5th New Jersey Independent South Asian Cine Festival - 2011

                                                                                     Jose Pinto Stephen 

New Jersey: The 5th New Jersey Independent South Asian Cine Festival (NJISACF) is just a few Days away from now. This film festival is New Jersey’s most loved and only South Asian Film Festival. It was created as a part of the Asian American Film and Theater Project, a 501 c 3 non-profit tax-exempt organization based in USA.

The film festival will be held in Big Cinemas at 1655 Oak Tree Rd, Edison, New Jersey. It starts on October 21st and ends on October 23rd. There are 35 films from 9 countries (USA, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afganistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Italy and UK) will be screened at this festival.

“This festival is a celebration of independent filmmakers. We felt there was a need to bring their work to our audience here and there was a need for independent cinema, cinema that is by and for south Asians and Asian Americans. It’s a lot of joy and we are glad to be a part of it.  We are bringing in many new and emerging filmmakers and showcasing their works,” says Sakti Sengupta, director of the festival.

The festival opens on Friday, October 21 with Director Italo Spinelli's "Gangor," (Behind the Bodice) a moving account of mass rape of India’s poor tribal women that is based on Mahasweta Devi's short story. The screening will be followed by an interactive Q&A session with director Italo Spinelli and lead actress, Priyanka Bose.

The festival ends on October 23, with a red carpet and an awards ceremony. Red Carpet begins at 8:30 pm on Oct 23 at Radisson, Piscataway, NJ.

Besides film screenings there are panel discussions on various topics. The topics include, Homophobia (discussion on Homosexuality and family values): A discussion after screening “I AM” by Sonali Gulati; Women: a Graceful Pursuit of Freedom & Dignity: Panel Discussion around films: Pink Sarees, Motorbike, Two Steps Forward and Beyond Grace.

There are some filmmakers, producers, directors, members of the cast and crew of some of the films will be attending this festival. Rubaiyat Hossain (Director Meherjan, Bangladesh),Priyanka Bose (lead Actress Gangor), Rima Amrapurkar (Director Janani, India), Saurabh Shukla (Director I AM 24, India), Sanjeewa Pushpakumara (Director Flying Fish, Sri Lanka), Shri Priya (Director: In That Moment-- US), R. Sarath ( Director of ’The Desire’ , Kerala, India)

Names and details about some of the films in this festival are as follows. Gangor / Behind the Bodice (India), a film based on the celebrated Bengali author Mahasweta Devi’s short story “Choli Ke Peeche”; Flying Fish (Igillena maluwo, Sri Lanka); Inshallah football (India); Landmark Nepalese film Forgive! Forget Not! (Nepal); Playing the Taar (Afghanistan) ; Meherjaan (Bangladesh);  Jananee- The mother (India) ; Bol (Pakistan); Two steps forward (Pakistan), Lucky Red Seeds by the only female Malayalam filmmaker Anjali Menon, The Desire ( India, Casting  Shilpa Shetty, Xia Yu, Jaya Prada, Anupam Kher, Sheetal Menon, Nakul Vaid, Sachin Khedekar) to name a few. 

The festival will also feature the works of student directors of short films from India’s premier institute FTII and NYU: Shyam Raat Seher by national award winner Arunima Sharma, Motorbike by Radhika Murthy, Ek, Do by Prantik Narayan Basu, Open Café by Naveen Padmanabhan, Airawat by Renu Savant, Memories by Gayatri Joshi and In That Moment by Shripriya Mahesh (US). 
The festival partners with Mela, a mutli –platform global entertainment service, and fulfills its promise to independent filmmakers to reach out to wider audience. Toknow about Mela visit www.mela.com  

To know more about this film festival and to attend it Please contact Neha Mahajan at 732 500 8844 / Sakti Sengupta at 732 310 0236  
For the complete schdule of the screenings visit www.njisacf.org 
 
 

To view the trailers click n the links below 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcIlZY0vToI&feature=player_embedded 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Tpw5A7ijM&feature=player_embedded 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHNNop6yOkE&feature=player_embedded