Tasveer and Chaya present
Aaina: South Asian Women’s Focus
5th Year Anniversary!!!
April 9th, 10th, 11th
Ethnic Cultural Theater, University of Washington
Gupshup: Aaina Opening Night on April 9, 6 pm
Celebrate the 5th Anniversary with Chai (from Garam Masala), Namkeen, and Indian-style Pineapple Cake (from Mayuri) at Gupshup"
Join us for an evening of chit chat and gupshup with local South Asian women artists and activists as we kick start Aaina 2010. Thanks Prachi, Kruti, Alisha and Farah for organizing this.
This year, we’re excited to partner with the following South Asian women for an evening of Gupshup.
· Kim Vora of Anarkali, will bring beautiful, fairtrade items from artisans from India and Pakistan. you can purchase the items tonight at the Aaina, Opening Reception 6-7:30pm, Ethnic Culture Center UW.
· Shahana Dattagupta, presents her first book, Ten Avatars, which explores the South Asian/American multicultural experience by the telling of little incidents and big turning points in the lives of ten women protagonists.
· Shay Samy owns and runs Diya Skincare, a Holistic Skin Care Spa. Viewing her work as art, she promotes harmony, balance and inner beauty with a personal, nurturing and creative touch.
SCAN TV will be there to film the whole process of Aaina for three days. Thank you SCAN. Check out the great resources and classes SCAN has to offer.
Yoni Ki Baat: South Asian Adaptation of the Vagina Monologues on April 9 & 10th@ 8pm ; April 11th@ 5pm
YKB is a collection of authentic, bold, vivid, tender, powerful and poignant stories told by South Asian women.
Northwest Asian Weekly | Director helms South Asian ‘Talks of the Vagina
"It's in my body. All week this week & last week, as I've been in my writing-editing-practicing process, I have felt the tensions in my body. It starts at my neck. It works it's way down my back and lands on my lower spine. A throbbing pain dulls after a few minutes, and heat starts to radiate. It's settled there. It's settled, and not moving. I pray, I hope, I believe, it will release once the performance is over. My story has been told."
Yoni Ki Baat Blog
http://yonikibaat-seattle.blogspot.com/
Every year Yoni Ki Baat is unique featuring local South Asian women, many of whom write their own scripts. This year’s Yoni Ki Baat is directed by Anjulie Ganti, a longtime Chaya and Tasveer supporter.
Every year thus far, YKB has been sold out!
Buy your tickets today at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/104025
FILMS on April 10th@ 5pm
Tasveer Picks: International Shorts made by and about South Asian women
$8, Saturday, April 10th, 5PM
Tasveer Picks some old and some new for this beautiful, inspiring and complex collection of short films. Here are few that have been confirmed:
"This will be the Last Time..." (Gazelle Samizay, Afghanistan/US, 2008, 5min)
 In an effort to escape her marital problems, a woman preoccupies herself with washing a seemingly clean bed sheet. Constrained by cultural stigmas and pride, she will not leave her husband. She prefers to maintain the façade of a perfect life over her own happiness. However, all the past memories of the relationship metaphorically seep out of the sheet. Soon, she feels the burden of keeping silent, and realizes that she is complicit in her own misery. Instead of escaping her problems, she is consumed by them, until they render her powerless.
Heretic Heredity (Shalalae Jamil, Pakistan, 2003, 3 mins)
A young muslim woman pays tribute to what she considers to be 'True Islamic faith' simultaneously calling into question her own oscillating and contradictory views on the faith. This film was screened in the Urban Hum of Pakistan at Seattle's 2nd Independent South Asian Film Festival in 2005.
sum total (sonali, USA, 2000, 5min)
What does an Indian lesbian do when her family puts pressure on her to get married? What does her matrimonial advertisement look like? sum total answers these questions through a short poetic film that addresses issues of identity, self-representation, and hetronormativity. sum total is the first film to be ever screened by Tasveer in June 2002 on the occasion of Pride.
Desire Of The Moth (Amrita Mahadik, India, 2005, 15min)
This 76-year-old YOUNG woman looks like any grandma next door but her paintings reflect the maturity of a Sensitive Artiste. Her half "Marathi" half "Tamil" features add a unique charm to her personality. An honest human being with child-like genuineness and with true spirit, who has accepted life as it came, Shakuntala Patade, the grandma with an impish smile has a lot to tell through the film.
Flying (Kirthi Nath, India, 2009, 9min)
Flying is a personal essay inspired by the memories of a loved one lost. Flying is a poetic visual documentary journey about loving,
grief, letting go and a search for faith. Flying explores when you are not sure it is out there.
Beauty Parlor (Mehreen Jabbar, Pakistan, 1998, 18min)
Beauty parlor gives a glimpse into the lives of four characters in a salon. Two friends, a bride, a prostitute and a hijra deal with issues of identity and desire.Beauty parlor gives a glimpse into the lives of four characters in a salon. Two friends, a bride, a prostitute and a hijra deal with issues of identity and desire.
Little Miss Eyeflap ( Iram Haq, Norway, 2009, 9min)
Through a ten-minute aesthetic animation film withreal actors, we follow a young immigrant girl’s hesitant steps out into the Norwegian reality. For the first time, Skylappjenta has to find her way in life alone, as an assimilated Pakistani who belongs nowhere.
" Official Selection of Sundance Film Festival 2010 "
Program sponsored by Dreamfly
Laxmi and Me
Nishtha Jain, India, 2008, 59minutes, Hindi/English, DVD
$5, Sunday, April 11th, 3PM
 Even in a metropolis like Bombay, old feudal attitudes still govern relationships between employers and their ‘servants'. Against this backdrop, Nishtha begins making a film with Lakshmi, her part-time maid. 20-year-old Lakshmi's is a precarious existence to begin with; illness and romance compound her problems in unexpected ways. As the filmmaker is drawn deeper into Lakshmi's life, she is forced to look at aspects of her own self as well, and to question many of the things she takes for granted. During a year and a half of dramatic changes,
the process of filming has its own impact on unfolding events and on the relationship between the two women.
If you missed the film on PBS here is your another chance to view. Here is the article from PBS
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/lakshmiandme/film.html
FREE WORKSHOP on April 11th@ 1pm
Human Rights, Film, and Advocacy: "The Sari Soldiers", "Tales from the Margins", and "There was a Queen"
FREE, Sunday, April 11th, 1PM
In this workshop, Alka Kurian will explore the ways in which documentary film has been used a tool of resistance against women's human rights violations in South Asia.
Using the example of a few representative documentary films, she will investigate the significance of “technologies of witnessing”, and the “visual culture of human rights”. Films: “The Sari Soldiers,” “Tales from the Margins,” and "There was a Queen."
Alka Kurian is presently working on her book entitled South Asian Cinema: Gender, Justice and Dissent, due for publication. She was also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sunderland (UK), with a teaching portfolio covering media and cultural studies, film and literature of the Indian subcontinent, postcolonial studies, black popular culture, and Third World feminisms."
"Tales from the Margins" is literally mind-blowing. Irom Sharmila and the cause she is fighting for (repeal of the draconian armed forces special power act in Manipur) deserves a lot more attention than it gets today (which is almost zero)".
- Srijan Chakraborty
Donations are accepted. If you are attending please RSVP to rita@tasveer.org
Sponsor Highlight
What is dreamfly?
We're two friends, Umaimah and Mona, who've started dreamfly as an initiative to change the world by investing in the children of the world and providing them the opportunities they deserve to maximize their potential. We specifically want dreamfly to become a platform where people from all walks of life come together and work towards a common goal. In a world that seems fixated on our differences, we want to focus on our similarities - the fact that we all love our kids and want to pass on a better world to them. dreamfly is our hope of achieving that. Read more
Dreamfly will have a presentation preceding a mesmerizing collection of shorts films, Tasveer Picks, Saturday April 10th, 5pm.
Volunteer Highlight
Thank you Saara for your concept and design of the Aaina fliers this year. Saara will be one of the official photographers at Aaina. Smile for Saara this weekend!
Speaker Highlight
Amy Bhatt is a PhD Candidate in Women Studies at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the effects of migration on gender and families, social reproduction, diaspora, and South Asian cultural studies. She teaches courses on gender and globalization, women and development and feminist studies. She is also the oral historian for the South Asian Oral History Project of the University of Washington Libraries. As the moderator for the film Lakshmi and Me, Amy will discuss how the domestic worker's rights movement is growing nationally. After the film screening, she will facilitate a discussion about the gender and class aspects of domestic work in India.
Amy will facilitate the Lakshmi & Me screening on Sunday April 11th 3pm.
 
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