Descriptions of some of the films to be screened at the 3rd i South Asian Film Festival this year. The material has been lightly edited for brevity.
Abu
November 9, 7: 15 pm, New People Cinema
Arshad recalls the balancing act, managing his family’s expectations with his own hopes and dreams. His once-liberal parents trade assimilation for fundamentalism, moving towards a conservative strain of Islam, while Arshad was becoming deeply involved in the cultural and political fabric of his new home.
Gurgaon
November 10, 9:30 pm, New People Cinema
Kehri Singh awaits the day when his daughter Preet will return from her studies abroad and take over the real estate business named in her honor. Her brother Nikki Singh, however, is not so pleased. Feeling emasculated by her success, Nikki simmers and broods, edging his family towards an explosive denouement, and forcing Kehri Singh to confront a dark secret from his past.
Random Acts of Legacy
November 10, 7: 15 pm, New People Cinema
A 3rd i alumnus, Kazimi is well-known for his outstanding doc, A Continuous Journey, which chronicles the history of Sikh migration to Canada. Set in Chicago between the Great Depression and the post-war era, this award-winning film peeks into the everyday life of a commercial artist and his trailblazing wife, to reveal the experiences of a first-generation Chinese family in America.
Dance Like a Man
November 18, 7:30 pm, CineArts at Palo Alto Square
The story of Jairaj and Ratna, two Bharatanatyam dancers past their prime, is contrasted with that of their daughter Lata, who is on the brink of establishing herself as a brilliant dancer. Her imminent success creates tension and jealousy, and the audience is drawn into the dark secrets of family relationships and conflicts between generations.
Bad, Brown, Bride: 3 Desi Series
November 18, 5 pm, CineArts at Palo Alto Square
The World of Goopi and Bagha (Goopi Gawaiya, Bagha Bajaiya)
November 18, 3 pm, CineArts at Palo Alto Square
The film follows the misadventures of Goopi and Bagha, two musicians banished from their villages for their ear-splitting music. Their cacophony, however, enthralls the King of Ghosts, who grants them four boons. Thanks to their new gifts, Goopi and Bagha are appointed court musicians in the neighboring kingdom of Shundi, only to be drawn into courtly intrigue and politics, and to use their boons and brains to prevent war between two brothers and win the hands of two princesses.
The Cinema Travellers
November 18, 1 pm, CineArts at Palo Alto Square
The film, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, focuses on the nomadic projectionists and technicians who roam the rural Indian countryside screening films and tending to the equipment as if it were an ailing relative. It’s a disappearing trade, however, with the influx of digital technology and an audience ever more reliant on the small screen.
Coast to Coast: Mumbai to the Mission
November 12, 7:30 pm, New People Cinema
No Vacancy (Abhi Singh, USA, 2017, 17 mins)
Bollywood and Bolsheviks (Emma Hinchcliffe, USA/India, 2016, 11 mins)
Seti X: Let it Grow (Nisha Sembi, USA, 2017, 3 mins)
Disco Obu (Anand Kishore, USA, 2017, 20 mins)
Spice Sisters (Sheila Jayadev, Australia, 2016, 15 mins)
Brown Girls, eps. 1 and 3 (Fatima Ashgar and Sam Bailey, USA, 2017, 18 mins)
Last Man in Dhaka Central (The Young Man Was, Part 3)
November 12, 5 pm, New People Cinema
Two years into his stay, Custers ended up in military prison accused of planning a secret uprising, and was released from jail only after a long campaign by Dutch activists. For all the physical and psychological abuse he suffered, Custers forged a deep bond with the people of the country, bringing education to poor farmers in Bangladesh until his unexpected death last year. Combining interviews, news clippings, and archival footage, this is the final installment in Mohaiemen’s trilogy on the legacy of left-wing political movements, and has been screened at numerous prestigious film festivals including Rotterdam, Berlin, and IDFA.
Newton
November 12, 2:45 pm, New People Cinema
Newton finds he must keep devious military personnel and oddball bureaucrats in check – even as the voters remain strangely absent. This film asks us to question our belief in the political process, and the power of the vote.
Shepherdess of the Glaciers
November 12, 1 pm, New People Cinema
Every winter, Tsering sets out from from her home village to the high plateaus of the Himalayas, so that the flock can graze through the winter. Her only access to events in the outside world is via a small transistor radio. When the batteries run out, Tsering sings to herself and the surrounding glaciers. Apart from the physical travails of herding sheep across the icy terrain, danger also lurks in the form of wolves and snow leopards, which Tsering must fight off single-handedly. Documented over four seasons by her brother Stanzin Dorjai, the film examines a culture and a landscape that are fast disappearing due to modernization and climate change.
Om Shanti Om
November 11, 8: 15 pm, Castro Theatre
At once a parody of and homage to the unbridled, anything-goes exuberance of Hindi musicals from the 1970s, Om Shanti Om even references such Western classics as Singin’ in the Rain and Phantom of the Opera.
An Insignificant Man
November 11, 5:30 pm, Castro Theatre
Supported by the Sundance Film Institute and official selection at the Toronto Film Festival, this political tale is an on-the-ground look into the political system of the largest democracy in the world, a country with 29 official languages and 1.3 billion people. Directors Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla train their lens on inequality, corruption, and the power of elites, to highlight democratic principles at stake in India and around the world. Fittingly, the film has recently been in a censorship controversy in India.
Nari: The Unsung Story of the Women from India’s First Family of Music
November 11, 3 pm, Castro Theatre
In Sanskrit, “nari” means both “woman” and “sacrifice.” As female artists trying to establish themselves in a male-dominated field, Lakshmi and Viji understood this only too well. They fought to overcome numerous challenges in both their artistic and personal lives as they found themselves catapulted from conservative Indian culture into the stratosphere of American rock n’roll. An official selection at both the Toronto and Sundance film festivals, this multimedia program blends archival sound recordings, film footage, and never-before-seen family photos, to uncover a hidden musical feminine history.
THE LOCATIONS:
New People Cinema
1746 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
http://www.newpeopleworld.com/about/
CineArts at Palo Alto Square
3000 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone: 650-493-0128
http://www.cinemark.com/theatre-detail.aspx?node_id=1680
Castro Theatre
429 Castro Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
Phone: 415-621-6120