Hello readers!
After a hiatus for just over 6 weeks, as announced on our weekly newsletter, AIM magazine is back again. So please come up regularly to be updated with all the news. The newsletter will go out again from later this week.

regards
editor, Sunny Hundal

The Art Space, a city wide exhibition based in York, is looking for Asian visual artists. There are dozens of spaces available. Interested artists should contact The ArtSpace through their website.

The website Pukka PR has pictures from the recent Asian Woman magazine Awards.

Click here.

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).

The Guardian reporter Vikram Dodd has been appointed Crime Correspondent for the paper, covering a maternity leave.

The Boston Globe newspaper features a story on AIM magazine’s very own Komal Trivedi, who helped launch this magazine all those years ago. Komal presents an early Thursday morning show on Boston College’s WZBC radio station.

Trivedi also enjoys showcasing the work of her contemporaries, including Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawhney, who pioneered Asian Underground. The British Asian artists helped create the genre by spicing up classical South Asian beats with modern dance music, heavy on electronics.

Asian Underground burst into the British mainstream in the 1990s, but Trivedi says that when she moved to the Boston area three years ago, this type of music was difficult to find, especially on the radio.

Trivedi was eager to fill the void, so a colleague at WGBH, where Trivedi is an executive assistant, suggested that she approach the Boston College station, where the colleague worked as a DJ in his spare time. The colleague showed Trivedi the ropes at WZBC, and just over a year ago “Bricklane Beats” was born.

Read the whole feature.

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

Ethnic marketing agency The Marketing Effect has successfully retained an account in a 3 way pitch which it will be managing for Media Trust in association with Voluntary Arts England.

It will work on a new nationwide campaign called Up for Arts which aims to encourage participation in voluntary arts and crafts activities within ethnic communities, disabled and unemployed groups. The Marketing Effect has been working with Media Trust since late 2006 to increase awareness of volunteering opportunities within key groups who are at risk of social exclusion.

From the authors of Warrior Saints and Sicques, Tigers or Thieves comes a new online exhibition that explores the fascinating Anglo-Sikh relationship over 200 years – a relationship that has touched and shaped the lives of millions. Through illustrations and detailed captions, the key events and people concerned are presented in eight sections, from the rise of the Sikh kingdom of Lahore in 1801 to the settling of the Sikh Diaspora in Britain in the twentieth century. Sometimes as friends, other times as foes, the Sikhs and the British have had one of the most rich and intriguing of partnerships.

More information.

Music and a real-life story are being used to improve the levels of awareness of hepatitis C among the South Asian community.

The ‘My Story’ CD has been created by the Department of Health’s FaCe It hepatitis C awareness campaign and features music from some of the world’s hottest Asian artists, including Kamaal Khan, Hadiqa Kiani and Adnan Sami. The tracks surround a frank interview by top TV health presenter Yasmin Qureshi with Shabana Begum, a Pakistani woman who recounts her experience with hepatitis C, a virus which affects the liver. The CD also features advice from healthcare professionals about transmission routes and available treatment.

Although hepatitis C can affect anyone from any background, there is emerging evidence that the prevalence within the South Asian community in this country may be higher than in the general population.

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.

TV Chef Anjum Anand grew up in London but has worked across the world in restaurants such as Café Spice in New York, the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles, and the Park Royal Hotel’s Indian restaurant in New Delhi. She rejects the assertion that Indian food is heavy and difficult to cook and is determined to make “cooking an Indian” as common as rustling up a stir-fry.

Her new TV series, Indian Food Made Easy, started on BBC2 on Monday, July 9. A book of the same name will accompany the series published by Quadrille on August 3.

A one-off comedy starring Sanjeev Bhaskar and Nitin Ganatra will air on ITV this Wednesday (30th May).

Bhaskar stars as shy accountant Kenny Gupta, a resident of mundane middle-class English suburbia who is reluctantly packed off to India to transform the fortunes of his boss’s newly acquired call centre in Mumbai. Unfortunately for him, it already has a manager in the form of devious Dev (Nitin Ganatra), a man more interested in using the business to fund his own numerous profitable sidelines than making profits for its new Brit owner.

Written by Laurence Marks, Maurice Gran and Sanjeev Bhaskar, this culture-clash tale also includes a cameo appearance by Sixties style icon Twiggy.
10pm – 10:30pm, ITV1.

Some upcoming television and radio programmes of interest

Hindi Urdu Bol Chaal 1-10
Ten-part language series teaching basic spoken Hindi and Urdu for beginners. The course is ideal for all who work with the Asian community in Britain.
Time: 2am – 6am; Tuesday 15th May on BBC 2

A Family in Lahore
The Khawaja family represents a growing number of successful professional Pakistani families, living in the suburb of Lahore with servants, and children at private school. The programme interlinks their day with a look at the busy and historic city of Lahore.
Time: 10:50am to 11:10am; Tuesday 15th May on BBC 2

Dispatches: Afghanistan Unveiled
Five years ago, Dispatches revealed the plight of women living under the Taliban in Afghanistan. Beneath the Veil uncovered evidence of women being denied employment, education and any kind of freedom, imprisoned in their own homes. In this film, journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy returns to Afghanistan to find out how life has changed for women in the five years since the invasion by America and its allies and to investigate whether women have been “liberated” as President Bush has claimed.
Time: 9pm – 10pm; Thursday 17th May on Channel 4

Poppy Seeds
By Rachel McGill. An aid worker in Afghanistan decides that the fight to contain the opium trade is not working and that a fresh approach is needed. She starts buying opium direct from the farmers, ensuring not only that they obtain a fair price for their crop but also that the product is not bought by drug cartels. Directed by Graham Frost.
Time: 2:15pm to 3pm; Friday 18th May on BBC Radio Four

The Bedouin Of Israel
The ancient culture of the Bedouin Arabs of Israel is rooted in a life on the plains of the Negev Desert. These proud people have become Israel’s new underclass. As Jon Leyne reports, the Bedouin have become the poorest of the Jewish state.
Time: 9:30pm – 10pm; Saturday 19th May on BBC News 24

For nearly two million Muslims living in Britain the legacy of the 9/11 and July 7 terrorist attacks has been one of continuing public suspicion and distrust. The intense media spotlight has led many to question whether their future here is secure, even those who have professional middle class jobs and previously felt well-integrated.

In I’m a Muslim, Get me out of here! reporter Navid Akhtar meets such families who are contemplating leaving the UK and visits others who have already left for greener Islamic pastures abroad.
BBC Radio 4 at 5pm Sunday 29th April.
You can also listen online for a week after broadcast.

London’s Evening Standard newspaper has promoted Rob Singh to crime reporter, it announced today. Singh was previously a new reporter on the Standard and its sister newspaper London Lite. He replaces Rich Edwards, who left to join the Telegraph.

Akademi director, Mira Kaushik, was presented with an honorary Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on 8 March, for her contribution to dance in the UK.

Mira Kaushik has been the director of Akademi since 1988 and has overseen the transformation of the company into one of global importance. It currently serves an audience of millions through its dance and education programmes. Among Mira Kaushik’s key achievements with Akademi are the production of shows Coming of Age (2000) and Escapade (2003) at the South Bank Centre and Waterscapes (2004) at Somerset House.
Footage of Akademi’s work can be viewed at: youtube.com/profile?user=AkademiSouthAsianDan

Birmingham Libraries are currently working on a creative writers project with writers of Muslim backgrounds. They are providing writers an e-portal where writers can upload there work of any genre online – www.publishingbirmingham.com. Their aim is to offer writers the opportunity to develop themselves and earn income from their writing.

To celebrate the work and contribution of British writers they are holding the first annual Muslim Writers award ceremony in Birmingham on Wed 28 March (at the Library Theatre). Well known Muslim speakers and writers such as Qaisra Shahraz, Moazzem Begg, Salma Yaqoob and Faraz Yousufzai will talk about their experiences on getting published.

The cut-off date for submitting your work for the awards is 16th February. For more information contact: imran.akram@innovatepartnership.com

The New Statesman magazine goes behind the upcoming elections and political turmoil in Bangladesh this week, with a special edition of the magazine. It examines the country’s political crisis, and the situation of the many Bangladeshis in Britain.

It includes contributions from top writers, including Monica Ali, Tahmima Anam (reporting from Dhaka on the postponed elections and a country in chaos), Labour councillor Ayub Korom Ali, and editor of the Bangladesh Daily Star Mahfuz Anam.
www.newstatesman.com

Buena Vista International (UK) will release Roger Michell’s film Venus across the UK and Ireland on January 26th 2007 starring Peter O’Toole, Leslie Phillips, Richard Griffiths, Vanessa Redgrave, and newcomer Jodie Whittaker.

A wry, affectionate coming of very-old-age story, Venus reunites the team behind both the acclaimed film The Mother and the award-winning television series The Buddha of Suburbia: director Roger Michell, writer Hanif Kureishi and producer Kevin Loader.

UK soul sensation Corinne Bailey Rae provides music for the VENUS soundtrack, which includes both songs from her debut album and tracks composed for the film score.