Producer / Director Fahima Sahabdeen of Sae University is casting for her final student short film production Terrorised. Continue reading…

British actress Rebecca Hazlewood’s new film - Kissing Cousins - has started doing the festival rounds in Los Angeles. The former Crossroads star left for Los Angeles a few years ago and returns to London on occasion.

Kissing Cousins is produced by Amyn Kaderali and Manish Goyal. Both were behind Call Center, a short film that became very popular on the web.

Kissing Cousins played at the Asian Pacific Film Festival last week and is currently touring other film festivals in the United States.
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In the summer of 2007 a farmer in southern India found a two-day old baby girl who had been buried alive. Rushed to the local hospital, she miraculously survived. But in today’s India, many other baby girls are not so lucky.

India’s Missing Girls tells the story of the thousands of girls who are killed every year - simply because of their gender. Most are aborted as soon as their sex is determined. Some are abandoned at birth, while others are killed, shortly after.
Continue reading…

This July sees the launch of the third annual Britdoc Festival and we want you to be a part of it. With the world’s most influential documentary movers and shakers coming to Keble College, Oxford we are now open for film submissions in both the shorts and feature competitions.

The festival celebrates homegrown talent by screening the 10 best British feature documentaries (over 70 mins) from the past 12 months.

Organisers are looking for films that explore the world we live in and the people we share it with, and say they are always keen to see experimentation. Over the last two years Britdoc has presented award winning films as Nick and Marc Francis’ Black Gold, David Singleton’s In the Shadow of the Moon, Paul Taylor’s We Are Together, Kim Longinotto’s Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, and Ben Hopkins’ 37 Uses For a Dead Sheep.

Apply here: www.britdoc.org

This week Slough sees the launch of the annual film festival Same Difference. The previously acclaimed event opens on Wednesday and is organised by the group Aik Saath.

The Same Difference Film Festival seeks to challenge, inspire and educate people using film. It premieres with on 2nd April with ‘Sukkar Banat’ (Caramel) at the Empire Cinema, Slough.
For the full programme visit: www.same-difference.org.uk

A new series of films at Asia House in London will showcase films by women from around the world.
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Singer Karen David will be appearing alongside Sir David Jason, Sean Astin and Tim Curry in The Colour of Magic, a film adapted from the Terry Pratchett novel of the same name.

The red carpet premiere was held last week March 3rd. The film will air on Sky 1 (UK) on Easter weekend, March 23rd and 24th. Karen David plays Liessa Dragonlady.

Her EP, The Live Sessions, will be released on April 14th on all digital download websites and limited editions at selected music stores.
www.karendavid.com

A Skillset and UK Film Council funded initiative to help graduates from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds to fast track their film careers is inviting applications for placements with leading film businesses.

Starting in June 2008, the Skillset Graduate Fellowship Programme pays fellows a full time training allowance of up to £17,000 per annum. In addition to fantastic work experience fellows also enjoy the benefit of a series of master classes and workshops led by senior industry personnel designed to increase their awareness of the film business.
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Channel 4 drama Britz has been nominated for a Royal Television society (RTS) award within the Best Drama Serial category.

Starring Rizwan Ahmed and Manjinder Virk, it was a two-part thriller about a brother and sister, British-born and Muslim, who are pulled in different directions by their conflicting personal experiences in post 9/11 Britain.

Children’s drama My Life as a Popat is also nominated for that category. The awards will be presented on 19th March at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London.

The annuals Birds Eye View film festival returns this year to shocase the best work from women filmmakers all over the world. It will feature over 70 events including screenings, workshops and parties at 7 London venues including the ICA and BFI. Two screenings are from India this year.
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The London UK Film Focus (LUFF) will return to the capital from 30 June – 3 July 2008 at the BFI Southbank.

Now in its fifth year, the four-day export event will again provide a platform to celebrate and promote British films and talent to the international market. The strictly by-invitation-only event attracts 150 buyers from all world territories who come to see around 40 British titles.
Continue reading…

British comedian and writer Meera Syal from Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42 is among the celebrities backing Happy Soul – South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust’s second festival of film, arts and music (9-15 March). Its aim is to explore mental health awareness among London’s African-Caribbean, Asian and Korean communities. You can join Meera for tea and samosas at the Vestry Hall in Mitcham on Wednesday 12 March.
More on this website.

Tongues on Fire, the annual film festival which celebrates achievement of South Asian women in cinema, presents its 10th film festival across a variety of locations in London with a press launch on Tuesday 19th February at the National Film Theatre (NFT) with Actress, Writer and Filmmaker Meera Syal at 7 pm.

Bafta will host the opening gala weekend launch on 8th & 9th March with a Q and A with Director Tanuja Chandra and Bollywood actress Mahima Chaudhry. She stars in one of the festival’s highlights - Hope And a Little Sugar (pictured below).

Other highlights will include a special celebration of Meera Syal’s works, who will be interviewed by playwright and critic Bonnie Greer on 19th March at Bafta. This year’s festival contains feature films that explore the topics of displacement; relationships and friendships; social and cultural prejudices and the subject matter of mental health within South Asian communities.

It will also feature: a screenwriter’s workshop, a director’s workshop, a short film competition sponsored by UK Film Council, seminars, documentaries and a photo exhibition.
Tongues on Fire website.

Shot in Bombay, an “often surreal” documentary exploring the thin lines that separate crime from punishment and fiction from reality in and around the Bombay film industry - began its theatrical run at London’s ICA on Friday, 18 Jan.

According to a review in Timeout Magazine:

The ironies are ripe indeed, but director Mermin doesn’t spend too much time elbowing us in the ribs, instead offering wry observation of the Bollywood movie factory at work, and fanning out to assess the local public’s evident support for shoot-to-kill law enforcement, the very different levels of justice available to rich and poor, and the long shadow cast by fugitive crimelord Dawood Ibrahim, an apparent linking factor between the bombings, police corruption and Bollywood finances.

Though lacking genuine investigative heft and with obviously limited access to Dutt himself, the result is an absolutely fascinating survey, nimbly skipping from the bubble-headed asides of ‘Shootout’s irrepressibly crass filmmaker to assess more serious human rights issues without feeling too superficial or indeed overly snooty about the infectious can-do spirit of the seasoned crew trying to create Bruckheimer spectacle on a rupee budget.

The film is being screened at the ICA in London through to 10 February.
(A Little Bird Production / Producer: Nahrein Mirza; Director: Liz Mermin)

UK-USA Leadership on Diversity in Film
Friday 19 October

Leading US industry figures are coming to meet representatives from the UK industry to discuss best practice and activities to increase diversity in film, behind and in front of the camera. Confirmed speakers include Kimberly Myers (Writers Guild of America), Rebecca Yee (Screen Actors Guild) and George Sunga (Producers Guild of America). Representatives of training providers, guilds and trade associations in the film industry are invited to attend.

To reserve a seat, email your name and organisation details to diversity@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk with ‘RSVP UK-USA LOD’ in the subject line, and please advise of any access requirements. This is a ‘Leadership on Diversity’ initiative under the Equalities Charter for Film, funded by the UK Film Council (www.diversityinfilm.org.uk).

Actress Sofia Hayat, who starred in Channel 4’s Bollywood Star and in the upcoming film Unforgettable, has started work on a new film: I don’t want to marry Shah Rukh Khan. The film is her brainchild and is being developed with producer Christine Edwards.

Set in London and Mumbai, the story revolves around a British Asian girl who is fights for independence from her family and their plans to make her have an arranged marriage and conform to what they view as the ‘proper’ way to live.

Sofia says: “It’s about time a British film was made that shows what really goes on in some Asian families, without pussyfooting around the issues. A big part of the film revolves around my experiences as a young British Asian.”

West London born Ateesh Randev is the latest British Asian looking to make a name in the film industry after his debut feature releases later this month. Sambar Salsa was produced by London based Kaybee Pictures last year and is being distributed by the same for general release on September 21st.

The romantic comedy, which stars Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor as his father, sees Randev fall in love with a young Spanish girl. Problems ensue when his and her parents meet the young couple. The trailer is below.

www.kaybeepictures.com

Filmmaker Rajesh Thind recently made a documentary for Al-Jazeera TV on his search for a wife. You can watch part 1 below.

Part 2 below.

A minor storm has cooked up over in the United States over the “cross-over” film Marigold, starring Salman Khan and Heroes actress Ali Larter.

According to the American South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) blog, two journalists attracted the ire of Marigold’s director Willard Carroll after they wrote not-so-flattering reviews of the film.

In the e-mails, Carroll speaks of “morally bankrupt journalists” and appears to threaten Tsering and another SAJAer, Aseem Chhabra, with a ban from most Hollywood movie screenings.

To support his point, Chhabra describes Khan’s performance in “Marigold,” a movie about an American actress trying to make it in Bollywood.

Khan is very dull and he almost sleepwalks through the film. He suffers from the same flaw as Rai - the inability to match English dialogues with Bollywood acting.

…
Carroll then sent Chhabra an e-mail accusing the reporter of violating press rules by printing his opinion before the review date. “We’ll make certain that you’re on the no-screening list for as many studios as possible,” the director wrote in the email.

We have no doubt that it probably happens in the UK too. Though the sentiment on this side of the pond seems to be that most journalists in the Asian media fall over themselves to publish positive reviews on anything that comes their way. True or not? What do you think?

Incidentally, Marigold was partially reviewed in the Observer newspaper too here. The critic could barely bring himself to devote more than a paragraph, dismissing it as: “the worst of both worlds”. So much for cross-over appeal.

With Salman Khan now facing legal problems back in India, maybe he thought this film would be his ticket out of the country? Maybe not.

The annual London Film Festival has announced that Wes Anderson’s film, The Darjeeling Limited, will screen as their Closing Night Gala on Thursday 1 November.

The film stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as three brothers who set off on a train voyage across India in an attempt to bond and reconnect. However their ’spiritual journey’ veers rapidly off-course, and the trio find themselves stranded in the middle of the desert with eleven suitcases, a printer and a laminating machine…

ITN On is launching a new made for mobile programme called Bollywood Insider, in a bid to tap into the UK Asian market. The weekly show will bring viewers a two minute round up of stories and interviews from Bollywood , presented by Sunrise radio presenter Suzi Mann.

ITN On managing director, Nicholas Wheeler said: “Our research shows that the UK Asian market is underserved. Suzi is a real talent and her experience in the market is already proving invaluable.” The programme will form part of ITN’s made for mobile news channel currently available on 3, Vodafone Live, Orange and Virgin Mobile.

To mark 60th Anniversary of Indian Independence (1947- 2007), as part of India Now this 3rd thematic South Asian Cinema Foundation Festival at Watermans brings the first ever Cinema of Independence to London. The Festival presents a niche selection of landmark films and documentaries that mirror India’s struggle for independence and the trauma India and Pakistan faced at Partition.

Lalit Mohan Joshi, director of SACF says: “Made between 1947 to 2007 by masters like Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal, these films are Indian Cinema’s tribute to the struggle for Independence and for ending the British Raj. Sixty years on, it leaves many questions unanswered and these films address them directly or obliquely.”
Cinema of Independence ; 10th – 15th August 2007 ; Watermans

In partnership with the Mayor of London’s India Now 2007 season the ICA in London is hosting three events for July and August.

27th July - Futureworld cities: Mumbai. Part of a series of club/lounge nights exploring global cultures after dark, will feature DJs, performers and film.
3rd August – I for India. Documentary about one family’s experience of immigration to the UK over forty years as seen through home movie footage
17-31st August – BollyHorror. A season of 7 horrors from South Asia from gore to ghosts and many more.

A special preview screening of a powerful new Indian film, which will be attended by internationally acclaimed Indian actress Nandita Das, is being held in Wimbledon next week to raise awareness of mental wellbeing among the area’s Asian communities. The screening is being held as part of the Happy Soul Festival, a pioneering festival of Asian films exploring wellbeing.

Maati Maay, or ‘A Grave-Keeper’s Tale’, is directed by Chitra Palekar and based on a short story by Mahasweta Devi. Alongside Nandita Das as Chandi, it stars Atul Kulkarni as her husband Narsu, an undertaker, and Kshitij Gavande as Bhagirath, his son. The film previously debuted at the London Film Festival last October.

Entrance to screenings (8th - 12th July) and talks is free but must be pre-booked. For more information and to book call 020 8772 5559.

In 2002 in the American journalist Daniel Pearl, South Asian Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was researching a story on shoe bomber Richard Reid. The story drew him to Karachi where a go-between had promised access to an elusive source. As he left for the meeting, he told his wife Mariane he might be late for dinner. He never returned.

A film on the life the journalist, starring Angelina Jolie as his wife, opens across theatres in America tomorrow. A Mighty Heart will then open in India on September 14th. The film also stars actor Irfan Khan (The Warrior, Namesake) and British actress Archie Panjabi (Bend it Like Beckham).