3rd i Films has announced the dates for the 9th Annual San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival: Bollywood and Beyond (SFISAFF).
San Francisco's Roxie Theater will be home to SFISAFF from Wednesday, November 9 through Friday, November 11 and return there on Sunday, November 13 after a Saturday at the Castro on November 12.
SFISAFF is the oldest South Asian film festival in the US, and is the premiere showcase for South Asian cinema in the Bay Area. The 2011 festival will present 16 programs featuring films from India, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tibet and USA.
This year's festival presents a Focus on Sri Lanka, which has recently seen a surge in independent filmmaking through French co-productions.
The highlights from this focus are Lester James Peries' groundbreaking film GAMPERALIYA (1964), which launched a new cinematic language in Sri Lankan films-recently restored by UCLA Film Archives.
The film explores class conflict through a simple and nuanced love story between a teacher and an aristocrat's daughter, and has been compared to Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy.
On the contemporary end, SFISAFF screens Asoka Handagama's controversial LETTER OF FIRE (2005), a strident indictment of the judicial system in Sri Lanka, treated in Handagama's unique firebrand style.
The film was banned in Sri Lanka, and is now making its US premiere at SFISAFF. Handagama will be attending the festival with his film, and will also address the audience before GAMPERALIYA, on historical and contemporary trends in Sri Lankan filmmaking.
3rd i will host a Castro Reception on Saturday following the screening of LETTER OF FIRE, where audience members will have a chance for intimate conversation with Handagama, and with other festival guests.
Also part of the focus is first-time helmer Sanjeewa Pushpakumara's festival favorite FLYING FISH (Igillena Maluwo), which is reminiscent of the films of Vimukthi Jayasundara (THE FORSAKEN LAND) and points to a new aesthetic in Sri Lankan cinema.
SF-based filmmaker Shireen Pasha's WHAT IS TIME?, shot in the aftermath of the tsunami in 2004 will round out the Focus on Sri Lanka.
South Asian Americans shine at this year's festival with a number of films by desi American filmmakers: NY-based Prashant Bhargava's PATANG (THE KITE), which won raves from Roger Ebert and was a fest-favorite at Berlin, Tribeca and Chicago, is about a family dueling, spinning and ultimately coming together during the spectacular kite festival in Ahmedabad.
The personal and political meet in Midwest-based Siddharta Anand Kumar's stunning debut feature SEMSHOOK, which tells the story of Tenzin, a Tibetan artist born and brought up in India, and his attempt to return to his Tibetan homeland on a motorcycle.
Indie-favorite and LA-based Ajay Naidu's directorial debut ASHES is a soulful film about two brothers trying to hold on to each other through mental illness and hardcore crime.
Both Bhargava and Naidu will be attending the festival.
Documentaries are an essential component for SFISAFF, as more awareness of South Asian stories spreads into the mainstream culture. 2011 brings three documentaries (with filmmakers in attendance) made by Bay Area filmmakers. Bill Bowles and Kevin Meehan's fascinating BIG IN BOLLYWOOD charts the instant stardom that Hollywood actor Omi Vaidya achieved through his role in the Bollywood blockbuster 3 IDIOTS. Marin County filmmaker Dave Driver's meditative documentary WAY OF LIFE follows the story of Michael Daube, a young man of modest means from small town America who finds a valuable piece of art in the garbage, sells it at auction and builds a hospital in one of the most remote areas of India and Nepal. Joshua Dylan Mellars' celebratory doc on sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan, PLAY LIKE A LION, is a moving illustration of Khan's description of music as “food for the soul,” seen through the eyes of his American-born son Alam Khan. Director Joshua Dylan Mellars, Alam Khan, and Producer Mojib Aimaq will be in attendance at the screening. As always, 3rd i's signature local shorts program (THE FAMILY CIRCUS) showcases the best desi shorts by Bay Area filmmakers, with the artists in attendance.
This years program will feature a live neo-benshi performance by local writer/performer, and 3rd i's own, Anuj Vaidya. This program will be followed by a party celebrating lthe festival filmmakers at Bollyhood Cafe (recently merged with Little Baobab) in the Mission district. A second program of shorts, this one focused on gender/sexuality, features: Anusha Nandakumar's THE BOXING LADIES (India) about three Muslim sisters in Bengal who defy tradition by becoming national boxing champions; Siraj ul haque's CHANDNI (Pakistan) about a hijra who finds solace in Sufism; Jordache Ellapen's CANE/CAIN (South Africa) about a Indian South African and a Pakistani immigrant who connect over love and sugarcane; and Neelu Bhuman's (US; Bay-Area filmmaker) uplifting FAMILY IN FRAME, where the filmmaker comes out to her family as bisexual, with varying reactions.
Other programs include: Anant Mahadevan's Marathi feature I AM SINDHUTAI SAPKAL (Mee Sindhutai Sapkal), an official selection at the London Film Festival last year, is an inspirational film that charts the true story of a woman who overcomes all odds to become a “mother of orphans”; the film will be followed by a panel discussion. Bollywood camp meets bad-boy cults like SNATCH and THE HANGOVER in Abhinay Deo's bawdy, sexy and explosive comedy DELHI BELLY, taking Bollywood at the Castro in a whole new direction this year. Vipin Vijay (Enfant Terrible of Indian cinema) delivers a visual/aural spectacle in his mysterious tale about an IT-professor who communicates with a cyber-creature and his dead black-magician grandfather through the internet.
The Closing Night film this year is the high-octane Tamil thriller PUDHUPETTAI (featured in 3rd i's Cruel Cinema series), which is South India's answer to AMORES PERROS and CITY OF GOD.
Save the Date: On October 20, 2011 join us at Macy's in Downtown San Francisco for our Program Release Cocktail Reception.
Tickets and passes for the festival will be available online starting October 14, 2011 through the festival website (www.thirdi.org/festival).
Tickets are $11/program online ($10 early bird special until October 31), and $12 at the door.
Multiple Pass options will be available (Full Festival Pass; Castro Pass; Roxie Pass; Weekend Pass; Focus on Sri Lanka Pass; American Desi Pass, etc.) varying in cost from $32-$120.
Complete ticketing and program information (including special guests, dates, times and venues) will also be available on the website at this time (www.thirdi.org/festival).
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