NYIFF 2018

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