september, 2019
Genre:
All
All
Animal Rights
Animated
Comedy
Documentary
Drama
Education
Environment
Family
Human Rights
Immigration
LGBTQ
Mental Health
Romance
Social Issues
Sports
VR
Women's Focus
Country:
All
All
Afganistan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Canada
France
India
Kashmir
Manipur
Nepal
New Zealand
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Tibet
UK
USA
Day:
All
All
Friday
Monday
Saturday
Sunday
Thursday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Event Location:
All
All
Bellevue International School
Issaquah Cinebarre
Kane Hall
Microsoft Studio B
Northwest Film Forum 1515 12th Ave
Northwest Film Forum 1515 12th Ave
Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village
Redmond Community Center at Marymore Village
Ronald Geballe Auditorium (Physics and Astronomy), University of Washington Seattle
Seattle Art Museum
SEATTLE UNIVERSITY
Seattle University, Pigott Auditorium
SIFF
SIFF Cinema Egyptian
SIFF Film Center
SIFF Film Center
SIFF Film Center - Seattle Center
SIFF Film Center, Seattle
Simpson Center for the Humanities Communications 120 (CMU 120) University of Washington
Thomson Hall, Room 101, University of Washington, Seattle
University of Washington Bothell
UW
UW Bothell
UW Bothell, Bldg and Room: UW2-005
UW Communications Building
UW Seattle Campus
UW Seattle Campus (Thompson Hall)
UW South Asia Center
UW South Asia Center (Thomson Hall)
UW South Asia Center, Thomson Hall 101
UW SYMPOSIUM, BOTHELL
Film: KD Madhumita Sundararaman | 115min | 2019 | India Karuppudurai, an 80-year-old man, bedridden for the past three months in
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Film: KD
Madhumita Sundararaman | 115min | 2019 | India
Karuppudurai, an 80-year-old man, bedridden for the past three months in a coma, suddenly wakes up one fine day to overhear his family planning to kill him by performing an ancient euthanasia ritual. Hurt, heartbroken and afraid, Karuppudurai runs away from the only home he has ever known. On an aimless path with nowhere to go, he accidentally meets a 10-year-old orphan, Kutty. Kutty is everything Karuppudurai isn’t; smart, spunky and full of life. The fiercely independent Kutty encourages KD to chalk out a bucket list and start living for himself. Thus begins an eventful road trip of this unlikely pair–an old man running away from his family and a young boy who never had one.
Filmmaker: Madhumita Sundararaman
Madhumita is a prolific Indian writer-director, primarily working in Tamil language cinema. Her first short film Abstract Identity won the BBC Award in the Best in the World category. Having done a course in Direction from the New York Film Academy, she has also briefly worked on Pirates of the Caribbean III. Madhumita recently completed a Tamil-Telugu bilingual feature, titled Moone Moonu Varthai/Moodu Mukkallo Cheppalante as a director, and a Hindi feature film, Tadka, as a creative producer.
Time
(Saturday) 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location
Issaquah Cinebarre
1490 11th Ave NW
Tickets
BuyKick off the largest South Asian film festival on the Red Carpet, with celebrities Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi), Shabana Azmi, Danish Renzu, Tanuja Chandra, Gazal Dhaliwal, and
more
Kick off the largest South Asian film festival on the Red Carpet, with celebrities Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi), Shabana Azmi, Danish Renzu, Tanuja Chandra, Gazal Dhaliwal, and other filmmakers. Followed by a Bollywood dance party with delicious Indian food. Actress Shabana Azmi will be presented with the Tasveer Emerald Award.
PROGRAM
6:30 PM: Red Carpet Walk with celebrities Shabana Azmi, Sumantra Ghosal, Suraj Sharma, Danish Renzu, Tanuja Chandra, Gazal Dhaliwal, Asavari Kumar, and many more
-Tasveer Emerald Award to Legendary Actor Shabana Azmi
7:00 PM: Film The Illegal and talk with filmmaker Danish Renzu, and Suraj Sharma
9:30 PM: Party begins at The Summit on Pike (420 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122)
Film: The Illegal
Danish Renzu | 86min | 2018 | US/India
Filmmaker: Danish Renzu
Danish Renzu is a Kashmir-born film director, whose work, direction, and writing have received critical acclaim, whilst his work in drama specifically has earned him an official selection at various film festivals and recognition in press and media. Danish Renzu grew up in the conflict-driven valley of Kashmir where he lived through frequent bombings, shutdowns, and abuse of human rights. He realized early in life that a true solution lies in investing our energies toward personal development, education, and community growth. A graduate of the University of California Los Angeles, he came to America all by himself at a very young age to pursue his dreams. He also holds a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering.
Time
(Thursday) 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Location
SIFF Cinema Egyptian
805 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122
Tickets
BuyFilm: Kaifinama Sumantra Ghosal | 90min | 2019 | India Kaifinama looks at the life and art of the Urdu Progressive poet Kaifi Azmi. Kaifi
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Film: Kaifinama
Sumantra Ghosal | 90min | 2019 | India
The screening will be followed by a Q&A, moderated by Pulkit Datta.
Filmmaker: Sumantra Ghosal
Trailer
Fundraiser: Dinner with Shabana, buy your tickets here (not included in the festival pass).
Time
(Friday) 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
Seattle University, Pigott Auditorium
Tickets
BuyShort Film: Kamali Sasha Rainbow | 24 min | 2019 | United Kingdom Kamali is the only girl skateboarder
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Short Film: Kamali
Sasha Rainbow | 24 min | 2019 | United Kingdom
Filmmaker: Sasha Rainbow
Sasha Rainbow is a director who has worked across multiple disciplines including film, art direction, photography, and costume. Sasha believes storytelling can throw light onto communities to showcase heroic role models, which is just what the world needs.
Trailer
Short Film: Aguan – Sun Behind the Horizon
Novera Hasan Nikkon | 9 min | 2019 | Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s socio-cultural environment is built on gender discrimination. Girls are often considered to be financial burdens on their family from the time of birth and empowering women is still a dream from generation to generation. This is the story of Rahela Begum, a 22-year-old single mother who becomes a female rickshaw-puller, breaking traditional gender roles while supporting her two children after her husband leaves her. Muslim-majority Bangladesh is one of Asia’s most conservative societies, one in which the idea of a woman doing such a job had been unheard of before Rahela hit the road three years ago in the capital city Dhaka. Barring senseless conventions and stereotypes from consideration, Rahela is a model for women’s empowerment in the sub-continent.
Filmmaker: Novera Hasan Nikkon
Novera Hasan Nikkon is a student filmmaker from Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is an undergraduate student in the Fine Arts department at Jagannath University, Dhaka. Her works include three short documentary films on girls’ and womens’ rights. Her debut solo film, Let Me Breathe with my Dream (2017), has earned several inspiring awards and official nominations. Her second and third films, We Could be Champion Too and Aguan, have also received prestigious awards. Ms. Nikkon’s proposed production proposal, The Girls are not Brides, received the prestigious Hoso Bunka Foundation Award in the NHK Japan Prize competition in 2016. In the 56 year-history of the Japan Prize, she is the first 19-year-old and the first Bangladeshi citizen to win this prestigious prize.
Short Film: The Stitch
Asiya Zahor | 8min | 2019 | India
The Stitch is set near the LOC Line of Control–not a recognized international boundary but a de facto border between India and Pakistan in Baramulla/Uri, towards the extreme north of Kashmir. The film takes us into the life of a nine-year-old girl, who takes respite in drawing, even though she has to navigate difficult geographical terrain and occasionally a curfew or a crossfire, in order to fulfill small aspirations like going to school. By zooming into the microcosm of the girl’s life, this short film endeavours to portray the larger story of Kashmir and the negotiations the people in any contested territory have to make to deal with fissures in their geographical and personal identities. As a conscious act of resistance against the infidelity of language, there is no dialogue in the film.
Filmmaker: Asiya Zahor
Asiya Zahoor, the director of the film teaches literature in Baramulla. She writes poetry and occasionally experiments with the visual medium. The film has brought together a group of people with an urge to tell their story. These are mostly students from Baramulla with an exception of the musician, Ghulam Hassan, who plays rabab after a day’s toil of sweeping the Baramulla college.






































































































































































Short Film: A for Apple
Sarah Aminuddin | 14 min | 2019 | Canada
Inside the home of an upper-class Pakistani family, teenage servant Humaira receives English lessons from her young mistress, Sabina. The classes awaken in Humaira the desire for an education of which she has been deprived as a maid. When Naseem, her mother, notices the lessons are distracting her from her work, she reprimands the girl for transgressing her social position and gender expectations. Despite constant discouragement from her mother and employers, Humaira continues to pursue her dream of learning English.
Filmmaker: Sarah Aminuddin
Short Film: Nooreh
Ashish Pandey | 20min | 2019 | India
Nestled in the Kashmir valley sits a small village on the India-Pakistan border, perpetually caught in the crossfire between the two warring nations. One night an eight-year-old girl, Nooreh, discovers that the gun battle rages when she sleeps and the bloody duel stops when she keeps her eyes open.
Filmmaker: Ashish Pandey
Ashish began his quest to find unheard marginal voices with his first short The Cabin Man (2007), which dealt with the loneliness of a cabin man guarding an abandoned railway cabin. In Open Doors (2010), he reflected upon the apathy of a son towards his fragile mother, who hopes to return home, till her last breath. Nooreh (2018) portrays an innocent belief of a young Kashmiri girl, growing up in a conflict-ridden village on the India-Pakistan border. Pandey is a graduate from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, with specialization in sound.
Short Film: Gaash
Danish Renzu | 14min | 2019 | India
Under a shroud of life, Fatima embarks on a journey in search of her beloved Gaash (light).
Filmmaker: Danish Renzu
Danish Renzu is a Kashmir born film director, whose work, direction, and writing have received critical acclaim, whilst his work in drama specifically has earned him an official selection at various film festivals and recognition in press and media. Danish Renzu grew up in the conflict-driven valley of Kashmir where he lived through frequent bombings, shutdowns, and abuse of human rights; he realized early in life that true solution lies in investing our energies toward personal development, education, and community growth. A graduate of the University of California Los Angeles, he came to America all by himself at a very young age to pursue his dreams.
Short Film: Passage
Asavari Kumar | 6min | 2019 | US/India
Passage is an animated short film that recounts the journey of a young immigrant woman from India in the aftermath of the US Presidential Elections of 2016. The film unfolds like an animated essay, portraying the woman’s personal journey through a quagmire of memories, changing identities, and the idea of belonging. Amidst rising global anti-immigrant sentiments and divisive discourses within the immigrant communities, Passage hopes to explore overlapping narratives across varied immigrant experiences.
Filmmaker: Asavari Kumar
Asavari is an Animation Director from New Delhi, India currently based in Los Angeles. She owns and operates the collective Supernova Design through which she creates commercial and personal projects while collaborating with POC and women artists. Asavari’s films, installations and graphic narratives have been showcased at national and international film festivals and exhibition spaces. She uses character-driven storytelling to parse her evolving cultural and political identity and aims to generate a discourse surrounding ideas of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ and find where her narratives intersect with those around her.
Time
(Saturday) 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Location
SIFF Film Center
305 Harrison St
Tickets
BuyShort Film: Nooreh Ashish Pandey | 20min | 2019 | India Nestled in the Kashmir valley sits a small village on the India-Pakistan
more
Short Film: Nooreh
Ashish Pandey | 20min | 2019 | India
Nestled in the Kashmir valley sits a small village on the India-Pakistan border, perpetually caught in the crossfire between the two warring nations. One night an eight-year-old girl, Nooreh, discovers that the gun battle rages when she sleeps and the bloody duel stops when she keeps her eyes open.
Filmmaker: Ashish Pandey
Ashish began his quest to find unheard marginal voices with his first short The Cabin Man (2007), which dealt with the loneliness of a cabin man guarding an abandoned railway cabin. In Open Doors (2010), he reflected upon the apathy of a son towards his fragile mother, who hopes to return home, till her last breath. Nooreh (2018) portrays an innocent belief of a young Kashmiri girl, growing up in a conflict-ridden village on the India-Pakistan border. Pandey is a graduate from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, with specialization in sound.
Trailer
Short Film: A for Apple
Sarah Aminuddin | 14 min | 2019 | Canada
Inside the home of an upper-class Pakistani family, teenage servant Humaira receives English lessons from her young mistress, Sabina. The classes awaken in Humaira the desire for an education of which she has been deprived as a maid. When Naseem, her mother, notices the lessons are distracting her from her work, she reprimands the girl for transgressing her social position and gender expectations. Despite constant discouragement from her mother and employers, Humaira continues to pursue her dream of learning English.
Filmmaker: Sarah Aminuddin
Short Film: The Stitch
Asiya Zahor | 8min | 2019 | India
The Stitch is set near the LOC Line of Control–not a recognized international boundary but a de facto border between India and Pakistan in Baramulla/Uri, towards the extreme north of Kashmir. The film takes us into the life of a nine-year-old girl, who takes respite in drawing, even though she has to navigate difficult geographical terrain and occasionally a curfew or a crossfire, in order to fulfill small aspirations like going to school. By zooming into the microcosm of the girl’s life, this short film endeavours to portray the larger story of Kashmir and the negotiations the people in any contested territory have to make to deal with fissures in their geographical and personal identities. As a conscious act of resistance against the infidelity of language, there is no dialogue in the film.
Filmmaker: Asiya Zahor
Asiya Zahoor, the director of the film teaches literature in Baramulla. She writes poetry and occasionally experiments with the visual medium. The film has brought together a group of people with an urge to tell their story. These are mostly students from Baramulla with an exception of the musician, Ghulam Hassan, who plays rabab after a day’s toil of sweeping the Baramulla college.






































































































































































Short Film: Kamali
Sasha Rainbow | 24 min | 2019 | United Kingdom
Filmmaker: Sasha Rainbow
Sasha Rainbow is a director who has worked across multiple disciplines including film, art direction, photography, and costume. Sasha believes storytelling can throw light onto communities to showcase heroic role models, which is just what the world needs.
Short Film: Aguan – Sun Behind the Horizon
Novera Hasan Nikkon | 9 min | 2019 | Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s socio-cultural environment is built on gender discrimination. Girls are often considered to be financial burdens on their family from the time of birth and empowering women is still a dream from generation to generation. This is the story of Rahela Begum, a 22-year-old single mother who becomes a female rickshaw-puller, breaking traditional gender roles while supporting her two children after her husband leaves her. Muslim-majority Bangladesh is one of Asia’s most conservative societies, one in which the idea of a woman doing such a job had been unheard of before Rahela hit the road three years ago in the capital city Dhaka. Barring senseless conventions and stereotypes from consideration, Rahela is a model for women’s empowerment in the sub-continent.
Filmmaker: Novera Hasan Nikkon
Novera Hasan Nikkon is a student filmmaker from Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is an undergraduate student in the Fine Arts department at Jagannath University, Dhaka. Her works include three short documentary films on girls’ and womens’ rights. Her debut solo film, Let Me Breathe with my Dream (2017), has earned several inspiring awards and official nominations. Her second and third films, We Could be Champion Too and Aguan, have also received prestigious awards. Ms. Nikkon’s proposed production proposal, The Girls are not Brides, received the prestigious Hoso Bunka Foundation Award in the NHK Japan Prize competition in 2016. In the 56 year-history of the Japan Prize, she is the first 19-year-old and the first Bangladeshi citizen to win this prestigious prize.
Short Film: Gaash
Danish Renzu | 14min | 2019 | India
Under a shroud of life, Fatima embarks on a journey in search of her beloved Gaash (light).
Filmmaker: Danish Renzu
Danish Renzu is a Kashmir born film director, whose work, direction, and writing have received critical acclaim, whilst his work in drama specifically has earned him an official selection at various film festivals and recognition in press and media. Danish Renzu grew up in the conflict-driven valley of Kashmir where he lived through frequent bombings, shutdowns, and abuse of human rights; he realized early in life that true solution lies in investing our energies toward personal development, education, and community growth. A graduate of the University of California Los Angeles, he came to America all by himself at a very young age to pursue his dreams.
Short Film: Passage
Asavari Kumar | 6min | 2019 | US/India
Passage is an animated short film that recounts the journey of a young immigrant woman from India in the aftermath of the US Presidential Elections of 2016. The film unfolds like an animated essay, portraying the woman’s personal journey through a quagmire of memories, changing identities, and the idea of belonging. Amidst rising global anti-immigrant sentiments and divisive discourses within the immigrant communities, Passage hopes to explore overlapping narratives across varied immigrant experiences.
Filmmaker: Asavari Kumar
Asavari is an Animation Director from New Delhi, India currently based in Los Angeles. She owns and operates the collective Supernova Design through which she creates commercial and personal projects while collaborating with POC and women artists. Asavari’s films, installations and graphic narratives have been showcased at national and international film festivals and exhibition spaces. She uses character-driven storytelling to parse her evolving cultural and political identity and aims to generate a discourse surrounding ideas of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ and find where her narratives intersect with those around her.
Time
(Saturday) 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Location
SIFF Film Center
305 Harrison St
Tickets
BuyShort Film: A for Apple Sarah Aminuddin | 14 min | 2019 | Canada Inside the home of an upper-class Pakistani family, teenage
more
Short Film: A for Apple
Sarah Aminuddin | 14 min | 2019 | Canada
Inside the home of an upper-class Pakistani family, teenage servant Humaira receives English lessons from her young mistress, Sabina. The classes awaken in Humaira the desire for an education of which she has been deprived as a maid. When Naseem, her mother, notices the lessons are distracting her from her work, she reprimands the girl for transgressing her social position and gender expectations. Despite constant discouragement from her mother and employers, Humaira continues to pursue her dream of learning English.
Filmmaker: Sarah Aminuddin
Trailer






































































































































































Short Film: The Stitch
Asiya Zahor | 8min | 2019 | India
The Stitch is set near the LOC Line of Control–not a recognized international boundary but a de facto border between India and Pakistan in Baramulla/Uri, towards the extreme north of Kashmir. The film takes us into the life of a nine-year-old girl, who takes respite in drawing, even though she has to navigate difficult geographical terrain and occasionally a curfew or a crossfire, in order to fulfill small aspirations like going to school. By zooming into the microcosm of the girl’s life, this short film endeavours to portray the larger story of Kashmir and the negotiations the people in any contested territory have to make to deal with fissures in their geographical and personal identities. As a conscious act of resistance against the infidelity of language, there is no dialogue in the film.
Filmmaker: Asiya Zahor
Asiya Zahoor, the director of the film teaches literature in Baramulla. She writes poetry and occasionally experiments with the visual medium. The film has brought together a group of people with an urge to tell their story. These are mostly students from Baramulla with an exception of the musician, Ghulam Hassan, who plays rabab after a day’s toil of sweeping the Baramulla college.






































































































































































Short Film: Kamali
Sasha Rainbow | 24 min | 2019 | United Kingdom
Filmmaker: Sasha Rainbow
Sasha Rainbow is a director who has worked across multiple disciplines including film, art direction, photography, and costume. Sasha believes storytelling can throw light onto communities to showcase heroic role models, which is just what the world needs.
Short Film: Aguan – Sun Behind the Horizon
Novera Hasan Nikkon | 9 min | 2019 | Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s socio-cultural environment is built on gender discrimination. Girls are often considered to be financial burdens on their family from the time of birth and empowering women is still a dream from generation to generation. This is the story of Rahela Begum, a 22-year-old single mother who becomes a female rickshaw-puller, breaking traditional gender roles while supporting her two children after her husband leaves her. Muslim-majority Bangladesh is one of Asia’s most conservative societies, one in which the idea of a woman doing such a job had been unheard of before Rahela hit the road three years ago in the capital city Dhaka. Barring senseless conventions and stereotypes from consideration, Rahela is a model for women’s empowerment in the sub-continent.
Filmmaker: Novera Hasan Nikkon
Novera Hasan Nikkon is a student filmmaker from Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is an undergraduate student in the Fine Arts department at Jagannath University, Dhaka. Her works include three short documentary films on girls’ and womens’ rights. Her debut solo film, Let Me Breathe with my Dream (2017), has earned several inspiring awards and official nominations. Her second and third films, We Could be Champion Too and Aguan, have also received prestigious awards. Ms. Nikkon’s proposed production proposal, The Girls are not Brides, received the prestigious Hoso Bunka Foundation Award in the NHK Japan Prize competition in 2016. In the 56 year-history of the Japan Prize, she is the first 19-year-old and the first Bangladeshi citizen to win this prestigious prize.
Short Film: Nooreh
Ashish Pandey | 20min | 2019 | India
Nestled in the Kashmir valley sits a small village on the India-Pakistan border, perpetually caught in the crossfire between the two warring nations. One night an eight-year-old girl, Nooreh, discovers that the gun battle rages when she sleeps and the bloody duel stops when she keeps her eyes open.
Filmmaker: Ashish Pandey
Ashish began his quest to find unheard marginal voices with his first short The Cabin Man (2007), which dealt with the loneliness of a cabin man guarding an abandoned railway cabin. In Open Doors (2010), he reflected upon the apathy of a son towards his fragile mother, who hopes to return home, till her last breath. Nooreh (2018) portrays an innocent belief of a young Kashmiri girl, growing up in a conflict-ridden village on the India-Pakistan border. Pandey is a graduate from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, with specialization in sound.
Short Film: Gaash
Danish Renzu | 14min | 2019 | India
Under a shroud of life, Fatima embarks on a journey in search of her beloved Gaash (light).
Filmmaker: Danish Renzu
Danish Renzu is a Kashmir born film director, whose work, direction, and writing have received critical acclaim, whilst his work in drama specifically has earned him an official selection at various film festivals and recognition in press and media. Danish Renzu grew up in the conflict-driven valley of Kashmir where he lived through frequent bombings, shutdowns, and abuse of human rights; he realized early in life that true solution lies in investing our energies toward personal development, education, and community growth. A graduate of the University of California Los Angeles, he came to America all by himself at a very young age to pursue his dreams.