenario of religious intolerance, Adinath witnessed an incidence on the busy streets of his hometown, 'Mumbai', which he felt was the need of the hour to be expressed in the form of a Short Film. This Film is a genuine effort by Adinath to reach out to the people influenced by the politically propagated religious intolerance in India and to give them a Perspective.

Social Media Handles: https://m.facebook.com/addinathmkothare/?ref=bookmarks, https://mobile.twitter.com/adinathkothare, https://www.instagram.com/adinathkothare/?hl=en

and

Mandi (The Market)
2017 | India | 11 mins | Marathi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Yashowardhan Mishra
Cast - Kailash Waghmare, Shrikant Yadav, Kunj Gutka, Mayank Khurana.

Synopsis: Danaji, a farmer from the state of Maharashtra in rural India, is accompanied by his eight-year old son Ganya to the city to sell his onions at the Mandi (market). While the child is enamoured by the sights and sounds of the place, the farmer has to fight a Kafkaesque battle to find the right price for his produce.

Director: Yashowardhan Mishra is an independent filmmaker working in Mumbai. A filmmaking graduate from Xavier’s Institute of Communication. His short films ‘Mahanagari’ and ‘Toot-ta Judta Aadmi’ have been screened as a part of the official competition at the MAMI Mumbai film festival in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Awards: Mumbai International Film Festival 2018, Mumbai Film Festival 2017.

and

Humming Bird
2018 | India | 14 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Ajitpal Singh
Cast - Vinamrta Rai, Yogi Singha

Synopsis: Humming Bird Shot in Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, Humming Bird is about a rural couple who is living a life of quiet desperation in a Himalayan village, when the man takes a decision which will tip them both over the edge.

Director: Ajitpal Singh was 8 years when his father ran a cinema hall. After studying chemistry, learning theatre and photography, he chose filmmaking. He was selected for Sundance's India Screenwriter's lab 2012. He also was the youngest member of Indian delegation at Munich Film Festival 2009, selected by Goethe Institute. He was also selected for 2007 Berlinale Talent Campu's New Delhi edition. Ajitpal Singh has worked as an associate director for Gurgaon, dialogue writer for Once Again. He has also worked as researcher for 16 German documentary films in India.

and

Majaal Hai
2017 | India | 16 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Umang Vyas
Cast - Dayashankar Pandey, Rahul Handa, Shreya Gupta.

Synopsis: The night begins just as every other for Pandey, the earnest security guard of a colony of bungalows. He waits for his regular tea vendor Birju to re-energise him with his daily cup of tea. Birju arrives late that night to Pandey’s annoyance. Across the road, Faisal & Aslam hiding as Faisal convinces Aslam to commit a robbery. Aslam breaks inside the bungalow, as he begins to steal things from different rooms and encounters the old lady who is fast asleep, he hears a sound. A drunk man has walked into the house. Aslam hides as the drunk man who is the old lady’s grandson Rahul takes up from where Aslam left rummaging through things. The old lady wakes and tries to stop him but their argument becomes serious as Rahul tries to kill her. Aslam’s conscience strikes as he pushes Rahul away but is unable to save the lady. A shocked Rahul screams out as Aslam makes a run for it. Outside he is blocked by Pandey and Aslam is shot down by Pandey. As Aslam’s body lies lifeless we also see the old lady’s lifeless body but out of nowhere, she wakes up with a cough.

Director: Umang Vyas is known for his work on movies like Mohenjo Daro (2016), Joker (2012) and Hasmukh Pighal Gaya.

Producer: Sakshi Shail is an Indian producer and filmmaker based in Mumbai. Her Production Company Proof Mountain Media Private Limited specializes in films for global audiences on Indian society, Social Awareness whether in economic, social or cultural spheres. Her Production Company Proof Mountain Media is producing premium engaging Content for campaign, web-series, short-films, documentary, feature films, post-production and animation.

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/Majaal-Hai-128731731085609/, https://www.facebook.com/Proofmountainmedia/, http://www.proofmountain.com

and

ReFraction
2017 | Australia | 18 mins | English
Directed by - Mirko Grillini
Cast - Kaushik Das, Heath Bergersen, Kaleenah Edwards, Nilanjana X, Paul Seipel.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIYpWCNoRK8

Synopsis: ReFraction follows Jay Cooper, a successful lawyer, raised by foster parents from the young age of eleven. As a child, the authorities separated him from his indigenous mother, after she killed his brother in a freak accident. Jay returns to his native homeland to bury his estranged mother whom he had not seen for the last thirty years, when an unexpected turn of events ﬁnds him hostage to a mad knife-wielding stranger. The unlikely duo embark on a dangerous journey of redemption that could lead them both to their eventual demise.

Director's Statement: As an immigrant from Italy to the wonderful country of Australia, I have lived through all of the many challenges of integrating into a new lifestyle, new culture and new language. This transitional period was only marginal compared to the ordeal that countless souls face when looking for a new and more peaceful life in other lands. When I was asked to direct ReFraction, I felt I had much to contribute, not only because of my personal experiences but because of my interest in the world’s current socio-economic shift.

This ideal of a global community we continue to strive to achieve, is still far from being realized as human beings are still overly attached to superficial differences such as skin color, language, theories and religions, etc. Until the time comes when we will all be able to look at someone in the eyes and value them as human beings just like ourselves, until we have the courage to show love and respect and embrace all our differences, the world will never come together. ReFraction shows the power of what can be achieved when 2 strangers leave aside their different perceptions of the world and work together to aid those who are in desperate need of our help.

This is a story that captured my heart from day one and I absolutely loved the whole process and the powerful collaboration with co-producer and co-lead actor Kaushik Das, our very talented Production Designer Amanda and the rest of the amazing cast and crew. I will never forget my time working on this project and I hope it will have people thinking about what good can be done within our own ever expanding sphere of influence. Our past does not determine our future.

Director: Mirko Grillini is an Italian/Australian actor and director with almost 20 years experience in the film industry. Mirko has had a prolific career in front of the camera featuring in countless television shows and films. Some of his credits include The Leftovers, The Chronicles of Narnia, Neighbours, Home & Away, Wanted and Underbelly.

Mirko soon discovered his love of film extended to behind the camera as well and so began his passion for directing. ReFraction marks his first solo directorial venture.

As an immigrant himself, Mirko understands fully the struggle of having to start life all over again in a new country and has grown a strong connection to this incredibly heartwarming story.

Reviews: Goldfields actor stars in indie film festival favourite, Film honouring Quanadamooka wins seven awards, REFRACTION MAKING WAVES, "ReFraction has social impact" Interview with Mirko Grillini on SBS Italian Radio, "ReFraction" Interview with Mirko Grillini on SBS Italian Radio, REFRACTION : CHANGING THE DIRECTION OF AUSTRALIAN CINEMA.

Awards: Dhaka International Film Festival 2018, All Lights India International Film Festival 2017, Australian Screen Industry Network Awards 2017, Delhi International Film Festival 2017, Actors Awards in L.A. 2017, The IndieFest Film Awards in USA 2017,Top Shorts Film Festival in USA 2017.

Social Media Handles: http://www.facebook.com/refractionthemovie, http://www.twitter.com/refractionmovie, http://www.instagram.com/refractionthemovie, http://www.vimeo.com/refractionthemovie, http://www.refractionthemovie.com

and

Fifteen Years Later
2017 | USA | 18 mins | English
Directed by - Manish Dayal
Cast - Manish Dayal, Tracy Mulholland, Matt McGorry and Rachel Brosnahan.

Synopsis: FIFTEEN YEARS LATER works to deepen discussion and education on the issues of race and police brutality in our current political climate. Starring Manish Dayal (The Hundred-Foot Journey, Halt And Catch Fire, Viceroy’s House), Matt McGorry (How To Get Away With Murder, Orange Is The New Black), Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, House Of Cards, Manhattan, Beautiful Creatures), and Tracy Mulholland (Crazy, Stupid, Love., Grace Note). Music from the Swet Shop Boys.

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER Sam and Jason, two young men who have absorbed the psychological effects of post-9/11 America in ways they may not fully understand, find their buried issues and resentments bubbling to the surface when their lives intersect during a police traffic stop. Starring Manish Dayal (THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY, VICEROY’S HOUSE), Matt McGorry (TV’s How To Get Away With Murder, Orange Is The New Black), Tracy Mulholland (CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE, GRACE NOTE), and Rachel Brosnahan (TV’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, House Of Cards).

Director: Manish Dayal starred as Hassan Kadam in THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY opposite Helen Mirren for DreamWorks Studios. The film is based on the best-selling Richard Morais novel of the same name, directed by Lasse Hallstram and produced by Stephen Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey. He most recently played Vijay Nadeer in Marvel’s AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D on ABC, and Ryan Ray in the 3rd season of the AMC series HALT AND CATCH FIRE.

Now Playing, Manish currently stars in the feature film, VICEROY’S HOUSE, for IFC Films, Path and BBC Films alongside Hugh Bonneville and Gillian Anderson. Manish has also optioned the book STRINGER: A Reporter’s Year in the Congo adapted by Matthew Billingsly. He is set to produce and star. Manish makes his directorial debut with the short film, FIFTEEN YEARS LATER. Currently, he stars as Dr. Devon Pravesh in the new FOX drama series, THE RESIDENT.

Social media Handle:
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/fifteenyearslater
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/fifteenyearslaterMOVIE

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Al-war
2017 | India | 19 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Jaideep Yadav
Cast - Arun Kumar, Ravinder Kumar.

Synopsis: In a small town in northern India, a man named Ikhlaq is going to open his dairy shop to fulfill his dream. He has worked hard and saved money from years for this, and finally the day has come when he has to buy some livestock and just live his life with his wife and daughter happily. But what awaits for him is against the language of humanity.

Director: Jaideep Yadav is born in Uttar Pradesh, and grew up with his parents between Amethi and Chandigarh, where his father is still working as a Government employee. He completed his post graduation in English literature; only to come to the conclusion that filmmaking was his real calling. Jaideep’s fondness for reading and writing led him to Mumbai with sole dream of becoming a filmmaker. Jaideep is working as an assistant director since last 5 Years. He has assisted various filmmakers including Oscar nominated Norwegian director Iram Haq.

Currently he is assisting one of the most renowned director of Hindi film industry Mr. Raj Kumar Gupta. Al-war is his directorial debut.

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Moongfali Wala (The Peanut Seller)
2017 | Germany & India | 19 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Etienne Sievers
Cast - Shoaib Lokhandwala, Faisal Mohammed, Amit Vashisht, Moon Moon Singh, Shubham Srivastan.

Synopsis: Orphaned young ragpicker SHAKEEL, survives in the busy streets of New Delhi by selling scrap newspapers. When a chance encounter leads him to briefly recognize MOHAN, a man from the train on which he once lost his mother, Shakeel engages the services of a local detective to determine Mohan’s whereabouts. But Shakeel’s limited financial resources and his isolated position in society reduce his chances of success. Growing increasingly frustrated, Shakeel’s rowdy behavior and subjugating attitude towards women take a toll on his friendship with the cheerful maid NEELA. When Shakeel eventually manages to locate, confront and question Mohan, the ensuing confrontation with his past ultimately shatters his world view and leads him to make amends with the girl he likes.

Director's Statement: With approximately 20 million children or about 4% of the country’s population, India is home to more orphans than any other country in the world. Only a fraction of these cases relate to the death of a parent – the majority of children have fallen victim to accidental or deliberate abandonment. I came into close contact with the faces behind these statistics when shooting my short film “Dilli Dreams” in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in 2011. While casting actors for my film at Mira Nair’s orphanage programme, the Salaam Baalak Trust, I got to know many of the individual fates of the children there. I began to sense a need and responsibility to tell their stories but I wanted to do so without sentimentalizing the issue. Roughly during the same time a string of assaults on women in India garnered worldwide media attention.

The Peanut Seller addresses both these topics and explores what effects the hard life of an orphan can have on his “socio-political” compass and his conduct in life. At the heart of The Peanut Seller, therefore, lies not only the search of a boy for his mother but also his journey of finding his true vocation, casting off the shackles of his past and re-calibrating his attitude towards the female gender.

Director: Etienne Sievers was born in Berlin but grew up predominantly in India. After deliberations about becoming a jazz drummer, he studied filmmaking in Germany and England with a DAAD scholarship. Etienne’s short film “Dilli Dreams” (2012) was award nominated at numerous international festivals and favorably reviewed by the press. It was broadcast on TV, VOD and was released in theatres across France. Etienne’s recent feature film screenplay “Tin Can Buffaloes” advanced to the top five percent of the 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition and is currently in pre-production.

Social Media Handles: https://twitter.com/etiennesievers, http://www.etiennesievers.com.

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Mehram
2017 | India | 33 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Zain Anwar
Cast - Farida Jalal, Rajit Kapoor, Akash Arora, Sushma Seth.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB6clBTU95E

Synopsis: Under the Saudi Arabian laws, women without a ‘Mehram’ (a male blood relative) are forbidden to perform the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. This film is the extraordinary story of Aamna (played by Farida Jalal) who decides to struggle against the patriarchal system to claim her right to perform the Hajj. Will she be able to succeed in her struggle? Packed with powerful performances by veteran actors like Rajit Kapoor and Sushma Seth, the film is a portrayal of Aamna’s journey.

Director: An alumnus of AJK MCRC, Zain extensively worked in various capabilities with organizations like NDTV, The Hindu, Dainik Bhaskar, Times Internet and RED FM before starting his own independent venture. His experience as a theater artist is more than 8 years and he has done various shows all over India, including the prestigious Kala Ghoda International Festival. Zain has also worked with street artists in close association with organizations like Navjyoti Foundation, Save The Children and Hope Worldwide Foundation. Deeply inspired by the works of Allama Iqbal, Rabindranath Tagore, Amir Khusrow, Bertolt Brecht and Vishal Bhardwaj, he wants to tell stories deeply woven in the socio-political milieu of changing India through a cinematic appeal that resonates across all sections of the society.

Reviews: http://www.indulgexpress.com/entertainment/cinema/2017/dec/08/short-film-mehram-explores-gender-bias-in-religion-5222.html,https://www.pressreader.com/india/ht-city/20171209/282248075900315 http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/sunday-pioneer/backpack/im-used-to-being-call ed-byomkesh-bakshi.htm https://www.socialnews.xyz/2017/12/21/faridas-mehram-to-be-screened-in-us-egypt/, https://dailyworld.in/faridas-mehram-to-be-screened-in-us-egypt/, https://www.canindia.com/faridas-mehram-to-be-screened-in-us-egypt/

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/MehramTheFilm/?ref=br_rs, https://twitter.com/MehramTheFilm, http://www.sgdreammedia.com, https://www.facebook.com/shweta.bhuchar, https://www.facebook.com/Grv42, https://m.facebook.com/addinathmkothare/?ref=bookmarks, https://mobile.twitter.com/adinathkothare, https://www.instagram.com/adinathkothare/?hl=en

Wednesday May 9, 2018 @ 6.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Bhasmasur
New York Premiere
2017 | India | 75 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Nishil Sheth
Cast - Raghav Dutt, Mittal Chouhan, Imran Rasheed, Trimala Adhikari, Bhushan Vikas, Ravi Goswami.

Post-Screening discussion with director Nishil Sheth

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeNk4ie0IQA

Synopsis: Dhaanu, a villager, heavily in financial debt, stealthily returns from the city to the village one night. He is hiding from a moneylender, who he owes a handsome sum of money. Pushed against the wall, he decides to sell his donkey, Bhasmasur, in the city, to fetch a good price for the animal. Dhaanu's son Tipu, who yearns to go the annual fair in the city, shares a very strong bond with the donkey, Bhasmasur. Tipu in his own childish ways tries to stop Bhasmasur from being sold, but remains unsuccessful. Dhaanu decides to take Tipu to the city too. The trio set off on a journey from the in lands of Rajasthan towards the city, by foot. Along the journey, numerous events take place, bringing the absent father and his son closer. But, will Dhaanu be able to make this bond last?

Director: Nishil Sheth, hails from Bangalore, India. He completed his engineering and moved to pursue cinema by studying editing at Flash Frames Visuals, Bangalore. Soon after he completed his engineering, he pursued direction at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai. He has written, directed and edited short films and corporate videos. Bhasmasur is his first outing as a director for a feature film.

Wednesday May 9, 2018 @ 6.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Balekempa (The Bangle Seller)
North America Premiere
2018 | India | 103 mins | Kannada (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Ere Gowda
Cast - Saumyananda Sahi, Nagaraju D.P., Chandrashekar C.S., Jnanesh, Bhagyashree.

Winner: FIPRESCI Award at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2018

Post-Screening discussion with director Ere Gowda

Synopsis: Kempanna, the bangle seller, roams the countryside adorning the hands and faces of women with beauty products. Yet he seems to have little time for his own wife, Saubaghya. Indeed, the only activity that husband and wife do together is taking care of Kempanna's invalid mother. Otherwise, Kempanna seems to prefer the company of his childhood friend, Hanuma - in the quiet and private setting of Hanuma's farm. Meanwhile, Saubaghya’s only companion is the neighbour's teenage son Mahesha, who delivers the milk and can't quite control his hormones. The now long married couple’s inability to conceive is a concern for Saubaghya’s mother – who goes to the local deity and prays for the boon of a child. However, without Kempanna’s participation, prayers have little effect.

When Saubaghya insists on getting a Life Insurance and disappears to her mother’s house, Kempanna has to face what is really wrong with their marriage. For behind every frustration there seem to lurk burning desires. Who is concealing the greater secret - husband, or wife? While society watches, will a child be born?

Director: Ere Gowda was born to a farming family in the Mandya District of Karnataka in 1981, and came to filmmaking only much later in life. His Curriculum Vitae includes jobs ranging from house servant, office boy, driver, security guard and gardener to filmmaker. Ere Gowda rose to fame with the film ‘Thithi’, directed by Raam Reddy - for which he is credited as the Script-Writer, Second Unit Director, Line Producer and Casting Director. For his contribution to the film, Ere Gowda won the Asia New Talent Award 2016 at the Shanghai International Film Festival for ‘Best Screenplay’, as well as the Karnataka State Award for ‘Best Dialogue Writer’. ‘Balekempa’ is Ere Gowda’s directorial debut.

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/yuvi.gowda.9
https://www.facebook.com/vivek.gomber

Wednesday May 9, 2018 @ 6.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

The Summer of Miracles
North America Premiere
2017 | India | 116 mins | Malayalam (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Prasanth Vijay
Cast - Anish Pallyal, Arya Manikandan, Chandra Kiran GK, Reina Maria, Anu Abraham, Jeet Minifence, Printo KV, Rajeev Ramakrishnan, Richin Thomas

Winner: Kerala State Awards 2018 Special Mention, Acting (Chandra Kiran GK); London Asian Film Festival 2018, Best Debut Film

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCdIIz9k5Go

Synopsis: Inspired by the H.G.Wells novel, nine-year-old Anand is obsessed with becoming invisible and dabbles in increasingly dangerous experiments. The tactics of his distraught family pushes him further into a world of his imagination. Adding to the mystery is the arrival of his teenager cousin who seems to have a secret of her own. 'The Summer of Miracles' unfolds in two narratives. The manifest one speaks of loss, the bite of reality, and the imaginary worlds we enclose ourselves in to find reprieve. Meanwhile a latent narrative, in which everyone is a metaphor, unravels the stark political reality of contemporary India.

Wednesday May 9, 2018 @ 7 pm. Auditorium 5
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Heat and Dust
1983 | India | 122 min | English
Directed by - James Ivory
Produced by- Ismail Merchant
Screenplay - Ruth Pawar Jhabvala (based on a Booker prize winning novel by Ruth Pawar Jhabvala)
Cast - Greta Scacchi, Julie Christie, Shashi Kapoor
Genres - Drama, Romance

Post-Screening discussion with director James Ivory and actress Madhur Jaffrey

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVAqXzxl8BI

Synopsis: Heat and Dust follows a pair of intertwined stories about two Englishwomen living in India more than fifty years apart. In 1923, Olivia (Greta Scacchi) shares an uninspired marriage with Douglas Rivers (Christopher Cazenove), an English civil servant in the colonial India of the 1920s, which leads to her embarking on an affair with Nawab of Khatm (Shashi Kapoor), a romantic but decadent minor Indian prince. In 1982, Anne (Julie Christie), Olivia's grand-niece, travels to India to unravel the mystery of Olivia’s life, which her family regarded as "some thing dark and terrible." While there, Anne discovers—and then seems to repeat—the scandal that her independent-minded ancestor caused two generations before, prompting Anne to re-assert her own independence five decades later.

Shashi Kapoor Born in Calcutta, India in 1938, during the British Raj, Shashi Kapoor is a member of the famed Kapoor family, a film dynasty in India’s Bollywood cinema. A prolific stage-trained actor, Kapoor spent much of the early part of his career performing in his father Prithviraj Kapoor’s company’s plays and films and his actor-director brother Raj Kapoor’s movies. He has appeared in more than 200 Indian films, but remains best known across the world for his performances in Merchant-Ivory’s productions, including The Householder (1963), Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Bombay Talkie (1970), Heat and Dust (1983) and The Deceivers (1988). Kapoor has also worked as a film director and assistant director in the Hindi cinema. Retired since 1999, Kapoor was awarded the 2014 Dadasaheb Phalke Award, making him the third member of his family to receive the highest award in Indian Cinema, following his father and brother.

Director: James Ivory was born in Berkeley, California and educated at the University of Oregon, where he majored in Architecture and Fine Arts. His first film, which he wrote, photographed and produced, was Venice: Theme and Variations (1957), a half-hour documentary made as a thesis film for a degree in cinema from the University of Southern California. James Ivory received the 2018 Oscar for Best Screenplay for “Call Me By Your Name”.

In 1961, Ivory teamed up with Ismail Merchant to form Merchant Ivory Productions, with their films for the most part directed by Ivory and produced by Merchant. Ivory’s first theatrical feature for the newly formed company was The Householder (1963), based on an early novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Jhabvala also wrote the script, her first in what was to become an ongoing collaboration with Merchant Ivory. The Householder holds the distinction of being the first Indian film to be distributed worldwide by a major American Company, Columbia Pictures.

Reviews:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/heat-and-dust-1983
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/15/movies/screen-heat-and-dust-set-in-india.html
https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/heat-and-dust
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-heat-and-dust-review-20170831-story.html

Wednesday May 9, 2018 @ 9.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

The Hungry
New York Premiere
2017 | India & UK | 100 mins | Hindi & English (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Bornila Chatterjee
Cast - Naseeruddin Shah, Tisca Chopra, Neeraj Kabi, Arjun Gupta, Sayani, Antonio Aakeel, Suraj Sharma.

Post-Screening discussion with director Bornila Chatterjee, and co-scriptwriter and producer Tanaji Dasgupta

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjBqPe3iGvk

Synopsis: The Hungry follows Tulsi Joshi, a widow and bride to be who comes to her own wedding seeking revenge for the brutal murder of her first born son. Based on Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. THE HUNGRY is about the violence that exists between power and love - a macabre fairytale set in the elite circles of north India.

Director: Bornila Chatterjee is a writer and filmmaker who divides her time between Brooklyn and Calcutta. Her film Let’s Be Out, The Sun Is Shining premiered at the 2012 New York Indian Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. She is a 2014 fellow of the Sundance Institute / Mumbai Mantra Screenwriters Lab and holds a BFA in Film and Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Social media handles:
https://www.facebook.com/TheHungryFilm
https://twitter.com/theHungryFilm or @theHungryFilm

Reviews:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/hungry-review-1042523
https://www.anokhimedia.com/anokhi-magazine/anokhi-magazine-weekly-features-issue-80/tisca-chopra-and-naseeruddin-shah-shines-in-the-hungry/
http://screenanarchy.com/2018/01/j-hurtados-16-favorite-indian-films-of-2017-gallery.html
https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-hungry-toronto-review/5122138.article

Wednesday May 9, 2018 @ 9.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Shorts A - LGBTQ Stories

Mehndi
2018 | USA | 4 mins | English
Directed by - Sudeshna Sen
Cast - Rachelle Henry, Rosario Rieger, Kiran Dhillon.

Synopsis: On the threshold of womanhood, amidst the bright colorful flurry of an Indian bridal shower, two young girls pass a secret designed to alter their lives forever.

Director: Sudeshna Sen’s debut film Julia's Farm is currently streaming at PBS affiliate KCTS9.org. MEHNDI is her third short film. Besides her own films, she has worked on several productions- Sadie (dir. Megan Griffiths SXSW 2018) Mopz ( dir. Todd Rohal SIFF 2017) and Auto (dir Steven Schardt TriBeCa 2017) to name a few. Sudeshna is the Board President at Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum. Previously she was Professor of Japanese literature and Visual Culture at University of Washington and University of Utah.

Social Media Handles: www.sudeshnasen.com,
https://www.facebook.com/MEHNDIfilm/

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Sariwala
2017 | India & USA | 9 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Shayon Maitra
Cast - Mansi Jain, Prem Parija, Alka Chhatwal, Jiya Bhardwaj, Munish Bhardwaj, Jigme Tenzing.

Synopsis: Raghu is a poor boy who works in a sari shop. The highlight in his life is an ornate sari that he is obsessed with. One day, he accompanies his boss, Kishan to bridal party where the mother of the bride and the bride, herself, choose saris for the wedding. Raghu tries his best to hide his sari but it is noticed by the bride. He is crushed to lose his prized possession to these women, who don't understand its true value.

Director: Shayon Maitra is an editor, director & screenwriter, who graduated from Columbia University’s MFA Film Program. He also holds a BA in Economics from The University of Chicago. Prior to filmmaking, Shayon worked in the world of finance, until he decided to follow his passion for cinema and film. He has directed and edited many short films that have played in festivals across the world. Shayon currently works as a professional editor in New York.

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Arrangement
2017 | USA | 15 mins | English
Directed by - Molly Karna
Cast - Evan Carter, Isabella Schiller, Keisha Bissram.

Synopsis: Two lovers, Priya and Zoe, have a last conversation before Priya has to leave for the airport.

Director: Molly Karna is a writer and director based in New York. After earning a degree in Engineering at Columbia University, Molly moved to Mumbai as a Fulbright Scholar, performing research in maternal health and listening to the stories of pregnant women in slums. This experience, and many others, have driven Molly to collect and share the stories of women of color. Arrangement is Molly's first film.

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The Homestay
2017 | USA | 12 mins | English
Directed by - Priyanka Mattoo
Cast - Bernard White, Max Jenkins, Meera Syal, Gabe Delahaye, Ravi Patel, Sujata Day, Douglas Porter.

Synopsis: THE HOMESTAY is the story of a sheltered older Indian couple who visit their son in the U.S. for the first time, and bungle their apartment rental, mistakenly renting one room in a house, hosted by a gay couple and their dog. Initially horrified by their hosts' lifestyle (as well as their pet), they overcome their bias to realize there are bigger problems in their future: they can't stand their son's fiancée, who they've been pushing as the perfect Indian bride.

Director: Priyanka Mattoo is a comedy writer and director in Los Angeles. She was formerly an agent at UTA and WME, as well as Jack Black’s partner at their production company, Electric Dynamite. She holds degrees in Italian, and Law from the University of Michigan. Priyanka grew up in India, England, and Saudi Arabia, before moving to the U.S. in high school. She now lives in Venice (California) with her husband and toddler.

Social Media Handles: http://homestayfilm.com, Instagram: maxjenkinsyall, showmetheravi, sujataday. Twitter: @maxjenkinsyall, @showmetheravi, @sujataday, @naanking, @meerasyal.

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Maacher Jhol (The Fish Curry)
2017 | India | 13 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Abhishek Verma
Cast - Antariksh Jain, Jayesh Bhosale, Suraj Ghosh, Deepa Kumar, Ajay Singhal, Amar Chaudhary.

Winner: National Film Award 2018 - Best Animation Film

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qigju6mX000

Synopsis: A young man Lalit Ghosh, 28, decides to come-out to his parents. He is in love with a man, his very own room partner, Ashutosh Gautam. He plans his day by cooking his father’s favorite dish, the traditional fish curry (Maacher Jhol) and that by learning from a famous radio cook show. He prepares the dish with effort and serves his father the delicious fish curry and confronts his sexuality over the dinner table.

The family accepting an individual being a homosexual is a difficult task, specially for parents. The societal structure and prejudices related to homosexuality is huge around us, specially in Indian societies. Acceptance of one’s sexuality by their closed ones matters a lot to an individual. Will Lalit’s dad love the delicious fish curry?

Production Notes: Complete Hand drawn Film. Film The fish curry (Maacher Jhol) is highly inspired from food and spices. Food and spices is an integral part of Indian culture and many of the living aspects depends on the meal. In order to animate the scene of the making of the fish curry. The director cooked and failed in making the fish curry in real. But it came out pretty well in animation. The film is made with 8000+ drawings.

Director: Abhishek Verma is an independent animator and animation filmmaker. He has passed out from School of Design-IDC, IIT Bombay in 2014. He specializes in communication and animation film design. He has a special interest in typography, experimental narrative and illustration. He loves screenwriting and experimental narrative.

His previous animation short CHASNI- the sugar syrup has been screened in over 37+ festivals including Animafest Zagreb, Mumbai International Film festival, TASI, IDSFFK-Kerala, Chitrakatha and many more. The film has won total 10 awards national & international. His upcoming project is an animation feature tentatively named "Oh my dog!".

Awards: International animation Festival & MIFA in Annecy 2017, World festival of animation in ANIMAFEST-ZAGREB, Kashish International Film festival in Mumbai 2017.

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/MaacherJhol, https://www.facebook.com/vermatisans, Instagram: vermatisans. Twitter: @vermatisans, https://twitter.com/MaacherJhol?lang=en

Reviews: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/international-animated-film-festival-abhishek-verma-maacher-jhol/1/968366.html http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/nothing-fishy-about-this-director-animator-abhishek-vermans-movies-and-bengali-roots-4723436/

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Khol
2017 | USA | 12 mins | English
Directed by - Faroukh Virani
Cast - Shawn Parikh, Anna Khaja, Sarayu Blue, Jason Rogel, Sterling Jones.

Synopsis: An estranged son, Vijay, must return to his small hometown in New Mexico after 10 years to confront his family after his father's sudden passing. Tightly holding onto his armor of detachment after years of alienation and bitter feelings, Vijay sees any connection with his mother as utterly impossible. A poignant tale about the destructive force of parental rejection and the unexpected paths to forgiveness that may reveal themselves if we stay open to the possibility.

Director: Faroukh Virani is a Los Angeles-based director and editor who has completed studies in Film Production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts (MFA) and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (BFA). Faroukh serves as an editor on CW’s series ”iZombie,” and has prior assistant editor credits on “The Resident,” and “Eight Days a Week,” a documentary about The Beatles’ touring years. Faroukh’s USC thesis film, “Vimana”, has screened at various film festivals, including the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, CAAMFest, and PBS’ Online Film Festival.

Social Media Handle: Shawnparikh.com/khol

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Monogamish
2017 | USA | 14 mins | English
Directed by - Nardeep Khurmi
Cast - Sachin Bhatt, Evan Todd, Nishi Munshi, Chris Low.

Synopsis: MONOGAMISH follows Sagar and Nishi, a sexually fluid, Indian pair who are not in a 'typical' relationship. Although the intimacy and connection they have are undeniable, they are not partners and they are not cheating. Sagar is already in a committed relationship and all three parties are aware. Monogamish explores the dynamics and strength of these two non-traditional couples, where agreements are made and boundaries are challenged.

Director: Nardeep Khurmi is born in Switzerland, and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Nardeep’s eclectic childhood helped cultivate his unique vision. A deep passion for stories and the love of still images drove him to visual storytelling and the world of filmmaking. He studied at the FAMU Institute in Prague, Czech Republic and graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with a focus on directing and screenwriting, and earning international acclaim along the way. Nardeep currently resides in Los Angeles where he produces content ranging from branded videos, web videos, commercials, music videos, sketch comedy, shorts, and fashion films. He is currently writing a feature length comic-drama set in India which he plans to direct.

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Pashi
2017 | India | 30 mins | Pahari & Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Siddharth Chauhan
Cast - Chetan Kanwar, John Negi, Kamayani Bisht, Savitri Devi Sunta.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7bd6ZMpcXM

Synopsis: Set in a traditional himachali village, an unusual love story unfolds as a visitor arrives and meets his neighbor after years. Simultaneously, a young boy learns about a technique of trapping birds from his wicked-old grandmother and begins to practice it.

Pashi, literally meaning 'a trap' in Pahari/Himachali language, is a film about adolescent love and the complexity of one's feelings when in love. With an undertone of a crucial question: 'how far...is too far?', Pashi uses the concept of a trap as a door to let the audience enter the volatile mind of a young boy, leaving it to each to decide whether what they see is deviousness or pure honesty.

Director: Siddharth Chauhan is an award-winning Indian independent filmmaker from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. He was awarded the "Youth Achiever" award by Hindustan Times Group in August 2014. Chauhan has not received any professional training in this field. His films have been screened across places including Sarajevo, UK, London, US, Belarus, Indonesia, New Zealand, Italy, Canada and France. He is the youngest and the first independent filmmaker from Himachal Pradesh to have continuously taken his locally produced films outside India.

Wednesday May 9, 2018 @ 9.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

c/o Kancharapalem
World Premiere
2017 | India | 144 mins | Telugu (with English subtitles)
Directed by - G.R. Venkatesh Maha
Cast - Subba Rao, Radha Bessey, Kesava K, Nithya Sree, Praneetha Patnaik, Karthik Rathnam, Mohan Bhagath, Vijaya Praveena Paruchuri, Kishore Kumar Polimera.

Post-Screening discussion with director G.R. Venkatesh Maha

Synopsis: There is only one Truth, but many paths. There is only one Light, but many reflections. There is only one Love, but many imperfections. We are all One, but many. C/o Kancharapalem is a collage of love stories and follows Raju a fifty-year-old man who is still unmarried; Sundaram a school going kid who falls in love with his classmate, Joseph a wayward youth who falls for a dancer and Gaddam who is deeply in love with a prostitute. C/o Kancharapalem explores their struggles with love and life.

Director: Writer & Director of the film G.R. Venkatesh, also known as Maha was born and brought up in Vijayawada a town in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. He worked in various positions in Telugu language films and television shows. In 2016 he went to a place called Kancharapalem and wrote a film script called "C/o Kancharapalem" observing the local people's lifestyle and shot his debut film in real locations with local people, using colloquial language and intricate details of small-town life. C/o Kancharapalem is essentially a love story with a universal appeal.

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/venkatesh.maha.3, https://www.facebook.com/filmcareofkancharapalem

Thursday May 10, 2018 @ 6.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Bird of Dusk
World Premiere
2017 | India | 100 mins | Bengali (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Sangeeta Datta
Cast - Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Arjun Rampal, Konkona Sen Sharma, Nandita Das, Kaushik Ganguly, Anindya Chatterjee, Dorothee Wenner, Subhadip Sarkar.

Post-Screening discussion with director Sangeeta Datta

Synopsis: Indian writer- director Rituparno Ghosh from Bengal is an larger than life cultural icon whose influence spread far beyond his films. This documentary is pegged on the director’s own interviews and conversations (from archives) and his personal memoirs entitled First Person. Conversations with cast and crew feature Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Nandita Das, Arjun Rampal, Konkona Sen and Mir. Ghosh’s core crew cinematographer; Aveek Mukhopadhyay, editor Arghyakamal Mitra and music composer; Debajyoti Mishra discuss his craft of filmmaking.
International festival curators (Berlin/London/Spain) endorse the filmmaker’s position in the world cinescape. Rituparno lived and worked in the city of Kolkata which he loved dearly. His life and works are a product of his city and his culture. The story of Rituparno is interrelated to the changing cityscape of Kolkata as the film is shot over the course of a year. A young stage actor starts his inspired research on the filmmaker Ghosh. Finally, we see him perform the play Rituparno Ghosh at Tapan Theatre. Our film both shapes and is shaped by this search.

Director: Sangeeta Datta is a writer-film/theatre director-singer working between India and UK. Her award winning productions include: Life Goes On (feature film with Sharmila Tagore, Om Puri, Soha Ali Khan) The Dying Song and Gitanjali 100 (musical). She has completed her documentary on Rituparno Ghosh- Bird of Dusk (2017) which is on the international film festival circuit and a short film on Sister Nivedita (Margaret Noble) for the Nivedita Museum. She was Creative Producer on the six part series Tuning to You ( SD Arts 2016) telecast on Channel 4, UK.

Her documentary The Way I See It (on Indian women filmmakers) premiered at Creteil Film Festival ( France) and travelled widely in the festival circuit. Her dance-film project The Wife’s Letter was commissioned by Dance UK. Her short film Letter from an Ordinary Girl ( Sadharan Meye) has a contemporary take on Tagore’s famous poem.

Her books on cinema include Shyam Benegal; World Director Series (BFI) Rituparno Ghosh: Cinema, Art and Gender (Routledge) Essential Indian Films (forthcoming). She has numerous publications on Film and Literature in international academic journals.

A trained Rabindrasangeet singer, Sangeeta performs regularly and her recent concerts include the hugely acclaimed Independence Gala at Royal Festival Hall, London, Tagore’s Travelling Trunk at Cadogan Hall and the very popular concert series ANANT collaboration with Javed Akhtar and Soumik Datta (music published by Zee Music).

She is director of the arts company BAITHAK UK which promotes, dialogue, debate and new work from performing arts, literature and film. This year BAITHAK presented a highly acclaimed panel on Indian Cinema at BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television) featuring Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi and Farhan Akhtar.

A Ph. D. in English Literature, Sangeeta has many years of teaching and curating experience behind her, both in India and in London. She curates film seasons at British Film Institute and is a cultural commentator on radio and TV.

Centerpiece
Thursday May 10, 2018 @ 6.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Juze
North America Premiere
2017 | India | 93 mins | Konkani (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Miransha Naik
Cast - Rushikesh Naik, Sudesh Bhise, Prashanti Talpankar, Gauri Kamat, Gauri Kamat, Barkha Naik, Pranav Narote, Sarah Driver.

Post-Screening discussion with director Miransha Naik

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxpOjmUDBCE

Synopsis: Boribmol, a village in Goa with a large immigrant population, is ruled by an abusive, thuggish bully, Juze, known as the ‘Slum Landlord’. His appetite for violent intimidation keeps his immigrant workforce submissive, even when his roving eye extends to their women. Santosh, a 16 year old boy, is not intimidated. His determination to continue with his classes remains constant in spite of regular beatings from Juze. As events build to breaking point, Santosh’s passive resistance evolves into the determination to confront Juze and finally achieve freedom from fear.

Director’s Statement: Since my childhood, I’ve seen a ‘Juze’ in every village in Goa. These slum landlords abuse their power and exploit the defenceless and unprotected - immigrants often being the most vulnerable.

Originally a Portuguese colony, Goa has always been a rich and fertile state, which attracts immigrants from outside. Even before liberation in 1961, a large number of people from other states in India went there in search of jobs and the chance to make a living. Like immigrants everywhere, they took jobs that Goans wouldn’t do – mainly as casual labourers. Inevitably Goans - the locals - saw themselves as better educated and looked down on the new arrivals.

In my film, Santosh is a local, but with no family other than his ailing grandmother, he is vulnerable, unprotected and on the same level as an immigrant. He is the victim of exploitation, violent maltreatment, and is treated as an outsider by the other villagers. His passive resistance to these injustices provokes more aggression. Bruised and disillusioned, he reaches the point where until he can no longer take it.

Even today, you see a lot people, mostly immigrants, serving prison terms because they were pushed to a point where they took drastic action, even killing their oppressors.

Santosh is clever enough to understand that it is a question of what he has to kill and not who. His fear. And I wanted to show that no matter big and powerful these ‘Juzes’ are, they all eventually fall.

Such a tyrant existed in our village and I witnessed his rule and his fall and it was this memory that influenced my story.

Director: Miransha Naik is a native of Goa and completed his filmmaking studies at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, specialising in screenwriting. In 2012, he began working as a writer at Gitanjali Creations, a Mumbai-based production house before making short films under his own banner, Thin Air Productions. JUZE is his feature film debut. Naik cast the film using mostly non-professional actors from Goa; although Prashanti Talpankar who plays ‘Tai’ had previous experience while Rushikesh Naik (Santosh), Sudesh Bhise (Juze) and Ranav Narote (Abdul) were in a short film he made one year prior to JUZE. Otherwise, auditions were held all over Goa from which a short list was selected to participate in a workshop from which final cast were chosen for the respective roles.

Reviews:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/juze-juje-film-review-hong-kong-2017-994403
https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/juze-review/5120310.article
https://www.cinestaan.com/reviews/juze-28953
http://cineuropa.org/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=330920
joellejfernandes@gmail.com

Thursday May 10, 2018 @ 6.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

To Let
2017 | India | 99 mins | Tamil (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Chezhiyan Ra
Cast - Santhosh Sreeram, Suseela, Dharun.

Winner: National Film Awards 2018 - Best Tamil Film

Synopsis: TO LET is the story of a couple with a child. In the period of IT sector boom their house owner ask them to vacate the house. They have only thirty days to find new housing with their modest middle-class income..On their mopeds they start a race against time and all kinds of prejudice.

Director's Statement: Why did I make “ TO LET ”?, The economical recession in the first decade of the new millennium and the arrival of the multinational companies led to the boom in IT industry at Chennai City in South India. Particularly in 2007 this changes led to the sudden and disproportional rise in rents due to the housing needs of the IT personnel with fat pay cheques. The opportunistic landlords tried to exploit the situation by asking the economically vulnerable tenant-families to vacate at short notice. People working in other sectors and the working class were hit the hardest. Thousands of tenants wandering on the summer streets with their children to find their new homes. As a witness I want to make a film without any compromises.

Director: Chezhian Ra is a writer, poet and cinematographer. Who works primarily in the Tamil Film Industry, where he did more than Nine Feature films as a director of photography. Most Of the films got numerous awards, including National awards. His debut as a cinematographer, Kalloori (2007) has screened in Indian Panoroma. He got best cinematography award for kallathoni, and paradesi in Norway film festival. His camera work in Paradesi (2013) won the "Best cinematography" award at the 2013 London Filmmakers Film festival. He is an acclaimed author of a series of books about cinema titled 'Ulaga cinema'(world cinema) in Tamil. He received the KATHA award for his short story Harmoniam (2004) and a Junior Fellowship Award from the Indian government -ministry of culture -for his literary thesis about 'Imagery in Tamil short stories' (2004-2006). He has written five more books on cinema. TO LET is his debut movie as a director.

Awards: Bangaluru International film festival 2018, Festival International de Cine de Medellín in Colombia 2018, International filmmakers film festival in London 2018, South film @ Art academy festival in Chile 2018, World human rights festival in Indonesia 2018, Kolkata International Film Festival 2017.

Thursday May 10, 2018 @ 7.00 pm. Auditorium 5
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Autobiography of a Princess
1975 | UK | 59 mins | English
Directed by - James Ivory
Cast - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, James Mason, Madhur Jaffrey, Keith Varnier.

Post-Screening discussion with director James Ivory and actress Madhur Jaffrey

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIpAcKlIM6M

Synopsis: On the anniversary of her father's death, an Indian princess (Madhur Jaffrey) celebrates his memory in her London apartment by having tea and showing a selection of home movies to her guest, her father's old tutor Cyril Sahib (James Mason).

Director: James Francis Ivory worked together with the Indian producer Ismail Merchant and the German writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. His first films are all set in India and are very much influenced by the style of Satyajit Ray and Jean Renoir. After this period, he filmed three stories in New York and then dedicated his work to the great works of the English literature which made him internationally famous. Examples of this period are The Europeans and The Bostonians by Henry James, Jane Austen in Manhattan by Jane Austen, Quartet by Jean Rhys or A Room with a View and Maurice by E.M. Forster.

Reviews: http://www.merchantivory.com/film/autobiographyofaprincess

Thursday May 10, 2018 @ 9.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Kumbh
2017 | India | 30 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Umesh Kulkarni
Crew - Rangrajan Ramabadran, Mahdi Fleifel.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx0t_bho-0I

Synopsis: A dream came to me from who knows where having slept as two, I awake as one the other wasn't there. Two young men on a blind date start their journey outside the city. Unknowingly they become a part of a maze of a pilgrimage of sadhus. They look around, they observe, they smile, they doubt, they whisper. They are lost, they are found.

Director's Statement: Two young men stroll curiously around the Kumbh Mela, a huge religious festival involving millions of Hindus. They are wearing modern clothing, which makes them stand out among the pilgrims, most of whom are in traditional dress. Kumbh Mela, which takes place every three years at one of the four major Hindu sites (Haridwar, Allahabad, Ujjain and Nasik), is seen as the biggest pilgrimage in the world, bringing the many faces of Hinduism together. There are naked sadhus smeared in ash, rich gurus collecting donations, musicians and other performers, and simple pilgrims washing away their sins by ritual bathing in the river. The two men watch it all in silence, recording it with their cameras. Meanwhile, we take it all in from behind them. Sometimes we see what they are filming, at other times we see them filming one another. Through this device, director Umesh Kulkarni interposes an extra layer between the viewer and the spectacle. The sophisticated soundtrack and painstaking framing make this short documentary with no dialogue more than a simple recording of a fascinating religious spectacle.

Director: Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni is an alumnus of the Film and Television institute of India. He graduated from the film school in the year of 2004. He has made 8 short films and 4 feature films so far. He is considered one of the most important contemporary voices in Indian cinema. His short fiction film titled Girni (Grinding machine) won several International and National level awards including 3 National awards for the best short film and president's gold medal for best direction, the highest honor in India.

Umesh has kept his love and passion for short films alive. His each short film has been screened in more than 10 international film festivals including the prestigious Clermont Ferrand, Rotterdam and Oberhausen. His short film “Three of Us” premiered in Berlinale Film Festival.

He has been invited as jury in most prominent festivals like Clermont Ferrand which is considered the most impactful and influential short film festival in the world. Also he has worked as international jury in eminent festivals like Karlovy Vary film festival, Cairo film festival, Thai film festival, International Film Festival of Kerala. These festivals also conducted a retrospective of Umesh's short films.

He made his first feature film, Valu (The Wild Bull) in 2008. Valu turned out to be a significant film for Marathi cinema in many ways. It is amongst the few Marathi films that kept the box office collection on an upward swing and also travelled to more than 30 International film festivals. Valu is the first Marathi film which world premiered at the prestigious -Rotterdam international film festival.

Umesh's second feature, Vihir (The Well) is the first Marathi film to be produced under Mr. Amitabh Bachchan's production house, AB Corp. Ltd. It also was the second Marathi film which was selected at the coveted Berlin international film festival.

Deool (Temple) is Umesh's third feature film. It won three National awards including the best feature film of the year.

Umesh's fourth and his latest film, Highway was critically acclaimed for its representation of the cross section of society through an ensemble cast. The film was screened in the New York Indian film festival.

Umesh has travelled extensively to present his films and to understand the way short films are perceived in different parts of the world.

In order to encourage young filmmakers to make quality short films of international standards, Umesh started conducting an extensive short film making workshop which happens once in a year. This is the fourth year of the same and the response has been very positive from across our state. This workshop is designed specially to understand the nuances and finer details of short films as an independent medium.

Umesh runs a short film club in his hometown, Pune where short films made across the globe are screened. These films include classics and contemporary work as well. He also runs a children’s film club which showcases acclaimed films for children and interaction with the makers.

Social Media Handle: https://www.facebook.com/KumbhTheFilm/

and

Abu (Father)
International Premiere of the Urdu Version
2017 | Canada | 80 mins | English, Urdu & Punjabi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Arshad Khan
Cast - Asma Mahmood, Arjumand Bano, Davide Di Saro.

Post-Screening discussion with director Arshad Khan

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-SJpc_rou4

Synopsis: ABU is a journey to the center of a fragmented family while they grapple with religion, sexuality, colonialism and migration. Through a tapestry of narratives composed of family footage, observation and classic Bollywood films, gay-identifying Pakistani-Muslim filmmaker Arshad Khan takes viewers through the tense relationships between family and fate, conservatism and liberalism, and modernity and familiarity.

Director: Arshad Khan is a multiple-award-winning filmmaker, film festival director, festival strategist and film educator from Canada. Born in Pakistan, Khan believes in cinema as a catalyst for change. He makes films that shed light on subjects that are ignored by the mainstream media. He is interested in realism in cinema and the new wave in South Asian cinema, yet not restricted to any one cinematic genre. ABU is his first feature documentary and has already won awards and critical praise around the world.

Awards:
Best Documentary - Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival 2018
Audience Award - River to River Indian Film Festival 2017
Audience Award - IMAGE+NATION 2017
Jury Prize, Best Feature Film - Visaff 2017
Best Documentary - TWIST: Seattle Queer Film Festival 2017
Jury Prize Best Documentary - aGLIFF 2017
Winner LGBTQI crusader award - HotStar Anokhi Magazine 2017

Social Media Handles: Facebook & Instagram: @abumovie. Twitter: @abu_movie.

Co-presented by NewFest

Thursday May 10, 2018 @ 9.15 pm.Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Gali Guleiyaan (In the Shadows)
New York Premiere
2017 | India & UK | 117 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Dipesh Jain
Cast - Manoj Bajpayee, Ranvir Shorey, Neeraj Kabi, Shahana Goswami, Om Singh.

Winner: Jury Grand Prize, India Gold Section, Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) 2017

Post-Screening discussion with cinematographer Kai Miedendrop

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rFPK8kvf2M

Synopsis: In the walled city of Old Delhi, a reclusive shopkeeper spends his days obsessively watching people through hidden closed circuit cameras. When he overhears a boy being beaten, he begins to frantically search for the child. As he becomes lost in the labyrinthine alleys of the city and recesses of his mind, his grasp on reality falters, until he eventually stumbles across a shocking truth.

Director: Directors Guild Of America (DGA) Student Award recipient, Dipesh Jain is a graduate of University of Southern California Film School. He has written, directed and produced award-winning films, documentaries and stage plays in India, Prague and US. Before USC he studied at Prague Film School and also has Chartered Accountancy and CPA. 11 WEEKS, his thesis film at USC, was shot in terrorist areas of Kashmir with local people and real army. The film has screened at numerous film festivals such as Chicago, Mexico, Melbourne, Heartland and USA FF and won awards including Alfred P. Sloan, Carole Fielding, Best Short at 35th Cleveland Intl FF, Finalist at USA FF. His other films, including 5 QUESTIONS 5 CHANCES, have played festivals in Asia and Europe. A recipient of Panavision Young Filmmaker Award, Dipesh has been selected for the Talents Lab at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival and the Producer’s Lab at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Dipesh wants to make strong character driven films for the international audience and has several feature screenplays set in US, UK and India at various stages of development. His screenplay A STONE’S THROW AWAY, a political drama set in Kashmir, was placed semi-finalist in the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, and quarter- finalist in the American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition.

His debut feature IN THE SHADOWS, is a psychological drama set in the walled city of Old Delhi. The screenplay was a finalist in the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, 2015, Torino Lab, Italy and Tribeca All Access. The film was selected for the Works-in Progress Lab at NFDC Film Bazaar, Goa and completed at Skywalker Sound and Light Iron (NY). Screen International Cannes’ edition mentioned the film as one of the top Indian films to watch out for in 2017.

IN THE SHADOWS World Premiered at 22nd Busan International Film Festival where it was nominated for Kim Ji-Seok Award. It won the Grand Jury Award at Mumbai International Film Festival and was nominated for Golden Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, 2017. Currently playing in festivals, the film is slated to release (India/International) in May 2018.

Top Oscar/Emmy/Grammy-winning/nominated technicians have worked on the film including.

Kai Miedendorp: EMMY Nominated Cinematographer.
Scott Lewis: EMMY Winning sound re-recording mixer (House of Cards, MindHunter)
Chris Witt: Oscar nominated film KAVI - editor
Bob Kellough: EMMY Nominated sound designer (Spiderman, Justice League, Ant-man.)
Rafa Sardina: 13 GRAMMY wins, 31 Nominations music recording artist.
Steven Bodner: Top awarded Colorist (True Detective, Wolf of Wall Street, Silence)
Ryan Cole, Poly Mickinnon: Lord Of the Rings, District 9

Social Media Handles: Facebook: @intheshadowsfilm, Twitter: inDshadowsfilm, Instagram: intheshadowsfilm, Twitter: @bajpayeemanoj, Facebook: @Spotlight.ManojBajpayee, Twitter: @dipeshjainfilm, www.intheshadowsmovie.com, www.exstantmotionpictures.com

Thursday May 10, 2018 @ 9.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Shorts D - Dramatic Stories 3

Torn Pages
2017 | USA | 8 mins | English
Directed by - Vick Krishna
Cast - Sasha Sen, Siraj Huda.

Synopsis: Torn pages, a story of a young woman trying to resolve a conflict within her as she is confronted with her dark past.

Director: Vick Krishna is a New York based director. He is originally from Maryland. He has produced and directed few shorts before this one. He loves the filmmaking process and loves New York City.

and

Irupuram (Two Sides)
2017 | India | 10 mins | Malayalam (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Vipin P Vijayan
Cast - Krishnan Potti

Synopsis: The film deals with the life of a man who becomes lonely at his old age. When the children grow up, they become busy with their own lives and don't have much time for their parents. Once in a while they make a call but only as a duty. The servants and newspaper delivery boy are the only ones who visit the old man because of their regular working routines. The film is showing the two sides of life in a present society.

Director: Vipin P Vijayan is an Indian cinematographer, screenwriter and director. After completing his diploma course from cinematography in Chennai Film School. He began his career as an assistant director for feature films, adds and music videos in South India.

Social Media Handle: http://www.facebook.com/teamtwosides, Facebook: adgj126. Twitter: @mishratv.

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Maa
2017 | Canada & USA | 15 mins | English
Directed by - Ayush Dahiya
Cast - Anisha Ogale, Arjun Nag.

Synopsis: A brother pays his estranged sister a visit.

Director: Ayush Dahiya is a rising filmmaker with a mission to bring light to the fringes of society across cultures, and provide audiences with new perspectives and profound experiences through cinema.

and

Neend (Sleep)
2017 | India | 15 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Subhajit Dasgupta
Cast - Sandeep Shikhar, Deepti Naval, Shreya Dubey.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pucU8z7LwwM

Synopsis: ANURADHA puts sleepless people to sleep with the magic of her beautiful voice, except one man TANMAY, an old acquaintance who hasn't slept in twenty years. When all her attempts to put him to sleep fail, she searches for answers, realizing that the only way left, perhaps, is to examine her past. NEEND is a POETRICAL, a quiet and meditative chamber piece designed around poetry, that unfolds in layers, beginning one night and ending in the next. The narrative is infused with glimpses of ANURADHA's solitary life, her reminiscences, her poetry, and conversations with TANMAY, leading up to a quietly surprising and metaphorical ending. This is a quiet, lyrical and meditative film entered around poetry that provides insight into the life of the protagonist. Genre-wise, it can be seen as a 'poetrical', a variation on the musical genre.

Director: Subhajit Dasgupta divides his time between earning his living as a hardware engineer in Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, and pursuing his passion for cinema by making independent short films. His second short film titled CHIMES, made in 2015, won a few accolades and was screened in several film festivals, both in India and abroad. NEEND is his third venture. His goal is to achieve excellence in the craft of filmmaking while entertaining and moving audiences with subjects and storytelling styles that are both unique and personal. He loves writing and making films that deal with human relationships and considers Satyajit Ray and Woody Allen as his biggest inspiration.

Social Media Handle: https://www.facebook.com/anuradha1957/

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Payal
2018 | USA | 16 mins | English
Directed by - Ankur Agrawal
Cast - Rajeev Aggerwhil, Seirah Royin, Shahin Sayadi, Arpit Jalan, Julie Romano, Karl Warren, Ronak Gandhi, Tanmay Chowdhary.

Synopsis: An Indian-American mother of two begins to question her arranged marriage after a chance encounter at the local laundromat.

Director: Ankur Agrawal is a New Jersey born-and-bred filmmaker. His obsession with film proved to be more than a childhood phase as he enrolled in film school at USC in 2010 and never looked back. Since then, he has worked extensively in production in numerous capacities, especially in post production. Recently, he’s worked in the editorial departments of X-Men: Apocalypse and Saban’s Power Rangers. Currently, he works as an assistant editor for Academy Award winning Editor, Richard Halsey. He continues to develop content that, like Payal, pushes the boundaries of traditional Hollywood narratives.

Producer: Raeshib Aggerwhil is a filmmaker and a sound designer based in Los Angeles. He started his career working for acclaimed director Shekhar Kapur for 3 years.

Social Media Handles: Facebook: @ankypunks, @raeshib, @tanmay.chowdhary, @seirahroyin.

and

Everything is Fine
2017 | USA | 18 mins | English
Directed by - Mansi Nirmal Jain
Cast - Seema Bhargava Pahwa, Palomi Ghosh, Siddharth Bhardwaj, Alka Chatwal, Ayushi Jain.

Synopsis: ASHA, a 58 year old oppressed housewife from a small town in India arrives in New Delhi under the guise of visiting her independent and strong daughter, NATASHA, 28. However, she wants more than a vacation. Asha has come with the hope of leaving her deeply patriarchal marriage. When Asha shares her desire to leave her 30 year old marriage, she's met with a knee jerk reaction of shock and anger from Natasha. Shunned and gutted, Asha tries to keep her happy facade through oppressive circumstances, which her daughter starts seeing in a new way for the first time. Natasha slowly has a change of heart but it might be too little too late for Asha, who might not be welcoming of the daughter's empathy anymore.

and

Clash of Morality
2017 | USA | 18 mins | English
Directed by - Vinay Pujara
Cast - Hesh Sarmalkar, Cory Boughton, Katsumi Funahashi.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SLTExSj_JM

Synopsis: Mohamed & Richard stuck in an elevator clash upon their morals. Mohamed confronts Richard upon being judged for his look & his religion.

Director's Statement: Film deals with the issue of Islamophobia not just in USA but also around the world. It is creating a divide among people. It naturally paints all the muslims with the same brush which is nothing but ignorance. An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.

Director: Vinay Pujara is an Indian born filmmaker. Having started in Bollywood as an actor and then as an assistant director to the esteemed Asha Parekh Productions & renowned bollywood writer Sanjay Chhel’s Production. After taking classes at NYU's filmmaking school as well as others in 2012, he has since completed 9 short films and is in production for his first feature. His company "Sun Om Productions Inc." is quickly outputting content with strong themes. Vinay has valued his films in the sense of being fearless pieces that tell a story from a view that is not often seen. His past short films have been screened at film festivals around the globe as well as have won some awards.

Awards: Cap Spartel Film Festival in Morocco 2018, Chennai International Short Film Festival 2018, International Film Festival Zoom-Zblizenia in Poland 2018, Dhaka International Film Festival 2018, The MumbaiFest International Film Festival & The MumbaiFest International Short Film Festival 2018, Delhi International Film Festival 2017, Khajuraho International Film Festival 2017, Director’s Circle Festival of Shorts 2017, Cape Town International Film Market & Festival 2017, Oaxaca Filmfest in Mexico 2017, DC South Asian Film Festival 2017.

Social Media Handle: https://www.facebook.com/ClashofMoralitythefilm/

and

Shunyata (The Void)
2017 | India | 23 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Chintan Sarda
Cast - Jackie Shroff, Machindra Gadkar, Ankit Varshneya, Lekh Tandon, Sahil Vaid, Arkodeb Mukherjee.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69yLmvRBfU

Synopsis: Madhur works as a hitman for a gang in Mumbai. He leads a bleak existence and a life full of regrets. He is friendly with a kid who lives on the street. Madhur sees this kid getting into crime and decides to intervene to give the kid a chance he never had.

Director: Chintan Sarda is an ex-finance professional who has worked with companies like JP Morgan and Edelweiss. His last corporate job was with UBS in London 2007. Since then he has assisted filmmakers like: Farhan Akhtar (Don 2), Abhishek Sharma (Tere Bin Laden: Dead or alive & The Shaukeens) and Mohit Suri (Raaz 2).

He has also completed Diploma in motion picture production from Whistling Woods International (specialising in Direction) with a merit scholarship and has worked as First Assistant director on several TV commercials and directed corporate films for companies like Taj Hotels and TPSW Trust. He has signed his first feature as a director in the regional space in India. The pre-production for the same is expected to begin soon.

Social Media Handle: https://www.facebook.com/shunyatashortfilm

Friday May 11, 2018 @ 6.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Mayurakshi
2017 | India | 100 mins | Bengali (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Atanu Ghosh
Cast - Soumitra Chatterjee, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Indrani Halder, Sudipta Chakraborty, Gargee Roy Chowdhury.

Winner: National Film Awards 2018 - Best Bengali Film

Post-Screening discussion with director Atanu Ghosh

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LIckWCIaJU

Synopsis: The 84-year-old Sushobhan’s sedate, routine life in Kolkata is regulated by his agency caregiver and an old domestic help. With dementia phasing out his immediate past, he tends to be silent, and also irritable and fretful. His son Aryanil faces life stolidly and without hope with failed marriages behind him. When the two encounter, their separate angst affects them both, causing shifts in their attitudes to life and to each other.

Director: Atanu Ghosh films have been widely shown in most prominent film festivals across the world. He is winner of numerous national and international awards, his works reflect an urge for exploring unique complexities of human behaviour pitted against the backdrop of rapidly changing society. His films are known for perceptual precision and economy of expression.

Social Media Handles: #Mayurakshi, @atanugsh, @prosenjitbumba, @FriendsCommKol, @HasanFirdausul.

Friday May 11, 2018 @ 6.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Chumbak (The Lottery)
New York Premiere
2017 | India | 118 mins | Marathi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Sandeep Modi
Cast - Sahil Jadhav, Swanand Kirkire, Sangram Desai.

Post-Screening discussion with director Sandeep Modi

Synopsis: CHUMBAK is a coming of age story of a 14 year old table-cleaning-waiter-boy in a restaurant in Mumbai on the crossroads of life and morals. It is the story of his chance encounter with a mentally slow man that transforms his life.

Bhalchandra (a.k.a Baalu) works in a restaurant in urban Mumbai as a lowly table-cleaner. Thrown in the deep end of a wretched life early after his father deserted the family, Baalu dreams of an escape to a better life. He aspires to open a small little sugarcane juice shop at his village’s public Bus-Stand. Desperate as time is running out to raise money for it, he invests all his savings in a friend's dubious 'investment scheme'. As the scheme comes a cropper, Baalu loses not only all his money but also his faith on goodness!

Angry and dejected, Baalu decides to ditch his morals and turn a new leaf! Along with his best friend 18 year old Dhananjay (a.k.a Disco) they hatch a plan to earn back the money to fulfil his dream! Disco, the hustler, has the right ‘business’ for him to recover his lost money from the world - the famous ‘Nigerian SMS Scam’.

Director: Sandeep Modi is a filmmaker from India, Mumbai. An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Sandeep writes from his growing experiences in the ever churning belly of Mumbai and it’s class divide. Giving voice to stories of simple people and their dilemma's, Sandeep's films are a mirror to it’s world often lost in the cacophony of its own complexities. In his early thirties, Sandeep prefers observing, to reading or watching, making his own impression of life around him. His educational short film ‘Best Friends Forever’ won him the prestigious Indian National Film Award, 2015, while his debut short ‘Bilori’ had IDPA giving him the nod for Best Student Film of the year besides being awarded the Golden Pearl at the Hyderabad International Film Festival!

Reviews: https://www.cinestaan.com/reviews/chumbak-28970
https://theparadiseofcinema.wordpress.com
Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/chumbakthefilm/, https://twitter.com/@ChumbakTheFilm

Friday May 11, 2018 @ 6.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Light in the Room
World Premiere
2017 | India | 99 mins | Malayalam (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Rahul Riji Nair
Cast - Deepak Parambol, Vinitha Koshy, Pouly Valsan, Rajesh Sharma, Renjit Shekar, Luke Jose.

Winner: Kerala State Awards 2018, Best Film, Best Character Actor (Pouly Valsan), Best Editing, Special Jury Award (Vinitha Koshy)

Trailer: https://youtu.be/jylN60wXfzs

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of a beautiful hilltop village surrounded by dense forest and a decaying tea plantation is the story of Sudha, an underprivileged woman who reaches this village after her marriage with Chandran. They stay along with Chandran’s brother and aging mother in a confined single room house with a makeshift separation to create space for the couple. The room has a strange light without a switch which changes its colors often. While Chandran calls the light his invention of a lifetime, it deprives Sudha of her privacy and begins to haunt her. Adding to her woes, Chandran engages in acts to physically exert his dominance over Sudha. Amidst deep trauma, Sudha realises that she doesn't have any support and decides to fight for her survival and seeks revenge against Chandran. Will Sudha succeed in her fight for freedom forms the crux of this emotional thriller?

Director: Rahul Riji Nair ventured into independent filmmaking through documentaries, short films and music videos. His works have won several accolades in international filmmaking competitions and film festivals across the country. Rahul founded the production company First Print Studios in 2011 and is currently serving the company as its CEO. Ottamuri Velicham (Light in the Room) is his first feature film as Writer-Director. Rahul’s critically acclaimed documentary, “The Human Boundaries” was widely screened across India, Europe and USA.

Social Media Handles: http://www.firstprintstudios.com, https://www.facebook.com/firstprintstudios
https://www.facebook.com/ottamurivelicham
https://www.facebook.com/rahulrijinair, https://twitter.com/rahulrijinair, https://www.instagram.com/rahulrijinair

Friday May 11, 2018 @ 7.00 pm. Auditorium 5
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Avenue @ 12th Street, NYC.

English Vinglish
2012 | India | 133 mins | Hindi & Tamil (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Gauri Shinde
Cast - Sridevi, Mehdi Nebbou, Priya Anand, Adil Hussain, Laxman Utekar.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmGVY4T88dc

Synopsis: Money, fame and knowledge of English. In India, these 3 factors play a huge role in how society judges an individual. English Vinglish is the story of a woman who does not know English and is made to feel insecure by her family and society at large. The film is a light -hearted yet touching and transformational journey of Shashi. Circumstances make her determined to overcome this insecurity, master the language, teach the world a lesson on the way to becoming a self-assured and confident woman. The film is shot mostly in New York and captures the inherent struggle of many people all over the world with the English Language. Hilarious, touching, sensitive, this film marks the comeback of India’s biggest female star…Sridevi.

Director's Statement: ENGLISH VINGLISH is a film inspired by my mother whose discomfort with the English language did not stop her from realizing her full potential as a human being, a mother, a wife and a professional. It is my way of saying ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ to my mother and a tribute to women. The film is also an ode to New York City, where my journey as a filmmaker began and continues…

Director: Gauri Shinde is an ad-film and feature film director. She has made her directorial debut with the highly acclaimed English Vinglish (2012), which marked the comeback of actress Sridevi. Shinde was born and brought up in Pune, where she studied at St Joseph's High School and later graduated from Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication in Pune. Her aspiration towards filmmaking started right from the days at the end of her college life. She moved to Mumbai for her internship with documentary director Siddharth Kak and later started working with advertising agencies like IBW, Bates Clarion and Lowe Lintas, where R. Balki was the creative director. In following years she made over 100 advertising films and short films; her short film Oh Man! 2001 was selected for the Berlin Film Festival. Shinde also directed her second short film in 2005, Y Not?.

Tribute to Sridevi

Sridevi was an Indian actress and film producer who starred in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada films. Regarded as Indian cinema's biggest female superstar, she was the recipient of two Filmfare Awards and three Filmfare Awards South. Sridevi is considered to be one of the most popular actresses of Indian cinema. Sridevi made her debut as child artiste with the 1967 Tamil film Kandan Karunai at the age of 4, and started her acting career in lead role as a child with M. A. Thirumugam’s 1969 devotional Tamil film Thunaivan and continued to act as a child artist in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her Hindi film debut as a child artist in Rani Mera Naam and played her first adult role at age 13 with the Tamil film Moondru Mudichu. Sridevi established herself as one of the leading actresses of Tamil and Telugu cinema, with leading roles in 16 Vayathinile, Sigappu Rojakkal, Varumayin Niram Sivappu, Meendum Kokila, Premabhishekam, Moondram Pirai, Aakhari Poratam, Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari and Kshana Kshanam.

Sridevi's first starring role in Hindi cinema came with the 1979 drama film Solva Sawan, and she gained wide attention with the 1983 production Himmatwala. She went on appear in a series of commercially successful films, including Mawaali, Tohfa, Naya Kadam, Maqsad, Masterji, Nazrana, Mr. India, Waqt Ki Awaz and Chandni. She also received praise for such films as Sadma, Nagina, ChaalBaaz, Lamhe, Khuda Gawah, Gumrah, Laadla and Judaai. Following the role of the titular protagonist in the television sitcom Malini Iyer, Sridevi returned to film acting in 2012 with the successful comedy-drama English Vinglish. She then starred in her 300th film role in the 2017 thriller Mom. She earned critical acclaim for her performances in both films.

In 2013, the Government of India awarded Sridevi the Padma Shri, the country's fourth highest civilian accolade for her contributions to the entertainment industry. Honorary awards were also conferred on her by the state governments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Sridevi was also voted 'India's Greatest Actress in 100 Years' in a CNN-IBN national poll conducted in 2013 on the occasion of the centenary of Indian cinema. She was married to the film producer Boney Kapoor, with whom she had two children.

Reviews:
http://variety.com/2018/film/festivals/sridevi-shashi-kapoor-tributes-set-at-n-y-indian-film-festival-1202730746/

Friday May 11, 2018 @ 9.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Avenue @ 12th Street, NYC.

Shorts C - Dramatic Stories 2

Licorice
2017 | USA | 11 mins | English
Directed by - Gautam Chopra
Cast - Nivita Chaliki, Zoe White.

Synopsis: “Licorice” is a short film about a lonely, Indian-American teenage girl named Pinky. While driving home from school one afternoon, she accidentally hits a dog and helplessly watches as it limps into the woods. Hoping to find the dog’s owner, Pinky rings the doorbell of a nearby house and finds it occupied by her classmate Tara, taking advantage of the empty house with her half-naked boyfriend. Pinky tries to solicit their help to find the wounded dog before it is too late.

Director's Statement: "Licorice" is a short film inspired by a strange incident from my childhood. Driving me to school one morning, my dad slammed on the brakes as a dog darted into the street. We heard a thud, then a yelp, then saw the dog stagger and disappear into the woods. In the school parking lot, my dad wiped a clump of bloody hair from his bumper and said, in his matter-of-fact way, “That dog is going to die”. We never discussed it again. I became haunted by an image of that dog laying and dying alone in the woods. Did the dog’s pain go unnoticed? Did anyone hear him cry? Did anyone care? Only years later did I appreciate I was really asking those questions about myself. Could anyone hear me? "Licorice" is the story of an Indian-American teenage girl who hits a dog with her car, then begins a lonely search for the wounded animal. After a tense confrontation with the dog’s owner, she is left feeling as invisible and unheard as the poor dog I imagined years ago. Our heroine is a relatable outsider desperate to be seen. Though, as an Indian-American she’s not someone we often see in the movies. I hope this film gives her a voice.

Director: Gautam Chopra is a filmmaker based in Boston. He completed his MFA in film directing from Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program in 2007. Gautam's work as a director includes Cauliflower & Potatoes, a finalist for the AbelCine Documentary Award; and Alumni, which premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gautam has also edited several films including the documentary A Matter of Conscience: Confronting Clergy Abuse; and the narrative film Lambing Season, selected by IndieWire as one of the 10 Best Films of 2014. He currently teaches filmmaking and film studies at Emerson College and Boston College.

Social Media Handle: https://www.facebook.com/LicoriceFilm/

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Eye Test
2017 | India | 17 mins | Malayalam (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Sudha Padmaja Francis
Cast - Appu Prabahakar, Mishanka S S, Saritha C P, Lakshmi Parvathi, Kani Kusruti.

Winner: National Film Awards 2018, Best Cinematography (short film)

Synopsis: Eye Test is a short fiction film that delves into the mindscape of the 27 year old Nivedita when she visits an eye clinic for a checkup. The eye clinic which is a drab and clinical space becomes an unlikely and unique sensorial geography for her invoking memories of her mother and her own lonely childhood, also revealing to us her grieving self. Through these re-visions of hers, the film captures the difficult everyday realities of a working single mother in India.

Director: Sudha Padmaja Francis is a filmmaker and has just completed her postgraduate degree in Film from the University of Reading, UK in September 2017. She is a recipient of the Felix scholarship for 2016-2017. She currently resides in Kerala, India. She completed a short film in Malayalam titled Eye Test in August 2017 and is awaiting film festival results. Eye Test has been longlisted for the Toto Funds the Arts Short Films Award 2018.

Before she began her studies in Film, she completed a commissioned documentary titled Kaalapravaaham on the Indian modernist sculptor K S Radhakrishnan which was screened at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru in November 2015. Prior to that, she also did an MA in Cultural Studies at EFLU, Hyderabad. She has previously presented papers on cinema and has published papers in peer reviewed international journals. She published a paper on the melodramatic form in early Malayalam cinema in Subversions journal titled “Looking into the Progressive: Yakshi’s Undoing”. She has also recently published “Realism as Ethics: With an Example from Abbas Kiarostami” in the MCPH The Journal.

Social Media Handles: Facebook: Sudha KF, Instagram: sudha_luna.

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Cobbler's Dream
2017 | Sri Lanka | 16 mins | Singhalase (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Sydney Chandrasekara
Cast - Thivanka Perera, Richard Manamudali, Iresha Namali, Jagath Beneragama, Maduka Wijesinghe, Mihiri Yapa, Buddika Mangala.

Synopsis: A poor, widowed cobbler tries to keep the memory of his wife alive under testing circumstances.

Director's Statement: "Cobbler's Dream" is about a poor, widowed cobbler in Sri Lanka who tries to keep the memory of his wife alive under testing circumstances. He is torn with guilt over the death of his wife, who died due to an 'accident'. The cobbler tries to keep her memory alive by making his son wear the same shoes his wife bought her while she was alive. This is shown via the metaphor of the boy's broken shoes, which symbolizes the cobbler's attachment to his deceased wife, and his guilt following her death. During the course of the plot, the cobbler understands the value of letting go of the past in order to truly live in the present.

Director: Sydney Chandrasekara is a writer/director and prominent lyricist in Sri Lanka. He directed several popular teledramas during the inception of television in the country during the 1980s. Currently, he works as a senior consultant at a leading local TV channel (MTV/Sirasa). "Cobbler's Dream" is his first short film.

Reviews: Cobbler's Dream short film

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Forbidden
2018 | USA | 21 mins | English
Directed by - Vibha Gulati
Cast - Gopal Divan, Gulshan Grover, Salony Luthra, Dhanish Karthik.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJJfPiKMmW0

Synopsis: Forbidden is a short dramatic thriller that follows a Sikh woman named Jasleen, who is running away with her Muslim lover, Fahwaz. Jasleen’s culture and religious conscious parents want her to marry within the Sikh community, and are shocked when she suddenly disappears. After Jasleen and Fahwaz elope, they think they have found happiness—but Jasleen’s family tracks the couple down and commit horrific acts in defense of their family honor.

Director's Statement: Forbidden is inspired by the true story of my friend who was brutally murdered for being in love with someone her family did not approve of. This work is my tribute to this amazing woman who had the courage and the conviction to follow her heart and stand up to her family. Earlier, I was under the misconception that only women who belonged to lower socioeconomic backgrounds in developing countries were the victims of honor violence. However, after some extensive research, I learned I was wrong. Women from first world countries also face this societal evil, which is growing at an alarming rate. Moreover, sadly, one can belong to any religion, nationality, socio-economic status, and/or education level and still be a victim of this atrocity at the hands of their own family members. The mission of this film is to end violence against women living outside of their native countries. In addition, it is to ignite a social change that will compel the legal system to take action against criminals who commit heinous crimes against women in the name of family honor.

Director: Vibha Gulati is a film professional in the Indian motion picture industry. Forbidden marks her directorial debut.

Vibha embarked on her journey in filmmaking upon her official selection for the International Film and Media internship from Berkley University in association with Mumbai University in December 2005. During this intensive course, Vibha assisted renowned Indian Film Director Raj Kumar Hirani on the highly successful feature film 'Laage Raho Munna Bhai.' Shortly after the internship, she enrolled at the New York Film Academy (NYFA) and graduated with a degree with a concentration in direction in May 2009. Soon after, she completed a screenwriting degree at NYU and attained certification in Script Supervision from UCLA.

Since then, Vibha has worked on a number of Bollywood and Independent feature films including Bedoprata Pain's 'Chittagong,' Kapil Sharma's 'I Me Aur Main,' Rohan Sippy's 'Nautanki Saala,' Prashant Nair's 'Umrika,' Danis 'Tanovic's 'Tigers,' and several others.

Vibha is now working towards a full time career as a writer and director for feature films.

Reviews: Salony Luthra spent three weeks in the US to get American accent right
A Filmmaker Stands Up to Honor Violence: An Interview with Vibha Gulati

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/forbiddenmovie/, https://www.instagram.com/forbiddenthefilm, http://www.forbiddenthefilm.com

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The Lost
2017 | USA | 22 mins | English
Directed by - Neil M. Paik
Cast - Brent Antonello, Chike Okonkwo, Karen Fukuhara, Suraj Sharma, Aishveryaa Nidhi, Kim Shaw, Laura Niemi, Saidah Ekulona, Nate Hurtsellers.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReQ00E8pjPg

Synopsis: Inspired by Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMON, THE LOST is an exploration of perspective and what it means in our modern culture, one in which truth is often obscured by sensation and communication by outrage. A highly publicized altercation at a protest is played out from three differing points of view, each an exploration of a different version of the 'truth'.

Introducing characters with diverse life experiences, THE LOST explores the complexities of communication between citizens and law enforcement, the role of technology in influencing social concerns, and the immigrant experience in America. This film was inspired by an intent to explore the human stories behind headlines that we far too often see on the news - headlines that are often followed by media reports that alienate, sensationalize, or otherwise distract from internalizing the human cost that results from a society's breakdown of communication.

Director: Neil M. Paik is a filmmaker and artist from Los Angeles. His parents were born in Kolkata, India, and he has grown up with a fusion of both Indian and western values and sensibilities. After graduating from the film school at UCLA, where he was editor of the Daily Bruin, he filmed a documentary on the ground in the Middle East, traveling through Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan, analyzing diverse perspectives in the conflict zone. His thesis film from UCLA, The Doctor of Bagram, was inspired by the experiences of an American trauma surgeon serving in Afghanistan whom Neil interviewed while working as a journalist. The film played at festivals nation-wide and received several honors, including the Jim Morrison Award for Excellence in Directing and UCLA’s Best Narrative Film Award.

In the three years following film school, Neil worked as an assistant in WME’s feature film department, Warner Brothers Pictures’ production department, for Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson’s production company, Color Force, and most recently as a director’s assistant to Rick Famuyiwa. Under Rick’s mentorship, Neil wrote and directed THE LOST as a participant in AT&T’s inaugural New Voices program to champion young filmmakers. THE LOST plays out a highly publicized protest altercation from three differing points of view. A modern-day take on Rashomon, the short is an exploration of perspective and what it means in our current culture, one in which truth is often obscured by sensation and communication by outrage.

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Sound Proof
2017 | India | 30 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Aditya Kelgaonkar
Cast - Soha Khan, Vinay Pathak, Sylvester Fonseca.

Synopsis: A young divorced woman rents an apartment in Mumbai hoping for a new beginning in life. She soon finds herself caught up in a maze of peculiar neighbors and strange occurrences, when loud TV noises start blaring from a mysterious apartment.

Director: Aditya Kelgaonkar, a writer, director, and cinematographer was born in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad in 1982.

His career path saw a sudden shift while he was in the middle of pursuing his B.E. in Computer Engineering. Aditya began writing plays in Marathi. He wrote and directed plays which won awards at inter collegiate competitions.

This followed an introduction to world cinema by a close friend. He was exposed (and grew an instant admiration) to the works of some of the finest filmmakers the world has seen. And so began his ten-year-long career in films.

Aditya has worked on several critically acclaimed projects including the multiple award winning documentary Gulabi Gang (Chief AD) and the magnum opus Jodha Akbar (Assistant DoP). He has also worked as an Associate Director on the film ’Mantra’ starring Rajat Kapoor, Kalki Koechlin, and Adil Hussain which is on Netflix.

In 2014 he was selected for the NFDC Directors’ Lab.

For the last three years, he has been focusing on a unique series of workshops which focus on actors and aspiring directors. The sessions (Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi) rely deeply on ‘Actioning’, a concept based on Stanislawski’s technique of physical actions. The workshops as a whole, aim to help both actor and director get deep into the psyche of the character enabling them to create their finest performances.

He began assisting acclaimed director Rajat Kapoor on two plays: ‘What’s Done is Done’ (Based on Macbeth) and ‘I Don’t Like it, As You Like it’ (Based on As You Like It).

Aditya also has a long run in the Cinematography, Photography and Production departments, with multiple projects under his belt.

Currently he is working on his first feature film in Marathi.

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/SohaAliKhanPataudi/, https://www.facebook.com/vinay.pathak.3532, https://www.facebook.com/adityakelgaonkar, https://www.facebook.com/sylvester.fonseca, https://www.facebook.com/veera.kapur, https://www.facebook.com/shoaib.lokhandwala, https://www.instagram.com/sakpataudi/, https://www.instagram.com/pathakvinay/, https://www.instagram.com/adityakelgaonkar/, https://twitter.com/sakpataudi, https://twitter.com/pathakvinay.

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Khidkee
2017 | India | 31 mins | Marathi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Rohan Kanawade
Cast - Abhay Kulkarni, Lalit Prabhakar, Veena Nair, Kalyanee Mulay, Sachin Suresh, Aparna Dharmadhikari.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZophLwtcA8

Synopsis: Madhu is a middle-aged homemaker whose world currently revolves around taking care of her paralytic bedridden husband. Her only distraction is Ashween, a youngster, who lives in the opposite building and whom she can see through her living-room window. Ashween’s constant indulgence in alcohol and smoking raises Madhu’s anxiety about her own son’s lifestyle who’s working abroad.

Ashween, who is trying to write his second feature film, also gets frequently drawn to his living-room window, through which he can observe Madhu and her activities. He forms his own perception about the middle-aged lady who also seems to be frequently gazing at him. What are the windows showing? Is there something happening beyond the windows as well?

Director: Rohan Kanawade worked with few architects as a designer. He, who have no background in films making or qualification, made his first film in 2008 on Mobile Phone. Later, to invest more time in writing and films he left his full-time job and started working as a freelance Interior Designer. His short film ‘Ektya Bhinti’ won him his very first international award as “Best Emerging Filmmaker” in Kashish MIQFF in 2013 Mumbai. In 2015 his film ‘Sundar’ was selected for Iris Prize UK with other thirty international films. Sundar went in fifteen international film festivals till date winning five awards.

Reviews: The idea is to underline how reality often differs from perception

Friday May 11, 2018 @ 9.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Avenue @ 12th Street, NYC.

Paddayi
International Premiere
2018 | India | 140 mins | Tulu (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Abhaya Simha
Cast - Mohan Sheni, Bindu Raxidi, Chandrahas Ullal, Gopinath Bhat, Avinash Rai, Sadashiva, Shrinidhi Achar, Santosh Shetty, Prabhakar Kapikad, Vani Periodi, Ravi Bhat, Mallika Jyotigudde.

Winner: National Film Awards 2018: Best Tulu Film

Post-Screening discussion with director Abhaya Simha

Synopsis: PADDAYI is a modern day adaptation of the epic drama, ‘Macbeth’ from Shakespeare. This version of Macbeth plays out in a tiny village in the borders of mega city. Characters in the film belong to an indigenous community of fishermen. Madhava and Sugandhi are a newly married couple from the fishing community of South India. Their lust for better life and thirst for upward mobility is ignited by the prophecies from the spirit that wander the land. Dinesha, owner of the fleet gives them new dreams and hopes. But when their life was on a new high, Dinesha betrays and takes back what he gave. Now Madhava and Sugandhi are determined for a bitter revenge. They set out on a journey riding the tide of ambition in a boat dotted by their personalities. Sugandhi provokes and Madhava is provoked. Madhava in order to win over his insecurities, defeats his morality. The story soon turns into a tale of murder and regrets. Indeed earth hath bubbles that play mysterious games!.

Director: Abhaya Simha is a Film and Television Institute graduate. His first film Gubbachigalu won the National Award for the Best Children’s film and was screened in several National and International Film Festivals. His second film Shikari too was screened in Kolkatta and Bangalore International Film Festivals. He is also an avid documentary filmmaker who has made more than 20 documentaries on culture and environmental issues. He was a part of Indian delegation of filmmakers at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009. His scripts have been part of NFDC film lab and Docskool Writers Lab, Nepal.

Friday May 11, 2018 @ 9.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Avenue @ 12th Street, NYC.

Unlock
2017 | India | 14 mins | Tamil (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Nirmalan Nadarajah

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucvQOwNNqVI

Synopsis: In the war-torn interiors of Sri Lanka a few young boys are just looking for a peaceful place to play their imaginary game of combat, naïve to the continuing danger surrounding them.

Director: Nirmalan Nadarajah was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Paris, France at the age of 10. After training in music from an early age he started out in advertising by composing jingles and eventually began to produce music for Indian films. After working with many notable Indian film directors for over 10 years, Nirmalan decided to venture into film direction and production with his first short film – UNLOCK.

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Her. Him. Other
World Premiere
2018 | Sri Lanka | 113 mins | Sinhala & Tamil (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Prasanna Vithanage & Vimukthi Jayasundara.
Cast - Kesavarajan Nawaratnam, Asoka Handagama, Nipuni Sharada, Pradeep Ramawickrama, Dharshana Vidya Aravinda, Juliyan Kawshalya Mendis, Perlija
Jeyaraj, M. Raj Shri, Mohamed Atheef.

Post-Screening discussion with director Prasanna Vithanage

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dQtVCS8kuc&t=4s

Synopsis: Three Sri Lankan filmmakers renowned for their internationally acclaimed films based on the Sri Lankan civil war, join in to make one film to express their views on post-war reality. The war between Tamil militants and government forces of Sri Lanka lasted for three decades. Thousands from both parties, combatants and civilians died due to the battle. The government forces crushed Tamil militants in May 2009. It's time to assess each other's conscience. He (an ex-militant videographer for the LTTE) travels from the North in search of HER (a young widow of a government army soldier) in the South to find relief from the pain that disturbed his conscience. Having been raised in a religion that has faith in reincarnation, he (a Sinhala language teacher) tries to deceive his own conscience by refusing to believe the re-birth of a Tamil militant into a Sinhala family witnessed by HIM with his own eyes. One's hero is THE OTHER's traitor. But a mother will lose a son in a war. How many wars must a man live through before he feels the suffering of THE OTHER?

Director: Prasanna Vithanage became involved in theatre on leaving school. He translated and directed Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man" in 1986, and Dario Fo's "Trumpets and Raspberries" in 1991. In 1992, he directed his first film "Sisila Gini Gani" (Ice of Fire). It won nine OCIC (Sri Lanka) Awards including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress. Four years later in 1996 was his second feature "Anantha Rathriya" (Dark Night of the Soul), which he wrote and directed. It was based on Leo Tolstoy's last novel "Resurrection". It participated in several international film festivals and won a Jury's Special Mention in the First Pusan International Film Festival. The film also won all the main awards at the 1996 Sri Lanka Film Critics Forum Awards (affiliated with FIPRESCI) including awards for Most Outstanding Film, Best Director and Best Screenwriter. "Pawuru Walalu" (Walls Within), his third feature in 1997 won the Best Actress Award for Nita Fernando in her role as Violet, at the 1998 Singapore International Film Festival. It even won ten out of eleven awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the Sri Lanka Film Critics Forum Awards. His fourth feature "Purahanda Kaluwara" (Death on a Full Moon Day) of the same year, 1997, which he wrote and directed was produced by NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation). It won the Grand Prix at the Amiens Film Festival. Initially banned by the minister in charge of film industry, it was released after a yearlong legal battle. It was given the release under the supreme court verdict. Since it has become one of the most successful film in the more than half a century history of cinema in Sri Lanka. Prasanna Vithanage completed "Ira Madiyama" (August Sun) his fifth film in 2003. It went on to win many international awards and was featured prominently in the world festival circuit. In 2007, Vithanage co-produced the hit film "Machan" a comedy about a group of working class con artists posing as a handball team, directed by "The Full Monty" producer Uberto Pasolini. "Machan" premiered at the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008. It was shown widely all over the world winning 11 international awards. 2008 also saw the world premiere of Prasanna Vithanage's sixth feature film as director, "Akasa Kusum" (Flowers of the Sky) in Pusan, Korea and screened over forty film festivals to wide acclaim winning numerous international awards. "Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka" (With You, Without You) is his seventh feature.

Director: Vimukthi Jayasundara was born in 1977 in Sri Lanka. He is a director and writer, known for The Forsaken Land, Between Two Worlds and Dark in the White Light.

Saturday May 12, 2018 @ 12.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Uma
North America Premiere
2017 | India | 148 mins | Bengali (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Srijit Mukherji
Cast - Jisshu Sengupta, Sara Sengupta, Srabanti, Anjan Dutt, Rudranil Ghosh, Anirban Bhattacharya.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsLGZC9V_gY

Synopsis: Uma is a story about a young girl who is fighting a terminal disease, a father who is struggling to make his daughter`s dreams come true and about a director whose past haunts him. It starts off with Uma, a young girl brought up in Austria, being recognised with a terminal disease and goes on about how Himadri, her father takes her to Kolkata to fulfil her dream by setting up a fake Durga Puja, the most celebrated festival of the Bengalis.

Director: Srijit Mukherji, one of the leading filmmakers of India, is known for his critical as well as commercially successful films like ‘Autograph’, ‘Baishe Srabon’, ‘Jaatishwar’, ‘Chutoskone’ and ‘Rajkahini’, among others. A director, screenwriter and lyricist, Srijit Mukherji's experiments with various genres and layered narrative, have won him numerous accolades across critics and popular mass.

Mukherji has become the face of contemporary Bengali cinema with his compelling choice of subjects and brilliant execution in each of his films. He has been honored with ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Original Screenplay’ awards for his film ‘Chotuskone’ at the 62nd National Film Awards. His film ‘Jaatishwar’ won 4 National Awards at the 61st National Awards.

Mukherji's film ‘Rajkahini’ had been chosen as an official selection at 16 International Film Festivals (IFF) including Indian Panorama at IFFI 2015, IFF of Kerala (Competition Section), IFF Mumbai and Imagine India IFF at Madrid. It was also screened at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. He was directed Vidya Balan and Naseeruddin Shah for the Hindi remake of ‘Rajkahini’, titled ‘Begum Jaan’. His film ‘Yeti Obhijaan’ in September 2017 became the highest grosser in Bengal during Pujas.

Social Media Handles: facebook.com/SVFsocial

Saturday May 12, 2018 @ 12.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Children Playing God
New York Premiere
2018 | India | 26 minutes | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Ashok Vish

Post-Screening discussion with director Ashok Vish

Logline: Children Playing God follows the lives of five boys during their two-month rehearsal period for the month-long Ramlila performance based on the epic poem, Ramayana. The boys are considered living gods and goddesses during this process.

Synopsis: The Ramlila is a month-long theatrical performance based on the Ramayana, an ancient Indian epic poem. Each year, boys hand selected by the king of Ramnagar portray the main characters. They spend two grueling months working with dramatic coaches to perfect their performances. The boys, ranging in age from eight to fourteen, must live and rehearse at the site, and sometimes must look after themselves. During the entire process, the boys are considered to be living gods and goddesses, and are worshipped by the people of the community. The film explores the gap that separates the reality of these children’s lives from the fiction they portray, highlighting the ordinary aspects of being kids during the process of their temporary transformation into the divine.

Director: Ashok Vish The central focus of Vish’s work has been an examination of developmental science, both during adolescence and the effects and outcomes through adulthood. Following a research-based practice, other ideas of sexual identity, gender roles, social pressure and achieved expectations are at the core of his interests that allows Vish to place emphasis on exploring the associations between human emotions & adversity and their corresponding public and personal personas. This affords him the opportunity to investigate the relation between the imagery of fictional worlds and the conditions of reality, and sometimes merging both fiction and non-fiction with each other. In both his filmmaking and his photography, Vish analyzes the world through the lens of personal politics. His overriding objective for all of his projects has been to create narratives, whether linear or abstract, that, in turn, open up spaces for greater engagement between audience and art, between viewers and characters/subjects, because doing so helps to bridge the seemingly wide chasms that separate “us” from “them”. Vish’s films has screened in several film festivals such as the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, Chelsea Film Festival, StarLite Film Festival, at the Anthology Film archives in New York City and the Full On Film festival at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Vish’s film ‘A Boy Called Boris’ was screened at 1Shanthiroad studio/gallery as part of a group exhibition titled ‘Much to say’, showcased along with paintings by visual artist Bhuvanesh Kumar. Apart from his films, Vish’s video art and photography has shown at galleries such as A.M (Art Multi-disciplines) Studio in Kolkata, Art Konsult in Delhi, Gallery Sumukha in Bangalore, Art Houz in Bangalore, MaximiliansForum in Munich.

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Breaking the Bee
New York Premiere
2018 | USA | 96 mins | English
Directed by - Sam Rega
Produced by - Chris Weller

Post-Screening discussion with director Sam Rega

Trailer: https://youtu.be/upvgZ3CmZ-0

Synopsis: As sports have shown throughout history, there are clear winners who dominate the field. The New York Yankees reigned during the 1950s. The Chicago Bulls owned the 1990s. And the New England Patriots ran the 2000s. Today, we are in the midst of a two-decade dynasty in the world of competitive spelling: Indian-American children winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a 90-year-old competition pitting students against the almighty dictionary. Since 1999, all but four contest winners have been Indian-American, and of the 285-plus children who make it to Scripps each year, roughly 25 percent come from families of Indian descent. This is something of an anomaly, as Indian-Americans make up one percent of the United States population. And it's hardly a coincidence. The perfect storm has been brewing for decades — from the 1965 immigration law that eliminated quota systems for Indian immigrants, thus driving a wave of highly-educated workers to come to the United States, to the formation of Indian-only spelling bees, to the explosion of mainstream interest in competitive spelling, ever since ESPN began broadcasting the Scripps Bee in 1994.

“Breaking the Bee” follows several second-generation Indian-American children over the course of a year, or “bee season,” as they train to become a national spelling bee champion. Some are in their final year of eligibility while others are just beginning their careers. With expert commentary from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Fareed Zakaria, comedian Hari Kondabolu, ESPN's Kevin Negandhi and past Scripps winners, the film also offers an analysis into what drives this trend, while exploring the ups and downs of chasing a dream and pondering just how long this incredible trend can last. After years of tireless devotion, who will be standing on stage as the confetti rains down?

Director: Sam Rega is a director, producer and editor. He recently directed the documentary “League of Millions” for Business Insider. The film follows a team of professional video game players in their quest to become world champions. It’s available on iTunes and Amazon. He spent four years with rakontur, the Miami studio known for the “Cocaine Cowboys” documentary series. He edited the New York City nightclub documentary “Limelight,” the Netflix hit, “Dawg Fight,” that explores the underground boxing scene in Miami as well the VH1 mini-series, “The Tanning of America,” exploring how hip-hop changed our country. His directorial debut, “Miami Noir: The Arthur E. Teele Story,” appeared on iTunes and PBS.

Reviews: http://www.richmond.com/news/local/documentary-film-crew-to-attend-richmond-times-dispatch-s-regional/article_8feb70ab-693c-5165-a148-d28bc2f00b06.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2017/03/02/students-have-eyes-san-angelo-spelling-bee-prize/98317106/
http://www.newsindiatimes.com/breaking-the-bee-a-documentary-on-stellar-spellers/21829
http://www.indiawest.com/entertainment/global/documentary-decoding-trend-of-indian-american-spelling-bee-champions-in/article_dd63d5e0-9a2b-11e6-82ac-23bd55e979db.html

Social Media Handles: http://www.breakingthebee.com, https://www.facebook.com/breakingthebee

Saturday May 12, 2018 @ 12.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

ISHU
US Premiere
2017 | India | 91 mins | Assamese (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Utpal Borpujari
Cast - Kapil Garo, Tonthoingambi Leishangthem Devi, Dipika Deka and Bishnu Kharghoria.

Winner: National Film Awards 2018 - Best Assamese Film

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mf7gLpg9qc

Synopsis: Happy-go-lucky Ishu’s world in a remote, tribal village in Assam, Northeastern India, revolves around his friends or Bhalu, his pet puppy. His days are spent with them, and with his favourite Ambika “Jethi” (aunt) . But one day, this happy world of Ishu turns topsy turvy as the village “Bej” (quack), in a conspiracy hatched with Ishu’s another Jethi Bhadreswari, declares Ambika as a witch. Beaten up by the mob and her house burnt down, Ambika vanishes, and no one seems to know where she is. Will Ishu be able to find her? What happened to Ambika?

Director: An M.Tech in Applied Geology from IIT-Roorkee, Utpal Borpujari won the Swarna Kamal for Best Film Critic at the 50th National Film Awards of India in 2003. As a professional journalist, apart from cinema, he has written extensively on politics, society, culture, literature, etc., while working with some of India’s top media houses. Since 2010, when he decided to turn a filmmaker, he has made several acclaimed documentary films that have been screened across the world in various film festivals. Among them are “Mayong: Myth/Reality” (2012), “Songs of the Blue Hills” (2013), “Soccer Queens of Rani” and “Memories of a Forgotten War” (2016). Borpujari has also served in international film juries as an erstwhile member of the International Federation of Film Critics, apart from having served on juries for National Film Awards and Indian Panorama. He has also curated films as well as served as a consultant for the Northeastern sections in the International Film Festival of India as well as various other film festivals. “Ishu” is his debut fiction feature.

Festival selections: 23rd Kolkata International Film Festival, November, 2017 (Best Director and Best Film Nominations); Canada Kids Film Festival, Toronto, 2017; 3rd Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFFCY), New Delhi, 2017; International Children Film Festival Bangladesh (International Competition) January 2018; 7th Kolkata International Children’s Film Festival, January, 2018; 10th Bengaluru International Film Festival, February 2018 (Special Jury Award in Indian Competition; Toulouse Indian Film Festival, France, (to be held in April 2018).

Social Media Handles: http://www.cfsindia.org, https://www.facebook.com/ISHU-156039948294661/

Saturday May 12, 2018 @ 3.00 pm. Auditorium 2
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Documentary Shorts

Interiors & Exteriors
2017 | Bangladesh | 8 mins | Bengali (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Ashique Mostafa
Crew - Rubaiyat Hossain, Shariful Islam Shaon.

Synopsis: A one-take observational piece about the microcosm of Islamic practices and class segregation in Bangladesh’s capital city Dhaka. Multiplicity within a Muslim community and the passage of people through one single frame documents this society’s interiors and exteriors.

Director's Statement: I believe in cinema’s ability of document truth and reality about a certain society. I am amused by the diversity of Muslims in Bangladeshi society and the range of Islamic practices people engage in. Praying five times a day is a mundane fact for most Bangladeshis. Commuters and working people often find the most unusual spots to pray in the city, open fields, sidewalks, parking lot are among the few places where people congregate to say their prayers. Praying publically is also a practice only men take part in. Another aspect of Bangladeshi society that strikes me is the harsh class difference. I wanted to reflect these elements I observe by documenting them in an observational piece that is mundane and effortless just like the action of midday prayer in the middle of one of the world’s most densely populated Muslim-majority nations of the world.

Director: New York based Bangladeshi filmmaker Ashique Mostafa, co-founder of Khona Talkies, graduated from School of Visual Arts in New York with a joint degree in Direction and Production. Recently, he has directed a short documentary film "Interiors & Exteriors" that has won Oscar® qualifying Best Short Documentary award at Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. He has produced and distributed a few critically acclaimed films such as 720 Degrees (Venice FF), Meherjaan (Fribourg FF), My Bicycle (Goteborg FF) and Under Construction (Locarno FF). He is now directing his feature-length experimental documentary essay-film ‘Invading Privacy’ shot on iPhone.

Awards: Velcom International Mobile Film Festival in Belarus 2017, Ji.hlava International Documentary FF in Czech Republic 2017, Tehran Short Film Festival in Iran 2017.

Reviews: Cineuropa Top Five Europa Shorts Of 2017, Bangladeshi short-film ‘Interiors & Exteriors’ makes way to Oscars, FNE at Jihlava IDFF: Festival Opens with Awards and a Blast to the Past.

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/KhonaTalkies/, https://twitter.com/Khona_talkies, http://www.khonatalkies.com/interiors_exteriors

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Naked Wheels
2017 | India | 30 mins | Malayalam (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Rajesh James
Crew - Jibin Jose

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhiIxIpiZ8c

Synopsis: The film is about the journey undertaken by a diverse group of people comprising males, females and transgenders across South India in a truck. The film seeks to explore many compelling thoughts on life, love, and gender. The film hopes for a society where none have to crush their desires because the majority does not understand it.

Director: Rajesh James is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and film researcher from Kochi, India. He was awarded the prestigious Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Filmmaker, India in 2017. His documentary Naked Wheels won K.F.Patil Unity in Diversity Award for Best Documentary Short at Kashish International Queer Film Festival Mumbai in 2017. He was also awarded PK Rossy Puraskaram for Best Documentary 2016 by Kerala Sthree Padana Kendram, Government of Kerala at International Feminist Film Festival of Kerala 2016.He has directed documentary films like In Thunder, Lightning and Rain (2017) and Zebra Lines (2014).

Awards: Kashish international Queer Film Festival in Mumbai 2017.

Social Media Handle: https://filmfreeway.com/project/814238

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Still Rolling - The DDLJ Story
2017 | United Kingdom, Switzerland, India | 35 mins | English
Directed by - Natashja Rathore
Crew - Dinesh Mali, Vivek Gupta, Daniel Zafer, Dhawalika Singh.

Synopsis: What makes a film do a record-breaking run of more than 1000 weeks at the box office? A filmmaker takes a journey from the bustling heart of London, to Yash Chopra's scenic Switzerland and finally to the land of colourful Bollywood to rediscover the magic of India’s longest running film 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' through meetings with Bollywood experts, encounters with fans and real life characters, and intimate interviews with the faces behind the epic tale.

Director's Statement: India has done as much for cinema as America, and there are as many great Bollywood films are there are great Hollywood films. However, despite being the second largest movie industry in the world, Hindi films are often indefensibly ignored. It angers me to think of Indians who are ashamed of it and it saddens me to think of moviegoers who are yet to experience its joys. A documentary on the longest running film in History and a film that I have personally watched over 50 times and grown up with, certainly felt like a stepping-stone towards changing the mindset that people have towards Indian cinema. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) released way back in 1995 and even after 1000 weeks after its uninterrupted run a cinema in Mumbai, it continues to tug at the heartstrings of the young, middle-aged and old alike – not just in India but across the world. To me, it’s a question that any filmmaker or aspiring filmmaker would ask – “Seriously?! But what’s so special about it?” and so I had to set out on a journey to find out.

Director: Natashja Rathore is born in Singapore and having spent the formative years of her life in Mumbai. Natashja completed her IB Diploma in 2008 at the age of 18 with a natural inclination towards photography and the arts, following which, she dabbled as an intern at GQ Magazine and commercial and feature film sets as an assistant, before heading off to Film School for her formal education in Filmmaking. Over the span of her academic career at LASALLE College of the Arts (B.A Hons Film 2009-2012) and then at The London Film School (M.A. Filmmaking 2013-2016) Natashja has directed over half a dozen short films of her own and has also crewed for a number of short films as assistant director, producer, cinematographer, production designer, sound recordist, and editor. Her strength however lies in organization and ‘Making things happen’.

Reviews: Student Film explores the Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge phenomenon, Love that endures: Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, The DDLJ Documentary!, Documentary on Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge attempts to trace Raj & Simran's Journey, Students from London Film School making a documentary on DDLJ, Iconic: Meet the young filmmaker paying homeage to Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Natashja Rathore Interview.

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/theddljdocumentary, https://www.twitter.com/theddljdoc, http://www.theddljdocumentary.com

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Limitless
2017 | India | 59 mins | English
Directed by - Vrinda Samartha
Cast - Siddhartha Nuni, Abhro Banerjee.

Post-Screening discussion with director Vrinda Samartha

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6GJDgCz48Q

Synopsis: For an Indian woman, identity is a very elusive thing. Who she is, is often defined by her family, shaped by her children and their needs, and lost in the haze of providing for and accommodating others. Her health, hope and dreams take a beating. Before she knows it, she becomes a mere shadow of her true self.

Limitless explores the lives of eight long distance women runners, who rediscovered themselves through running. It is a film that reveals their insecurities, their bruised body image, their battered self-confidence, their guilt at accepting that they need some me-time too. This is the story of women who’ve reached the edge of their bounds, braved against them, pushed them. And discovered that only sky is the limit.

Director: Vrinda Samartha enjoys experimenting and constantly recreating new narrative styles. She finds raw and real characters and stories most appealing and powerful. She started as an assistant director in Trends Ad Films. Where she worked under National award winner V K Prakash. Since then she has worked on many national and international campaigns and feature films.

She has also acted in Kannada regional film Aidondla Aidu, which was a official selection in Indian Panorama. As a part of Believe Films she has worked on many Ad and digital campaign for agencies. Limitless is her first feature documentary as a Director.

Review: http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/The-running-sisterhood/article16439190.ece

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/doc.limitless/

Saturday May 12, 2018 @ 3.15 pm. Auditorium 3
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Shorts E - Romance & Comedies

From Jappan
2017 | USA | 8 mins | English
Directed by - Raj Trivedi
Cast - Aiden Eyrick, Liam Dussek, Liba Vaynberg, Matthew Kodi, Purva Bedi, Siraj Huda, Sophia Telegadis, Andrew Ellmaker.

Synopsis: The pilot for a series about 12 year old Jappan Mehta who navigates his American life besides his very Indian parents. 'An Indian-American 'Wonder Years'.

Director: Raj Trivedi is a Brooklyn based filmmaker and a graduate CUM LAUDE of the MFA Film program at Columbia University in New York City. Besides writing, directing and producing films, he is a keen reader and is always looking forward to forming new collaborations.

Social Media Handles: http://www.rajtrivedi.com. Instagram: rage_trivedi. Twitter: @rajt.

Review: The New York Television Festival is proud to announce the following 52 Official Selections to the 2017 Independent Pilot Competition

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Layover
2017 | USA | 9 mins | Bengali (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Mahesh Pailoor & Anu Pradhan
Cast - Rupak Ginn, Pia Shah.

Synopsis: Past meets present when Vik and Meera decide to recreate an early date during a layover at LAX.

Director: Mahesh Pailoor grew up in Saco, Maine and studied film as an undergraduate at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He furthered his training as a directing fellow at the American Film Institute, where he was awarded the prestigious Franklin J. Schaffner Award for the direction of his thesis film, STILL LIFE. Mahesh directed and co-wrote Brahmin Bulls, an independent feature film starring Sendhil Ramamurthy, Roshan Seth, and Academy Award Winner Mary Steenburgen. It enjoyed a limited theatrical release in the US and UK, with The New York Times calling it “a warm debut” and the Village Voice praising it as “an accomplished first feature.” Mahesh is an alumnus of the Berlin Talent Campus, Film Independent’s Project Involve and Screenwriting Labs, and the ABC/DGA Directing Program.

Director: Anu Pradhan began her career with a love of live performance that quickly expanded to include film. A Fulbright Scholar in kathak dance, Anu lived in Bombay, India, where she trained in classical dance and acted in films and on stage before moving back to the US to pursue an MFA in Directing at the American Film Institute. At the AFI, Anu wrote and directed the Sloan Award winning short film Dharini. Anu also co-wrote and co-produced the independent feature film Brahmin Bulls, starring Sendhil Ramamurthy, Roshan Seth, and Mary Steenburgen. Anu also enjoyed working in Talent Development at NBC Universal and in Production at HBO. She is an alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve.

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Tej Bahadur
2017 | India | 10 mins | Bengali (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Abhishek Mukherjee
Cast - Barun Chanda, Gora Dhar, Suhotra Mukhopadhyay, Ramyadip Saha.

Synopsis: Pankaj is a respected film critic working for a leading Bengali newspaper Janashakti in Calcutta. One day, the newspaper's editor Nirmal Chatterjee calls Pankaj in his office and asks him to re-write his article in which he severely criticized the film Tej Bahadur. Bewildered, Pankaj confronts his editor and refuses to praise the film. As the pressure mounts on Pankaj, he discovers that it is the producers of the film who are actually behind this, and that he must either do what his editor desires or face consequences. Finally the editor threatens Pankaj by proposing to give his column space to someone else. Pankaj, unable to see any other way out, eventually gives in.

Director: Born in Kolkata, India. Abhishek Mukherjee works in a leading multinational consulting firm as a Senior Consultant. An Engineer by profession, he fell in love with filmmaking in his mid twenties and has been doing film and video editing jobs since then. With Tej Bahadur, his first short film, he has started following his ultimate passion, filmmaking.

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Life in Other Words
2017 | Bangladesh | 15 mins | Bengali (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Abrar Athar
Cast - Masum Basher, Aanon Siddiqua, Ferdousi Ahmed, Hridoy Hossain, Tuhin Tamijul.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT1vfj-m2ls

Synopsis: The Kabir family are having a terrible day. Their doting son, Ronny has failed class five and his sister, Reenu has quit her job. All this on a day when there is barely any food at home and Bangladesh is playing a crucial cricket match against England in the World Cup. It couldn't get any worse for Kabir.

Director's Statement: Cricket, in the current Bangladesh social scenario, is our messiah. For a country that goes through turmoil every other day, you’d expect people to be all over each other, at each other’s throat. In fact, they are, on most days! But cricket helps keep the balance. It’s the essential happy quotient most Bangladesh crave for. It brings us hope that, someday not too far away, we stuff people associate with sporting triumphs.
Life in other words is, before anything, a real story. A real story about real people. The story is about Kabir Shaheb’s family and their dreams. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about Hena choosing to eat only after everyone in the family has had their share. It’s about broken dreams and hope; because after all she has to go through, Reenu dreams that someday, someone (preferably handsome) will see all the love she has to give. Life in Other Words is real because I myself failed Class 5 just like Rony, and both my mother and I thought the world would end. Good thing, life had other plans-the end of the world such a young age would have been pretty tragic! There’s a Kabir Shaheb in all of us, and all he is screaming out for is some love and understanding. Because what’s life without a whole lotta love!

Director: Abrar Athar is a Bangladesh based filmmaker and co-founder of the advertising film Medium Rare and production house Little Big Films. With an eye for breathtaking visuals and a knack for visual comedy, Athar found success directing commercials and TV shows. A self-proclaimed problem child, Athar’s early childhood was spent in both Bangladesh and India. His offbeat worldview on family values is reflected in his debut short film ‘Life in Other Words,’ a comedy drama exploring the dynamics of a Bangladeshi middle-class family on possibly the worst day of their lives. A film about simple struggles and finding hope in times of despair, Life in Other Words is already making rounds at international film festivals, winning awards including the best screenplay and best short film. Athar has a degree in Film Direction and Television Journalism from the Asian Academy of Film & Television (AAFT) in Noida, India.

Social Media Handle: https://www.facebook.com/littlebigbd/?ref=br_rs

Review: Life in Other Words short film

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And sometimes, she loved me too.
2017 | India | 15 mins | English
Directed by - Karan Talwar
Cast - Sankalp Rawal, Neil Bhoopalam, Yuki Ellias, Akshay Singh

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDk_axbwORY

Synopsis: 'And sometimes, she loved me too' explores the melancholia of objects left behind by lovers after the demise of their relationship. A soundscape of memories breathes life to these belongings, giving us an insight into the bitter-sweet experiences shared by them. Having inhabited the same space as the couple, we find that a macro exploration of these ordinary objects, helps us thread together the slow degradation of their companionship.

The film chronicles the beauty and tragedy that is love. The ephemeral is revealed to us through the mundane. The narrative is a patchwork of intimate moments, which while personal are also universal. This allows the viewer to project their own memories & associations, creating a sort of palimpsest. The work gets it's inspiration from Object Theatre and the filmmaker's curatorial experience with the contemporary art exhibit 'The Museum of Ordinary Objects'.

Director's Statement: This film is an exploratory work which has come out of my long collaboration with Object Theatre, Visual Arts and curatorial adventures with - The Museum of Ordinary Objects -. Objects for me, are memory boxes. They can be deeply personal, profoundly universal & poignant symbols of association. In their quiet, unassuming, unexpected way, ordinary objects speak of us and our times. It tells a heartbreaking story of a romantic relationship. Objects, inhabiting the same space with the couple, reveal snippets through a soundscape of their time together and of the slow degradation of their companionship. Visually, we see them up close, with all their macro details, like looking through a magnifying glass, putting them centerstage, like one usually never sees them. The film has been designed in a personal yet universal way, trying to hinge a story but also leave open interpretation such that this could be any relationship.

Director: Karan Talwar is a filmmaker and co-founder/curator at Harkat Studios, a multi-disciplinary boutique arts studio based in Mumbai. He has spent the majority of career being an Associate Director in mainstream Hindi cinema, most notably with socio-political director Prakash Jha in films like Raajneeti, Satyagraha, Chakravyuh, Aarakshan (IMDB) and has directed a host of digital commercials, short documentary stories and fashion films as part of his work at Harkat.

Karan’s creative career has been a maze of meandering experiences, which has led him to hone his skills in various disciplines. From curating exhibits like ‘The Museum of Ordinary Objects’ and ‘In the mood for Melancholia’ to a background in independent graphic and product design, Karan is now stepping into his own voice in the film medium.
‘And sometimes. She loved me too.’ is his first personal work as a filmmaker.

Social Media Handles: http://www.facebook.com/harkatstudios, https://www.instagram.com/harkat.studios/, http://www.harkat.in, https://www.facebook.com/yuki.ellias, https://www.facebook.com/nbhoopalam, https://www.facebook.com/talwar.karan, https://www.instagram.com/talwar_karan/, https://twitter.com/talwar_karan.

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Ullangai Nellikkani (A Gooseberry in her Palm)
2017 | India | 17 mins | Tamil (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Arikara Sudhan

Synopsis: A quietly observant librarian strikes up a conversation with a diligent student who appears in need of a kind ear to listen to her romantic woes.

Director: Arikara Sudhan is a direction graduate of Dr MGR Govt film and television institute, Chennai. He assisted national award winning director Vasantabalan on his feature film “Kaviyathalaivan”.

His previous short “Kankanikkum Maranam” won many awards and was featured by famed critic Baradwaj Rangan in his blog.

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Shameless
2017 | India | 18 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Keith Gomes
Cast - Hussain Dalal, Sayani Gupta.

Synopsis: An uncouth work from home guy constantly orders home delivery. One evening while accepting a delivery he is knocked out and wakes up to find himself tied to a chair and confronted by the delivery girl.

Director's Statement: Technology a blessing or evil? I always ask myself. It's great, if used moderately to serve its purpose. The world is hooked onto a screen. Looking at my friends parenting with the use of technology, I made my first short, Childs play, a psychological breakdown of a child's mind due to technology.

Due to technology, people are becoming less human, more isolated and fragile. Virtual communication is destroying person to person relationships. Hence I decided to make Shameless, to expose this human erosion. India has a deep divide between class and race and urban India is clueless of the real India. Being a city boy myself, I was as ignorant. In Shameless, I tried to touch a nerve about the class divide and humanity. but finally, no matter what happens to us, we go back to being who we really are.

Director: Keith Gomes started his career with Riyad Wadia, an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, he moved onto commercial and then Bollywood. Having worked as a first AD, Associate, second unit Director on big budget films like Taxi 9211, Heyy Babyy, Aladdin, Once upon a time in Mumbai, Knockout and Kick. He co-wrote screenplay for KICK, one of the top grossers of 2015. His first short film Childs play, premiered at Cannes short corner and LA short film festival. Currently directing a series of VR films and developing his debut feature with Oscar winner Marc Baschet (ASAP films).

Review: Actor Sayani Gupta signs a short film with writer of Salman Khan starrer Kick

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Jaan Jigar (Beloved)
2017 | India | 19 mins | Hindi (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Ranjan Chandel Singh
Cast - Shivani Raghuvanshi, Piyush Puty.

Synopsis: 'Jaan Jigar' is a story of a boy and a girl living in northern part of India, exploring the early nuances of sexuality and love, decide to meet up at a secluded place for their first kiss. But it's not simple as it sounds for the easy exchange of sexual connotations on phone turns out to be a gargantuan task when they come face to face. Adding icing to the cake, comes a baggage of personified cultural and social vigilantes armed with the task of moral policing. Will the first kiss happen between them?

Director's Statement: I am Ranjan Chandel, a first time filmmaker. I have written the film Mukkabaaz (Directed by Anurag Kashyap) and Juice (Short film directed by Neeraj Ghaywan). I had a story with me, evolved from one of my teenage experience, which I wanted to make into a film. This is my effort to express how the freedom to love is an important right and how some politically motivated social elements end up often curtailing this quite brutally and this practice is quite common in India. I hope the audience connects with and enjoy the emotion I tried to portray in the film.

Director: Ranjan Chandel Singh is a first time filmmaker from India. He worked as an assistant director to Mr Anurag Kashyap on his feature film Raman Raghav 2.0 (Psycho Raman 2.0) and Co Written Anurag Kashyap's upcoming Film 'Mukkabaaz'.

Social Media Handle: https://www.facebook.com/JaanJigarBeloved/?ref=bookmarks

and

Tara Versus
2017 | U S A, Singapore, India | 21 mins | English
Directed by - Ayesha Anna Ninan
Cast - Aditi Vasudev, Amogh Ranadive, Shikha Talsania, Malay Prakash.

Synopsis: A struggling comedian has a hard time seeing the funny side of things when her career stagnates while her best friend gets a promotion.

Director: Ayesha Anna Ninan is a filmmaker based in India. She works with a commercial production house in Mumbai, and serves as a producer and editor on various short format projects across South East Asia. Previously, she set up the production department at actor/ comedian Vir Das' company, and has produced and directed short films in Singapore, Vietnam and India. She holds a BA from the University of Virginia, and an MFA in film production from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Asia.

Reviews: Announcing the 2017 Hollywood Foreign Press Association Award Recipients, http://www.indianfilmfestival.org/films/tara-versus/

and

Shame
2018 | India | 24 mins | Hindi & English (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Anusha Bose
Cast - Swara Bhasker, Ranvir Shorey, Tara Sharma Saluja, Sayani Gupta, Cyrus Sahukar, Seema Bhargava Pahwa.

Synopsis: “These people walk the same corridors as us and forget where they come from, who they are..” It is with this harsh reminder that Sumer Seth, a guest at a posh hotel fires housekeeping staff -Fanny Lobo when she’s caught trying on his girl friend’s lingerie. SHAME is a dark comedy that walks the thin line separating the two worlds; the haves from the have-nots; the affluent from the service providers; the indulgent from the repressed. And it is when Fanny slips and crosses the forbidden line in a moment of temptation that she confronts both the wrath of her employers and the demon within. Shame is the twisted journey of a meek, vulnerable woman who emerges from the background to unapologetically reclaim her dignity, confidence and her right to desire.

Director’s Statement: The character of the protagonist, Fanny and the premise of the film was inspired by a real incident; one that made me consider the thankless jobs of those who provide for us silently; unrewarded, often slighted and mostly invisible. We hardly ever express our gratitude or acknowledge their efforts or wonder if our indifference ever makes them feel small. 'Shame' is an ode to the backgroundworker, with the power to make or break the day!

Director: Anusha Bose was an executive producer on 10ml Love - a contemporary indian adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Dir, Sharat Katariya). She was a supervising producer with NDTV, designing content across 4 channels- 24x7 (English) and NDTV India (Hindi) and Prime (Business), Good Times (Lifestyle). Also a executive producer with the Star Network Content Engine; conceptualising and developing shows for Star Plus, Life OK, Jalsa, Channel V and Pravah. Her business development head for production house, Rowdy Rascal. She is a screenplay writer for film, TV and the web.

Social Media Handles: https://www.facebook.com/findanushabose
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009064153908

Saturday May 12, 2018 @ 3.30 pm. Auditorium 4
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.

Noblemen
New York Premiere
2018 | India | 108 mins | English
Directed by - Vandana Kataria
Cast - Kunal Kapoor, Ali Haji, Mohammad Ali Mir, Muskaan Jaferi, Shaan Grover, Hardik Thakkar, Ramanuj Dutta, Sonia Bahl.

Post-Screening discussion with director Vandana Kataria

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/249640748 (Password:TINTLINK)

Synopsis: It is winter in a prestigious all boys' boarding school, where children continue to practice age-old rituals and codes bound by years of hierarchy. Shay is picked on constantly, the main perpetrators being Arjun, the tall athletic sports captain, and his best friend Baadal. Shay and Pia, the spunky daughter of the new Junior School Principal are cast as Bassanio and Portia in the Founder's Day production of Merchant of Venice. Murali, the charismatic drama teacher unknowingly adds salt to Baadal's wounds by casting him as Shay's understudy. Indignant, Baadal vows to get Shay's part at any cost and turns to his buddy Arjun for help. Events take a sinister turn when Shay walks in on Arjun, Baadal, and their cronies on a debauched night.

Director: Vandana Kataria graduated from the National Institute of Design. She began her career in films as a production designer working on films such as 'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008)', 'Shanghai (2012)', and 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshi (2015)'. She was selected to be a part of the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2016, and directed the music video 'Jungli Sher' for Indian rap sensation DIVINE, shot entirely on an iPhone 6S in the same year. Vandana has in the past also directed television commercials and is making her debut as a writer and director with a feature length film titled 'Noblemen'.

Social Media Handles: https://twitter.com/YoodleeFilms, https://www.facebook.com/yoodleefilms, https://www.instagram.com/yoodleefilms/, http://www.saregama.com/yoodleefilms

Closing Night
Saturday May 12, 2018 @ 6 pm. Auditorium 1
Village East Cinemas, 2nd Avenue @ 12th Street, NYC.

Tickets: $50, $45 IAAC members.
(includes Red carpet, Cocktail Party, Hansal Mehta's Omerta, post-screening discussion, Award Ceremony, Afterparty)

OMERTA
New York Premiere
2017 | India | 96 mins | English, Hindi & Urdu (with English subtitles)
Directed by - Hansal Mehta
Produced by - Nahid Khan & Shailesh Singh
Cast - Rajkummar Rao,Timothy Ryan Hickernell, Mukesh Chhabra,Rajesh Tailang,Keval Arora, Blake Allen, Nisha George

Post-screening discussion with director Hansal Mehta, actor Rajkummar Rao and Timothy Ryan Hickernell

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvDoOKJrrU4

Synopsis: "It is no nation we inhabit, but a language. Make no mistake; our native tongue is our true fatherland." – Emil Cioran.

He is a paradox among men. Son to a loving father, he is also the adopted son of a nation that sponsors terror outfits across the world.

Educated at LSE, he is also educated in urban warfare, bomb making, advanced psychological warfare and irregular tactics by the leaders of the craft. Abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, he drinks only milk. The plight of his brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers in the Bosnian War leaves him a wreck. Yet he does the same to innocents in his own brand of twisted justice, sanctioned at least in his eyes by all seeing, all-powerful God. He thinks of himself as a savior, adored by millions of fanatics. Yet wanted by almost every law enforcement agency in the world.

Living in a prison, he lords over his dominion, sowing the seeds of terror and discord, toppling governments and regimes. A spider pulling at a thousand strings in a web only he understands.

He is the man who almost set two nuclear ready nations at each other’s throats.

His name is Sheik Syed, Ahmad Umar Sheikh, Ahmed Omar Sayed Sheikh, Umar Sheikh, Sheik Omar Saeed, Omar Saiid Sheikh, Sheikh Omar, Sheikh Omar, Shaykh Saiid. Out of these names and many more, the one he was born with was Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.

Omerta is a mind numbing and cerebral take at the complex paradox of a man. Omerta is the code of silence, punishable by death if violated. The secrets of the real Omar will go with him to his grave; this Omerta is a look at trying to understand the mind of a man who is out of touch with the world. A man who lives two lives, a man who has a wife and child, but no friends except those who further his needs.

The films posits the question of what it means to be a fundamentalist, why does someone pick up a gun with the intent of killing in return for an afterlife in Paradise. Unapologetic in its approach, it lays down the bare facts and the facts alone and leaves the viewer with a sense of awe, disgust, hate, surprise and lets them examine the ramifications of these events in their lives today.

Director: Hansal Mehta is an established Indian film director, producer, writer and an actor who started off with directing a very popular television cookery show ‘Khana Khazana’ in 1993 followed by several television series like Amrita, Highway, Yaadein, Lakshya and many more.

Hansal started his journey as a feature film director in 1999 with the acclaimed Jayate (Victory) and later on directed the migrant tale Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar and a short film in Dus Kahaniyaan. Mehta directed his much-acclaimed film, Shahid starring Rajkummar Rao in 2013. The movie, which is a biographical film on the life of human rights lawyer Shahid Azmi, went on to winning the National Film Award for Best Director and Best Actor.

Reviews: https://www.facebook.com/ndtv/videos/10156458921565798/
Social Media Handles: Twitter: @RajkummarRao, Twitter: @mehtahansal