Seattle Art Museum,
Sat Aug. 27th 2005, 7 PM
We designed the festival launch party intricately to reflect the diverse forms of art of South Asia. We are proud to bring you this unique evening of film, dance, stand-up comedy and much more. Throughout the night, we will be showing trailers of upcoming films that will be screening at ISAFF in September. Festival movie tickets and passes will be available for sale.
We look forward to sharing this extraordinary evening with you. Also we are very proud to present our Emcee, Agastya Kohli.
See you there!
ISAFF TEAM
Schedule
Auditorium : 7:00PM
Dance: Bharatanatyam dance style performed to Nepali modern vibes
Short Film: Call Center (Amyn Kaderali, USA)
Short Film: Holly Bolly (Dishad Husain, UK)
Dance: Bollywood Nasha
Stand-up Comedy: Vijai Nathan, Good Girls Don’t, But Indian Girls Do
Experimental Short: Trip (Pramod Pati, India)
Short Film: The Little Terrorist (Ashvin Kumar, India)
Lounge: 9:30pm
Anjuman: A live music band with Afro-Cuban rhythms and traditional Indian Classical melodies
DJ Advent: Bollywood/ Bhangra/ Asian Underground
AUDITORIUM
7:00PM
Dance: Bharatanatyam dance style performed to Nepali modern vibes
Song Title – Sound Chattering
Album Name – Rhythmic Journey
Artist – Navraj Gurung
Choreographers: Reshma Ananthakrishnan, Monica Shah & Jyotsna Vaideeswaran
Performers: Reshma Ananthakrishnan ; Monica Shah
This piece compliments the unique tabla beats and highlights the flow of the sitar & flute. It incorporates powerful structured movements and interlaces them with graceful motions. Feel the bells on the dancer’s feet as the sound chatters.
Short Film: Call Center (Amyn Kaderali, USA, DV, 2004, 12 min)
Call Center is a hilarious observation on the modern-day phenomenon of overseas outsourcing as seen though the escapades of by two harried and battling brothers running a call center out of their apartment in Bombay.
Short Film: Holly Bolly (Dishad Husain, UK, DV, 2004, 12min)
In this comedic short on racial dynamics in the UK, two edgy independent filmmakers Obi and Dil like making non-mainstream films but they just can’t get funding. Shifty producer Big Al is the only one in town willing to give the boys money – but to make the ultimate cross-genre flick, English-Cockney-Gangster-meets-Bollywood film.
Dance: Bollywood Nasha
The dance school – Bollywood Nasha – is with a two-fold mission: for people to find love and expression through dance and to bring India closer to the West.
Choreographer: Kaveri Lal
Troupe Director: Ritika Mangharam
Scripting: Anu Arora
Performers: Ekta Sharma, Arti Rajvanshi, Kaveri Lal, Meghna Rao, Anu Arora, Inga Numadottir, Payal Tiwana, Shilpi Gupta, Shikha Dimri
Dance Description Kajra Re’ Naina – It is all about the eyes – the beautiful kohl eyes – which express love, beauty, grief, happiness and there is world beyond when you look deep into those eyes. Chori Chori Chupke Chupke – With the lover close by, the veil can sense that its presence is unnecessary. On the pretext of strong wind, it is ready to fly away.
8:30PM
Stand-up Comedy: Good Girls Don’t, But Indian Girls Do
Stand up Comedienne Vijai Nathan will perform her one-woman act. She takes you through growing up Indian in a Jewish community; her discovery of sex in a repressed Hindu household; and how she finds herself along the way. It’s “Gandhi” meets “Pretty in Pink.”
Vijai’s humor springs from her experiences of growing up as a “foreigner” in America, despite the fact she was born and raised in a suburb of Washington D.C. Much of her stand-up comedy is about growing up as an Indian in the US, cultural clashes with her parents, and the racism she dealt with as a child and now as a comedian
9:00PM
Short Film: The Little Terrorist
(Ashvin Kumar, India, 35mm, 2004, 15min) Academy Awards Nominee 2005
The Little Terrorist tells the moving story of a Pakistani Muslim boy who accidentally crosses the Pakistani-Indian border. The old orthodox Hindu Bhola takes him in and hides him from the Indian soldiers. However, traditions and prejudices about Muslims remain an obstacle in the relationship between Bhola and the boy. This symbolic story of hope is a tale of human solidarity conquering all artificial boundaries.
LOUNGE
9:30PM
Anjuman: A live music band with Afro-Cuban rhythms and traditional Indian Classical melodies
In Urdu, an Anjuman is a gathering of artists and artistic ideas. Our goal is to combine traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms and Indian Classical methodology in a way that leaves each unique musical tradition aesthetically intact.
Performers: Brandon McIntosh (sarod), Seth Littlefield (percussion) & Joe Malcomb (bass).
11:15PM
DJ Advent: Bollywood/ Bhangra/ Asian Underground DJAdvent pushes the boundaries with a fusion of classical, pop, and folk South Asian and Arabic beats with Electronica. His DJ career spans 7 years, a dozen residencies at Seattle’s most notable venues, over 250 club and rave events – including monthly Bollywood nights at the Mirabeau Room.