South Asian American Films & Arts Association
The South Asian Film Monthly from SAAFA
"F3" - SAAFA-NY Film Festival
SAAFA-NY launched its first film festival with "F3" showcasing narratives, shorts and documentaries. The premise of the festival was to encourage emerging South Asian American filmmakers. The quality of the films gave a glimpse of promise, which if nurtured correctly and professionally, could shine in the years to come. The films included, Sree Annamallu's "Patriot Acts", Jigyasa Taneja's "Dussera", Sharmeen Obaid's "On A Razor’s Edge" and Manu Warrier's "Suicide".
The screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring Sridhar Sreekakula of UTV, Pooja Kohli of IFP-NY (the largest national independent film support group in the US), Suri Gopalan of Cinebella Distribution and Tirlok Mallik of NRI FILM TV Club. The panel was moderated by Obaid Kadwani of Namaste America.
The central theme of the topic was to explore processes and markets for independent South Asian American filmmakers, especially those that make non features. The panel provided useful insights to the existing organizations which provided support to independent filmmakers and suggested the whole fimmaking process to go towards mainstream as opposed to ghettoizing the movement. The event concluded with a raffle and UTV graciously gifted dvd’s of Lakshya to a few lucky attendees.
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EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEW
Tirlok Malik
Tirlok Malik is a pioneer in producing films and documentaries on Indian
American themes. He is the founder of Apple productions that has been
producing films based on multi cultural themes in America. His first
cross cultural comedy film “Lonely In America” was shown
in more than 74 countries including HBO and participated in 37 international
film festivals. Tirlok is now launching NRI TV Film Awards in NY City.
SAAFA: Tell us the thought process behind the NRI TV Film Awards?
TM: Our dream is to create awareness about NRI cinema and to nurture
the NRI entertainment community. The purpose of the NRI TV Film Awards
is to turn this dream into reality. By doing the award show we are creating
the awareness for these films and providing a common platform for filmmakers.
SAAFA:
Why now ?
TM: It is needed now because we have good number of up and coming filmmakers
who need support.
SAAFA: What do you think your results are going to be, from this process
of recognizing Indian American filmmakers?
TM: The audience will come to know what is NRI Cinema in a capsule form.
By
recognizing filmmakers, we provide them with the encouragement they
need to
continue their creative endeavours.
SAAFA: What impact do your foresee of these awards on the creative process,
for the South Asian Americans, here in the US and perhaps also Canada?
TM: The awards gives filmmakers something to aspire to and excel in
their craft.
SAAFA: Briefly describe the categories these awards will recognize and
also going forward how do you envision the selection and award process?
TM: This year we are recognizing films on non-competitive grounds. After
this
year's awards show, we will determine how to proceed in the future.
SAAFA: Finally a little about yourself and why these awards mean so
much to you?
TM: I am a filmmaker. I made my first film in 1990, Lonely in America,
which was
shown in 74 countries, multiple times on HBO, and participated in 37
International Film Festivals winning many awards. I've been involved
in many films since then. It has been an up and down journey. Through
this journey, I realized that there is no support for filmmakers. If
there is support, the journey becomes easier and more rewarding.
The awards show is the beginning of this movement to nurture the NRI
entertainment
community and is very close to my heart. I have a great team working
with me and
we've received very encouraging responses on our concept. May God bless
us.
Visit www.nritvfilmclub.com; www.nritvfilmawards.com for information on NRI TV FILM awards.
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