[OPIRG-EVENTS] South Asian Film Festival in Ottawa

We apologize if receive this more than once.

Travelling Film South Asia

South Asia Partnership (SAP) is hosting a festival featuring 15 documentaries from South Asia at the Ottawa Public Library Auditorium (main branch), at 120 Metcalfe, from September 25-30, 2000. The films offer an in-depth review of pressing issues with regard to culture, lifestyle, history, politics, activism and the environment, and provide a window on contemporary documentary making in South Asia. Daily ticket (5$) and Festival Pass (20$) can be purchased from SAP Canada or at the door. For more information please contact Isabelle Valois/Renée Giroux, at (613) 241-1333; e-mail: sap@web.ca or visit the following websites for the schedule and film description: www.sapcanada.org or www.somastation.com or www.savari.com

Film Schedule

September 25- 30, 2000

______________________________

Monday Sept. 25, 2000 – 7PM

Theme:
Crossing Paths: An exploration of overlaps’: tourism and industrialization over local cultures

Films:

Don't Pass Me By - Eclectic profiles of 'macho' locals and tourists who come to low both their minds and muscles at the Nepali resort town of Pokhara. Sarah Kapoor, Christina Lamey and Kristi Vuorinen. 1999. 40 min. Nepal.

Ragi: Kana: Ko Bonga Buru (Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda) – The state needs uranium to be mined, but the consequences of negligence are tragic for a vulnerable and rural population in the Bihar plateau. Winner of the Third Best Film Award at FSA ’99. Shriprakash. 1999. 76 min. Bihar/India

______________________________

Tuesday Sept. 26, 2000 – 7PM

Theme:
Quest for Freedom: A road too often traveled on the path to a better life.

Films:

The Forgotten Army - An expedition with some veterans of Subash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army to retrace their historic march and the events that took place between 1942 and 1945. Winner of Grand Jury Prize at FSA ’99. Kabir Khan. 1997. 105 min. Pre-1947 India.

Muktir Kotha (Words of Freedom) – Bangladeshi villagers recall the liberation war of 1971, their memories jogged by a documentary on the war, Muktir Gaan. Tareque and Catherine Masud. 1999. 80 min. Bangladesh.

______________________________

Wednesday Sept. 27, 2000 – 7PM

Theme:
Choice: Dance and religion as the battleground of the struggle for freedom and personal expression

Films:

Voices of Dissent: A Dance of Passion - Dancing in Pakistan means different things to a classically trained female dancer, a male Kathak dancer, a popular film actress and a mullah. NoorKhan Bawa. 1999. 22 min. Pakistan.

Fishers of Men - Adivasis of Chottanagpur plateau have been converting into Christianity for over a century but of late Hindu activists have launched campaigns to bring them ‘back’. Ranjan Kamath and Padmavathi Rao. 1997. 117 min. Madhya Pradesh/ India.

______________________________

Friday Sept. 29, 2000 – 7PM

Themes:
Identity: The evolution of culture among displaced communities
Illusion: Surrealism and magic as the vehicles for leaving an imprint

Films:

A Letter to Samten – Narrated through a ‘personal letter’ to the main protagonist of the film by the filmmaker in an attempt to understand Bhutanese life left behind by in India. Alex Gabbay. 1999. 25 min. Darjeeling District/India.

Pure Chutney – A US-based Indian writer interacts with the South Asian diaspora in Trinidad, its “preoccupation with India” and explores complex matter of identity. Joint Winner of the Second Best Film Award at FSA ’99. Sanjeev Chatterjee. 1998. 42 min. Trinidad and Tobago.

Listening to Shadows – An exploration of the worlds of the sighted and the blind, a dialogue between the filmmaker and his visually impaired friend. Koushik Sarkar. 1998. 26 min. Gujarat.

No One Believes the Professor – A surreal voyage with Orpheus Augustus Marcks, a.k.a. Professor Sahib: a Lahori poet, actor, philosopher, athlete, who walks the line between genius and divine madness. Joint Winner of the Best Film Award in FSA ’99. Farjad Nabi. 1999. 25 min. Punjab/Pakistan.

Thin Air – With humour and compassion, sometimes turning darkly comic and unsettling, three Bombay magicians are shown as they desperately try to make an imprint on the world. Joint Winner of the Best Film Award at FSA '99. Ashim Alhuwalia. 1998. 42 min. Maharastra/India. Skin Deep – With six first-person narratives the film traces the dynamics of the eternal search for the ideal femininity and how it permeates the self- image of contemporary Indian women. Reena Mohan. 1998. 83 min. India

______________________________

Saturday Sept. 30, 2000 – 1 PM (13:00)

Theme:
Aurat: Hardship, plight and women’s identity in modern South Asia

Films:

Skin Deep – With six first-person narratives the film traces the dynamics of the eternal search for the ideal femininity and how it permeates the self- image of contemporary Indian women. Reena Mohan. 1998. 83 min. India

Jibon (Life) – In Guwahati a mother perseveres as her 12- year-old school-going son comes down with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy which has no cure. An impossible situation confronted with unfaltering hope. Altaf Mazid. 1998. 56 min. Assam/India.

Duhshomoy (A Mother's Lament) – Recreation of events surrounding the pick-up of a 16-year-old garment factory worker by the Dhaka police, who is allegedly gang raped and sent to prison for 'safe custody' where she dies under mysterious circumstances. Yasmine Kabir. 1999. 26 min. Bangladesh.

Three Women and a Camera - One retired and two working women photographers seek to contextualise their work as photographers, as women and products of their times. Joint Winner of the Second Best Film Award at FSA '99. Sabeena Gadihoke. 1998. 56 min. India.