IFFLA Announces 2009 Award Winners

2009 INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF LOS ANGELES
ANNOUNCES AWARD WINNERS

“SITA SINGS THE BLUES” RECEIVES THE JURY PRIZE
FOR BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE

“CHILDREN OF THE PYRE” RECEIVES THE JURY PRIZE
FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY

“NARMEEN”
IS NAMED BEST SHORT FILM

AND

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS GO TO “LITTLE ZIZOU” FOR NARRATIVE FEATURE, “SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON” FOR DOCUMENTARY AND “KAVI” FOR SHORT

HOLLYWOOD, CA, April 26, 2009 – The 7th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles announces its 2009 Award winners with Nina Paley’s SITA SINGS THE BLUES as the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature and Nandita Das’s FIRAAQ receiving an Honorable Mention in the category. Rajesh Jala’s CHILDREN OF THE PYRE was named as the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary. Dipti Gogna’s NARMEEN won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short with Sushrut Jain’s ANDHERI receiving an Honorable Mention.

Audience Choice Awards went to Sooni Taraporevala’s LITTLE ZIZOU for Narrative, Faiza Ahmad Khan’s SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON for Documentary and Gregg Helvey’s KAVI for the Short Film category.

Christina Marouda, IFFLA Director, said, “This film festival has been a pivotal one in celebrating the impressive diversity of filmmaking styles and vision from both well known Indian filmmakers and new cinematic voices emerging in the Indian filmmaking community. And the award winners only highlighted that fact. IFFLA also took another important step in establishing itself as a key annual event for the Hollywood and Indian entertainment business community to come together and collaborate.”

JURY AWARDS:

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE: SITA SINGS THE BLUES
DIR/PROD/SCR/ED: Nina Paley
Cast: Annette Hanshaw, Aseem Chhabra, Manish Acharya, Bhavana Nagulapally, Reena Shah

HONORABLE MENTION: FIRAAQ
DIR: Nandita Das
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Tisca Chopra, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Raghuveer Yadav

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: CHILDREN OF THE PYRE
DIR: Rajesh Jala

BEST SHORT FILM: NARMEEN
DIR: Dipti Gogna

HONORABLE MENTION: ANDHERI
DIR: Sushrut Jain

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

NARRATIVE: LITTLE ZIZOU
DIR: Sooni Taraporevala
Cast: Boman Irani, Sohrab Ardeshir, Zenobia Shroff, Shernaz Patel, Imaad Shah, John Abraham

DOCUMENTARY: SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON
DIR: Faiza Ahmad Khan

SHORT: KAVI
DIR: Gregg Helvey

2009 IFFLA JURY MEMBERS:

Features Jury

Paul Federbush
Paul Federbush is a thirteen-year independent film production, development and acquisition executive. While Paul has spent the majority of his career working within the studio system, most recently as a founding member and Senior Vice President of Production and Acquisitions at Warner Independent Pictures (WIP), he has also served as a conduit between the studios and the worlds of independent and international film.  Some films acquired during his tenure at WIP include SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, PARADISE NOW, and GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

Rana Joy Glickman
Rana Joy Glickman rode into the film industry on horseback starting out as an equestrian stunt woman. Raised in NYC, Rana Joy was immersed in theater, film, photography, ballet, and music. She ultimately started producing, writing and directing. Her films have premiered at many festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and New York. Some of her films include: GOD SAID, “HA!” KICKING AND SCREAMING, FULL TILT BOOGIE, FEMALE PERVERSIONS, and SLEEP WITH ME. Her production company Shakrah Films is in post and development with a slate of captivating independent films.

Matt Holzman
An award-winning public radio arts and culture reporter, Matt Holzman is now the producer of The Business, public radio’s show about the business of show business heard locally on KCRW 89.9FM. He also comments on the state of the business with The Business Brief during KCRW’s afternoon broadcast of NPR’s All Things Considered and is the curator and host of Matt’s Movies, the station’s highly-regarded screening series for members. His opinions can be strongly swayed by a generous serving of homemade Tikka Masala.

Richard Shepard
Richard Shepard is an Emmy-Winning director (for the pilot of UGLY BETTY) of such movies as THE MATADOR with Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, and THE HUNTING PARTY with Terrence Howard and Richard Gere. Besides UGLY BETTY, Richard directed the pilot for CRIMINAL MINDS. His latest film, I KNEW IT WAS YOU, a documentary about John Cazale (Fredo in THE GODFATHER), premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and will air on HBO in the fall.

Gill Dennis
Gill Dennis is a Master Filmmaker-in-Residence at the American Film Institute Conservatory. In addition to the 2005 film WALK THE LINE, he wrote the mini-series “Home Fires” for Showtime, which was selected by Time Magazine as among television’s Top Ten in 1987 and has received the Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Direction in the theater. Recently, Gill wrote THE SMALL BOAT OF GREAT SORROWS for Kennedy/Marshall, THE TATTOOED SOLDIER for Davids/Canton, and FOREVER with Tatia Pilieva for Present Pictures.

Documentaries Jury

Mark Jonathan Harris
Mark Jonathan Harris is an Academy-Award® winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, novelist, and film professor. Among the many documentaries he has written, produced and/or directed are THE LONG WAY HOME and INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS: STORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT, both winners of an Academy Award® for Best Feature Length Documentary in 1997 and 2000, respectively.  Since 1983 Harris has taught filmmaking at the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California, where he is a Distinguished Professor.

Michael Lumpkin
In January 2009 Michael Lumpkin took over the leadership of the International Documentary Association as its new Executive Director. He had previously served as both Executive Director of Frameline and Festival Director for the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.  He also co-produced the highly acclaimed documentary THE CELLULOID CLOSET.  Michael has participated as a competition juror for the Sundance Film Festival, and served in an advisory capacity for numerous film festivals around the world.

David Tenzer
David Tenzer is an entertainment lawyer, business consultant and content producer, with extensive experience in many sectors of the media industry. For more than 20 years, David worked at Creative Artist Agency as an executive in Motion Picture Business Affairs before moving on to head Television Business Affairs. As a television packaging agent, David was responsible for selling more than 40 produced series, movies and specials, with budgets in excess of $800 million. David currently is on the board of directors of the International Documentary Association and the Banff World Television Festival.

Shorts Jury

Rupak Ginn
Rupak Ginn’s love for acting started at a young age and followed him into college at Harvard University, where during his senior year, director Mira Nair offered him a supporting role in THE NAMESAKE. Upon graduation, he ventured into the off Broadway world of New York City theater before he moved to Los Angeles. While in Los Angeles, he landed a breakout role in Disney’s “The Cheetah Girls: One World”, where he played romantic lead Rahim, a Bollywood star. Rupak sits on Variety’s Power of Youth Advisory Board and volunteers with Aid Still Required in their campaign against genocide in Darfur.

Linda “O.” Olszewski
Linda “O.” Olszewski joined SHORTS INTERNATIONAL in January 2006 as co-head of global acquisitions.  She acquires for and leads SHORTS on iTUNES USA, UK & Canada, and acquires films for SHORTS TV, television broadcast, new media and airline clients. Her credits include co-founder/director of the DreamWorks Short Film Festival; worldwide acquisitions director for EVEO; head of shorts for THE HATCHERY; and senior programmer for the Palm Springs Short Film Festival.

Hebe Tabachnik
Hebe Tabachnik is a short film programmer for Sundance and Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF), as well as a feature film Latin American Consultant for the LAFF and Palms Springs International Film Festival. She also serves on the selection committee and the Board of Directors for Dance Camera West.  She is also the Co-Founder and Vice President of Lokro Productions, Inc., a film production company established in 1999 which produced the 3-D World Film Expos in 2003 and 2006, the largest retrospectives on 3-D films ever presented in the U.S.

The Indian Film festival of Los Angeles kicked off with the Opening Night Gala presentation of Anand Surapur’s THE FAKIR OF VENICE on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinemas in Hollywood. The evening’s festivities also included an after party at Crimson & Opera featuring culinary delights by Chakra Cuisine and performances by DJ Sandeep Kumar and Indian/Bollywood Fusion dance and drama team Project Pulse. Opening Night also featured the official launch of CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s and Suneel Gupta’s Kahani Movement. The brothers are co-founders of the film project to capture and share stories from Indians that immigrated to the United States. Kahani accomplishes this by motivating second-generation Indian Americans to pick up a camera, interview their parents, and then post that footage to a central website.

Other highlights included a salute to Bollywood legend Anil Kapoor one of Indian cinema’s most significant and popular personalities which included screenings of Kapoor’s classic films LAMHE (1991) and VIRASAT (1997) as well as the world premiere of the English language version of Kapoor’s production of GANDHI, MY FATHER (2007).  IFFLA also continued its ongoing commitment to supporting and showcasing restored prints of Indian classic films, as it paid homage to BR Chopra by screening his classic, NAYA DAUR.

The presentation of the 2009 IFFLA Industry Leadership Award to Richard Fox and Amit Khanna took place on Thursday, April 23 at the House of Blues in West Hollywood. Fox is the Executive Vice President of Warner Bros. International and heads up all of Warner Bros.’ non-US initiatives in all phases of the entertainment industry. Khanna is the Chairman of Reliance BIG Entertainment, the media arm of the $75 billion Ambani Group that recently completed its purchase of Dreamworks and announced that it would spend $1 billion on the Indian film and entertainment business. Presenting the awards were Walt Disney International Chairman Andy Bird and Deborah Bothun, entertainment media and communications advisory leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The event also included a musical performance by Gingger Shankar.

IFFLA’s popular Rhythm Village, presented by Rukus Avenue, featured free public outdoor entertainment at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinemas courtyard including performances by the entertaining and eclectic talent assembled are the South Asian acapella group Andaaz; performing duo The Dyad; “conscious” music artist Hoodini; the desi outfit O.C.P.; IFFLA alumni and sketch performer Rasika Mathur; experimental fusion group, The Rhetoricalz; and singer songwriter and multi-instramentalist Tasneem Nanji.

The festival closed with the IFFLA Closing Night Gala presentation of YES MADAM, SIR on Sunday, April 26 at ArcLight Hollywood. A documentary profiling Dr. Kiran Bedi, the first woman to join the Indian Police Service and a controversial and inspiring figure in India. Dr. Bedi attended the festival as a guest of honor that evening along with director, Doneman. The evening concluded with an after party at The Cabana Club, which once again featured culinary delights by Chakra Cuisine and performances by DJ Sandeep Kumar and Indian/Bollywood Fusion dance and drama team Project Pulse.

The 2009 IFFLA lineup showcased 21 features (16 narrative and 5 documentary) and 16 shorts for a total of 37 films representing 5 countries.

IFFLA Announces 2009 Full Schedule

7TH ANNUAL INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF LOS ANGELES
ANNOUNCES FULL SCHEDULE

THE FAKIR OF VENICE IS OPENING NIGHT GALA PRESENTATION

DR. SANJAY GUPTA AND SUNEEL GUPTA LAUNCH
KAHANI MOVEMENT

FILMS ANNOUNCED INCLUDE EIGHT WORLD PREMIERES,
NINE U.S. PREMIERES AND THIRTEEN L.A. PREMIERES

LOS ANGELES, CA, March 30, 2009 – The 7th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) announces the full schedule of films for the 2009 edition of the popular festival which runs April 21-26, including five feature films making their world premiere, five features making their U.S. premiere, and five features making their L.A. debut.

Celebrating its 7th anniversary in a year where Indian cinema has come to the forefront both in the national and international consciousness, IFFLA has firmly established itself as the first and largest film festival worldwide devoted to a greater appreciation of Indian cinema and culture through showcasing films, honoring entertainment industry performers and business executives, and promoting the diverse perspectives of the Indian diaspora. The six-day festival is set to open on Tuesday, April 21 at ArcLight Hollywood Cinemas with the World Premiere of Anand Surapur’s THE FAKIR OF VENICE, and close on Sunday, April 26 with Megan Doneman’s YES MADAM, SIR a documentary profiling Dr. Kiran Bedi, the first woman to join the Indian Police Service and a controversial and inspiring figure in India. Dr. Bedi will be in attendance as a guest of honor that evening along with director, Doneman.

Surapur’s THE FAKIR OF VENICE is about a hustler who is tasked with finding a fakir – a holy man, known for performing feats of endurance. Instead he finds a poor man who buries himself in sand on the beach to collect money from passersby and tourists. Together, the two con men venture to Venice, finding themselves in a strange land where their culture is commodified and exploited for artistic, political and spiritual purposes. Ultimately, they are forced to examine the course of their individual lives. Produced by Phat Phish Motion Pictures, the film stars noted filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, in his acting debut and Anu Kapoor. Surapur and Akhtar will both be attending the festival.

Regarding the film’s premiere, Akhtar said, “It is an honor to have THE FAKIR OF VENICE open the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. The film is an apt representation of a new kind of Indian cinema and I hope it will serve as a window through which the world can glimpse this evolution. Anand Surapur has been pushing the creative boundaries in television, music and film for years and this opportunity and recognition is truly well deserved. Congratulations to him and the entire team at Phat Phish.” An entertainment company on the pulse of contemporary Indian media/entertainment, Phat Phish Motion Pictures also is behind the feature QUICK GUN MURUGUN, screening at IFFLA this year.

Highlights of the 2009 program include high profile films from women including Nandita Das’s directorial debut, FIRAAQ, Deepa Mehta’s HEAVEN ON EARTH (the follow up to her Academy Award-nominated film, WATER), Sooni Taraporevala’s LITTLE ZIZOU (executive produced by Mira Nair), and Nina Paley’s animated SITA SINGS THE BLUES. The films lead an impressive list of nine films helmed by female filmmakers at this year’s festival.

Highly anticipated this year will be the salute to Bollywood legend Anil Kapoor one of Indian cinema’s most significant and popular personalities. The salute will include screenings of Kapoor’s classic films LAMHE (1991) and VIRASAT (1997) as well as the world premiere of the English language version of GANDHI, MY FATHER (2007). Kapoor produced the film which explores the cost Mahatma Gandhi’s own family bore due to his efforts to free the nation of India.

As part of IFFLA’s ongoing commitment to supporting and showcasing restored prints of Indian classic films, the festival will pay homage to BR Chopra by screening his classic, NAYA DAUR. One of the great Indian filmmakers, B.R. Chopra was famous for making hit Bollywood musicals with socially relevant themes. NAYA DAUR is arguably his most famous work, as it tackled the conflict between traditional Gandhian ideals and modern technology. The visually stunning restored colorized print will display the film in all its splendor on ArcLight Hollywood’s screen.

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Suneel Gupta will officially launch the Kahani Movement at IFFLA. The brothers are co-founders of the film project to capture and share stories from Indians that immigrated to the United States. Kahani accomplishes this by motivating second-generation Indian Americans to pick up a camera, interview their parents, and then post that footage to a central website. “These cherished stories are evaporating along with the people who lived them,” says co-founder Dr. Sanjay Gupta. “It is our generation’s responsibility to preserve those stories, so that they are never lost.” The process of collecting the stories has informally taken place for nearly a year prior to this official unveiling.

Also among IFFLA’s featured events will be a dinner to honor those selected for Korn/Ferry International’s list of 25 Most Influential South Asian executives in the U.S. entertainment and media industry. The list was created to recognize senior executives of South Asian background who have excelled in various roles within the entertainment business community.

The Opening and Closing Night Galas will feature music by DJ Sandeep Kumar and performances by Project Pulse, the popular Indian/Bollywood Fusion dance and drama team that incorporates an eclectic mix of styles. Chakra Cuisine will again delight with its delectable Indian-inspired feast, complimented with libations from Malibu Family Wines, official wine sponsor of IFFLA 2009, and Western Liquors.

IFFLA Festival Director Christina Marouda notes this year’s festival is very significant due to Hollywood’s enthusiastic embrace of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and the recent surge of business taking place between Mumbai and Los Angeles. “IFFLA is solidifying itself as a key touchstone in the US for the Indian entertainment industry at a time when the Indian film industry and the film business community in Hollywood are truly coming together.”

Five feature-length films will be making their world premiere at IFFLA 2009. Those films include the narrative features BOMBAY SUMMER; THE FAKIR OF VENICE; GANDHI, MY FATHER (English version), 7 DAYS IN SLOW MOTION and the documentary feature LEAVING HOME: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF INDIAN OCEAN. The short films CURIOUS TODD AND THE MYSTERY DREAM; THE JOURNEY; and MUSIC BINDS ALL will also make their world premiere.

Five feature-length films will be making their U.S. premiere. That group includes the documentaries CHILDREN OF THE PYRE; SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON; the narrative films THE DAMNED RAIN (Gabhricha Paus); QUICK GUN MURUGUN and SIDDHARTH THE PRISONER. The short films DHIN TAK DHA; EYES OF SILENCE; A MANGO TREE IN THE FRONT YARD and THE PASSION OF CRICKET will also make their U.S. debut.

Five feature length films will be making their Los Angeles debut. They include the narrative films FIRAAQ; HEAVEN ON EARTH; KANCHIVARAM; LITTLE ZIZOU; and the documentary YES MADAM, SIR. The short films ANDHERI; BATTLE OF THE ALBUM COVERS, CANADA; EYES OF SILENCE; KAVI; KEY TUMI?; NARMEEN and SUKRIT’S SUNDAYS will also screen for the first time in Los Angeles.

The IFFLA full festival lineup, curated by a team including esteemed India-based senior programmer Uma Da Cunha, will showcase 20 features (15 narrative and 5 documentary) and 16 shorts for a total of 36 films representing 5 countries.

The 2009 IFFLA films (in alphabetical order) are:

FEATURE LENGTH NARRATIVE

BOMBAY SUMMER – DIR/SCR: Joseph Mathew Varghese (USA/India)
Cast: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Samrat Chakrabarti, Jatin Goswami, Gaurav Dwivedi
Three young people from very different backgrounds form a fleeting and delicate friendship as they attempt to make their way in modern day Bombay.
English/Hindi (English subtitles)

THE DAMNED RAIN (Gahricha Paus) – DIR/SCR: Satish Manwar (India)
Cast: Girish Kulkarni, Sonali Kulkarni, Jyoti Subhash, Veena Jamkar, Ammanul Attar
A young wife worries about her husband as farmers commit suicide everyday in a drought ridden village in Maharashtra.
Marathi (English subtitles)

THE FAKIR OF VENICE – DIR/ED: Anand Surapur (India)
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Anu Kapoor, Kamal Sidhu
A black comedy, where a fakir, a mystic known for performing feats of endurance, is taken to Venice by a con man to be featured in an installation art exhibit.
English

FIRAAQ – DIR: Nandita Das (India)
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Raghuveer Yadav
The directorial debut of acclaimed actress Nandita Das, FIRAAQ follows the emotional journeys of various people dealing with the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat Riots.
English

GANDHI, MY FATHER – DIR/SCR: Feroz Abbas Khan (India)
Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Bhoomika Chawla, Darshan Jariwala, Shefali Shetty
The film is a rare exploration of Gandhi’s family and the pains they experienced living in his shadow as he struggled to free a nation.
English

HEAVEN ON EARTH – DIR/SCR: Deepa Mehta (Canada)
Cast: Preity Zinta, Vansh Bhardwaj, Balinder Johal, Rajinder Singh Cheema, Ramanjit Kaur
Preity Zinta stars as a young woman who retreats into fantasy to deal with her oppressive marriage into a family of frustrated Punjabi immigrants living in Canada.
Punjabi/English (English subtitles)

KANCHIVARAM – DIR/SCR: Priyadarshan (India)
Cast: Prakash Raj, Shriya Reddy, Shammu
When his daughter is born, a silk weaver begins stealing bits of silk every day so he can provide a sari for her eventual wedding day, but his dream collides with his efforts to unionize his fellow weavers in 1940’s South India.
Tamil (English subtitles)

LAMHE – DIR: Yash Chopra (1991) (India)
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, Anupam Kher, Waheeda Rehman
A Rajasthani prince leaves home and moves to London in an attempt to escape the tragic loss of the woman he loved, only to cross paths with her daughter 18 years later.
Hindi (English subtitles)

LITTLE ZIZOU – DIR/SCR: Sooni Taraporevala (India)
Cast: Boman Irani, Sohrab Ardeshir, Zenobia Shroff, Shernaz Patel, Imaad Shah, John Abraham
The Mumbai Parsi community is viewed through the eyes of a soccer-mad eleven-year-old when the lives of its quirky residents are uprooted by the rivalry between a newspaper publisher and a self-proclaimed religious leader.
Hindi (English subtitles)

NAYA DAUR – DIR/PROD: B.R. Chopra (1957) (India)
Cast: Dilip Kumar, Vijayanthimala, Ajit, Jeevan
When an entrepreneurial man from the city takes over the main business in a small village and attempts to modernize it by replacing the workers with machines, the villagers unite to show the heartless businessman that they can outperform his fancy contraptions.
Hindi (English subtitles)

QUICK GUN MURUGUN – DIR: Shashank Ghosh (India)
Cast: Rajendra Prasad, Ramba, Naseer, Raju Sundaram, Vinay Pathak, Anu Menon
A hilarious curry western from Southern India in which a gunslinging vegetarian crusader is murdered by a homicidal bandit who wants to force everyone to eat meat, only to be reincarnated in modern day India to face his nemesis once more.
English

7 DAYS IN SLOW MOTION – DIR: Umakanth Thumrugoti (India)                                                                                                       Cast: Teja, Kunal Sharma, Shiva Varma, Rajeshwari Sacdev, Ayesha Jaleel
A boy and his friends set out to make a film in seven days after chancing upon a filmmaker’s lost camera.
Hindi & English (English subtitles)

SIDDARTH THE PRISONER – DIR/SCR/ED: Pryas Gupta (India)
Cast: Rajat Kapoor, Sachin Nayak, Praddip Sagar, Pradip Kabra
Recently released from prison, a novelist’s attempts to reconcile with his family are derailed when the briefcase with his latest manuscript is accidentally switched with one filled with a gangster’s money.
Hindi (English subtitles)

SITA SINGS THE BLUES – DIR/PROD/SCR/ED: Nina Paley (USA)
Cast: Annette Hanshaw, Aseem Chhabra, Manish Acharya, Bhavana Nagulapally, Reena Shah
Set to 1920’s jazz vocals, this animated film retells the mythological story of Rama and Sita from a hilarious, modern and refreshingly female perspective.
English

VIRASAT – DIR: Priyadarshan (1997) (India)
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Tabu, Pooja Batra, Amrish Puri, Milind Gunaji
After finishing college in London, a young man returns home to his village in India to be caught in-between ambition and familial responsibilities as he looks to set right a world torn apart by hatred and violence.
Hindi (English subtitles)

FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY

AIR INDIA 182 – DIR/SCR: Sturla Gunnarsson (India)
Cast: Gurpreet Chana, Ujjal Dosanjh, Michael Hamper, Baljinder Singh
A personal and multilayered examination of one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in history.
English

CHILDREN OF THE PYRE – DIR/PROD/DP: Rajesh S. Jala (India)
Featuring: Ravi, Gagan, Yogi, Ashish, Manish, Sunil, Kapil
At the sacred cremation grounds in Varanasi along the Ganges River adolescent boys try to support themselves any way they can.
Hindi (English subtitles)

LEAVING HOME: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF INDIAN OCEAN – DIR Jaideep Varma (India)
Featuring: Susmit Sen, Asheem Charkravarty, Rahul Ram, Amit Kilam
This music documentary captures the unique sounds and sensibilities of the four men who make music together as Indian Ocean.
English & Hindi (English subtitles)

SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON – DIR/PROD: Faiza Ahmad Khan (India)
Featuring: Sheikh Nasir, Akram Khan, Shafique, Farogh Jafri
Armed with a small camera, a desktop computer, and their passion for movies, a small group of filmmakers work feverishly on their own project for, by, and of the people.
Hindi (English subtitles)

YES MADAM, SIR – DIR/DP/ED: Megan Doneman (Australia/India)
Narrator: Helen Mirren
Featuring: Kiran Bedi
An evocative look at the extraordinary and controversial career of Dr. Kiran Bedi, the first woman to join the Indian Police Service.
Hindi & English (English subtitles)

SHORTS

ABRIDGED – DIR/PROD/SCR: Arjun Rihan (USA)
The daily commute is disrupted when two Golden Gate bridge supports fall in love… with each other.
No Dialogue

ANDHERI – DIR/SCR: Sushrut Jain (India/USA)
Tragic fate intervenes when a live-in maid decides to run away from her domineering employer in Mumbai.
Hindi (English subtitles)

BATTLE OF THE ALBUM COVERS – DIR: Rohitash Rao (USA)
Iconic rock-and-roll album covers fight to the death.
English

CANADA – DIR/SCR: Anjali Sundaram (USA)
A teenage girl is forced to cope when her irresponsible mother uproots her and her siblings for a sudden move to Canada.
English

CURIOUS TODD AND THE MYSTERY DREAM – DIR: Ganesh Gothwal, Rahul Jogale (India)
When his water tank goes dry, Todd tries to rein in a nearby rain cloud before learning an important environmental lesson.
No dialogue

A DAY’S WORK – DIR/SCR: Rajeev Dassani (USA)
In this Student Academy Award winning short, a simple job escalates into a violent misunderstanding between a family and the immigrant laborers they have hired to help them move.
English/Spanish (English subtitles)

DHIN TAK DHA – DIR/SCR: Shraddha Pasi (India)
A film-obsessed villager sees the hard work that goes into entertainment while driving a traditional theater troupe around rural India.
Hindi (English subtitles)

EYES OF SILENCE – DIR: Avi Sidhu (India)
An explosives expert has a crisis of conscience while carrying out a terrorist mission.
No dialogue

THE JOURNEY – DIR/SCR: Ashish R. Shukla (India)
A man takes an emotional boat ride on the Ganges River.
No Dialogue

KAVI – DIR/PROD/SCR: Gregg Halvey (India)
A young boy tries to lead his family out of bonded labor in a brick kiln.
Hindi (English subtitles)

KEY TUMI? – DIR/PROD/SCR: Kunal Sen (Canada/India)
With a guitar, a catchy tune and an inquisitive mind a young boy tries to combat stage fright.
English

A MANGO TREE IN THE FRONT YARD – DIR/PROD/SCR: Raveendran Pradeepan (France)
In war-torn Sri Lanka, even walking home from school proves to be dangerous for three children.
Tamil (English subtitles)

MUSIC BINDS ALL – DIR: Pushpendra Prakash Sagar, Sharad Mante (India)
Indian tribal art styles come together through the power of music.
No Dialogue

NARMEEN – DIR/SCR: Dipti Gogna (India)
During the partition of India, a young Muslim mother tries to cope with the loss of her child by befriending a little Sikh boy.
Hindi/Punjabi (English subtitles)

THE PASSION OF CRICKET – DIR/SCR: Shyam A. Salunke (India)
The sport of cricket infects the daily lives of everyone in the city of Mumbai.
No Dialogue

SUKRIT’S SUNDAYS – DIR/PROD/SCR: Vasant Nath (India)
Young Sukrit (Tanay Chheda from SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE) learns the importance of his weekly trips to see his grandfather.
No Dialogue

Tickets go on sale on April 1 at ArcLight Hollywood Cinema’s box office located at 6360 W. Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA and online at http://www.arclightcinemas.com.

Festival passes will be available starting April 1 at http://www.itsmyseat.com/IFFLA.html.

For more information on IFFLA please go to http://www.indianfilmfestival.org.