Asha Goes to India

(Navin Kulshreshtha, USA/India, English, DV, 32 min)

An American woman fascinated with India all her life travels there for the first time and embarks on a spiritual journey. Her quest for enlightenment takes her thousands of miles through India, from north to south, from the mountains to the sea. She has many adventures and faces many challenges- and not only discovers a beautiful and ancient culture, but a deeper connection with herself as well.

Experimental Shorts: Love, Loss, and Survival

India, Pakistan, UK, USA, 60 min
Curated by Mridu Chandra who will be present for post film discussion.

Bare
Santana Issar, India/UK, 11min
In this heartbreaking story of a family torn apart by alcoholism, the filmmaker uses home-movie footage and recorded telephone conversations to reach out to her father.

Backwaters
Prashant Bhargava, US, 5:13min
A meditation on the beauty and richness of Kerala, shot on super 8.

Water Colors
Natasha Mendonca, India, 4:30min
The film revisits the damage and decay of the artist’s home lost to the tragic floods of 2005 that took place in Mumbai, India. It is a meditation on memory and loss. Second prize at the International student travel video contest, 2008.

Unveiling
Angela Esposito, US, 4minFeaturing Kathak Dancer Archana Kumar, this film explores the crossing of boundaries between classical and contemporary dance, the art of dance and the medium of film making, and the connecting of the two art forms as a metaphor for all the different veils we embody.
Assistant Editor is the Festival Director Rita Meher.

Seventh Seam
Aseem Mishra, India, 14:34min
Seventh Seam (2007)is a journey into the mind of a 48-year old miner who was trapped in the seventh seam of coalmine in India in 2001, based on a true event.  Mishra is an award-winning Bollywood cinematographer.

Mentioning You (Tumhara Zikar)
Shalalae Jamil, Pakistan, 30min
Structured as a series of ellipses in which revelations can take the form of personal anecdotes, private living room conversations, sufi poetry or qawwali, this film is about a young Pakistani woman seeking closeness with her family, her city, and her God. As with an evening of sama’a, the end goal of the work is to achieve intimacy. In each segment, the filmmaker seeks closeness with the Beloved, with the city and with its people by exploring commonality and difference, longing and belonging.

Saturday, October 3, 3:00 PM