Check out our video interview with the cast and crew of 'Daadi', including director David Andrew Stoler, producer and actor Purva Bedi, and actor Shelle Davis, at the New York Indian Film Festival! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hegop7Gvss&feature=youtu.be
IIF was privileged to have the chance to interview Academy Award winning actress Melissa Leo. She was most recently acclaimed for her award winning performance in "The Fighter" as Alice Ward, as well as roles in "Flight" (as Ellen Block), "Oblivion" (as Sally), and "Olympus Has Fallen" (as Ruth McMillan). Her relationship with Mirra Bank, director of "The Only Real Game", has led to her narrating the film. Check out our interview below! India Independent Films: Thank you very much for taking some time to speak with us today. It’s a special opportunity for us to be able to work [...]
Last week I had the chance to sit down with the lovely and hilarious Kiran Deol during the Tribeca Film Festival. Deol plays the role of Roopa Raj in Meera Menon's award-winning film "Farah Goes Bang." In addition to being an actress who has appeared on shows like "Modern Family" and "Weeds", she also directed and developed an Emmy-nominated documentary called "Woman Rebel." If that wasn't enough, she's also a really funny stand-up comedian. Kiran Deol plays Roopa in "Farah Goes Bang" IIF: Tell me about how you got involved with this movie, "Farah Goes Bang." Deol: They released [...]
IIF was recently invited to partake in a small round-table discussion with "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" Director Mira Nair and cast members Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson and Kiefer Sutherland. IIF as well as a few other writers and outlets discussed everything from South Asian culture to perception in this day and age. Here are a few highlights from the conversation with Kiefer Sutherland, Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson. IIF's questions are highlighted in green while the regular bold questions are from the other members of the press. Kiefer Sutherland discusses "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" What’s it like working with Mira as a [...]
IIF was recently invited to partake in a small round-table discussion with "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" Director Mira Nair and cast members Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson and Kiefer Sutherland. IIF as well as a few other writers and outlets discussed everything from South Asian culture to perception in this day and age. Here are a few highlights from the conversation with Mira Nair. IIF's question is highlighted in green while the regular bold questions are from other members of the press. Mira Nair discusses "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" IIF: There is a relationship in this movie, I've noticed, with the artistic and [...]
The first time is definitely the charm for Meera Menon as she received the 1st Annual Nora Ephron Award at the Tribeca Film Festival this morning for her feature debut "Farah Goes Bang." Kate French, Nikohl Boosheri and Kiran Deol in 'Farah Goes Bang'© Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival Menon received the award this morning from TFF co-founder Jane Rosenthal and Vogue creative digital director, Sally Singer, according to a press release. Menon was selected among several other female directors at this year's festival and received $25,000 with the award. “We're thrilled to highlight Meera's work with this special award. We [...]
Mira Nair's latest project "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is not her best film. But it could be her most important. The story (based on the Moshin Hamid novel of the same name) speaks to the nature of perception between East and West in a world forever changed by 9/11. While most films surrounding a post 9/11 world tend to favor the Western point of view, this film's main character is a young Pakistani professor named Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed). The story is told in flashbacks as Changez is being interviewed by an American reporter named Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) in Lahore following the [...]
I'm surprised there are not more films made out of India with cricket as the backdrop. I'm even more surprised that this project on Kickstarter is not closer to it's goal of $45,000. This documentary in the making needs our help to become a reality The project is a documentary called "Beyond All Boundaries" by filmmaker Sushrut Jain. It follows the stories of three Indians - a penniless superfan, a boy prodigy, and a girl cricketer during the 2011 Cricket World Cup (The year India won in dramatic finish you might remember). The trailer looks great and it is personally [...]
Humara Movie studios will be kicking off their second annual Wassup Andheri Film Festival this month. Last year's festival got quite a lot of buzz for the studio's unique approach towards fostering the growth of unknown filmmakers in India. http://youtu.be/-STEwuDnX1w The premise is unique. Ten shortlisted candidates will be given a topic for making a film. Those ten filmmakers will be broken up into two groups and mentored by two leading directors in Indian cinema. Last year, the topic was "The girl and the autorickshaw" and the candidates were guided by Imtiaz Ali and Anurag Kashyap. You can catch all [...]
"Listen Amaya" by Avinash Kumar Singh was a very difficult film to review. Not because I didn't like it. Quite the contrary actually. I loved it. I found it pleasant, realistic, heartfelt and humorous with the appropriate amount of melodrama. But I also found it very personal. http://youtu.be/RY4xXvvHcdE The story is centered around a twenty something girl named Amaya (Swara Bhaskar) coming to grips with her widowed mother's new relationship. Her mother Leela (Deepti Naval) runs an off-beat cafe called Book A Coffee who falls in love with a regular at the shop, Jayant (Farooq Shaikh). Jayant (affectionately called Jazz by all the [...]
Welcome to a new segment for Brown Hollywood called "Look! Brown people in..." We will be highlighting Hollywood shows, movies, webseries and more that feature South Asian actors and creators prominently. Offensively hilarious. Those are the two best words I can use to describe the new web series out of Justin Lin's YOMYOMF Network (You Offend Me You Offend My Family). For those of you unfamiliar with the network, check out this fantastic write up by Slate about it. http://youtu.be/I4NfuqulsYI The story is about a super top secret elite police squad sent 25 years into the future from 1985 to take on [...]
"Color of Anger" is a short film by Vishesh Sharma about a young man dealing with the effects of an abusive father. But how this young man deals with the pain is the crux of the story. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIFneMBhzKE Jeremy Gallant plays Jim, the disturbed teenager, with quiet brilliance. Now when I say quiet, I mean it literally. Jim has zero lines throughout the film but certainly makes the biggest impact. Sharma uses several close shots to get us inside Jim's mind. We see a kid dealing with the pain of an abusive father in two ways. One is through a [...]
The South Asian International Film Festival concluded Saturday night after a two week layoff thanks to Hurricane Sandy. "This was a historic year for us and the city. Besides introducing some amazing films and doing the Rising Star Film Awards, we also got hit with a storm," Shilen Amin, SAIFF's President and Founder, said. "So many of the films that we wanted to show did not make it to the screen but we were able to make up our closing night at least." The festival award winners were also officially announced Saturday night. Check out the winners below and the [...]
"Patang" is perhaps one of the most genuine films I have ever seen. The movie won awards for Best Director and Best Picture at the SAIFF Rising Stars Awards Ceremony a few weeks ago. It's a rare, unfiltered look at a world that is new and familiar at the same time. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_rOqsX-aY8 The story is simple. Jayesh (played brilliantly by Mukund Shukla), a successful businessman in Delhi, returns to visit his estranged family after five years in Ahmedabad for Uttarayan, the annual kite festival. Old wounds and family troubles arise as Bhargava effortlessly weaves the story of six different characters during this celebration. I'd [...]
Before Hurricane Sandy did her worst to New York, I managed to sit down with Nimisha Mukerji and Mark Ratzlaff, the filmmakers behind the documentary “Blood Relative”, which premiered at SAIFF Oct. 25. Mukerji directed while Ratzlaff took care of the editing. The movie is about young sufferers of thalassemia major, a genetic disease, one variant of which is endemic to South and Southeast Asia where millions are affected with potentially fatal consequences.You can read our review of the film right here (spoiler alert: We loved it). httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVRMpgbO1uU&feature=plcp IIF: What is the challenge behind making a documentary so important and [...]
"Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches." - Harold Evans Stereotypes exist for all races across the board. Some of them can be true while others are blatantly false. Nearly all of them can be associated with ignorance. Yes, some cab drivers are brown. Yes, a lot of IT guys are also brown. Yes, even many terrorists have brown skin. As it turns out though, there are brown people around the world who also happen to be athletes, artists, writers, actors, teachers, pilots, directors, editors, journalists, bartenders, painters, comedians, zookeepers, train conductors, lawyers, politicians, construction workers, cops, [...]
So let's talk about sex. What? You don't want to? What do you mean you're embarrassed? Why? Wait where are you going?! Who the hell is supposed to explain this stuff to me? "Balak Palak" premiered at the South Asian Film Festival Friday night. These are the questions many adolescents face as they grow older and attempt the decipher one of nature's most confounding experiences. Sex. And those kids who grow up in communities (especially India) where such talk and communication is considered taboo, the ramifications can be particularly damaging. This is the premise of "Balak Palak", a film directed by [...]
"Blood Relative" is a truly moving, gripping documentary by Nimisha Mukerji, director of numerous films including the multiple award-winning documentary 65_RedRoses, set to air soon on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Set in Mumbai, we see a true life story of two brave, young sufferers of thalassemia major, a genetic disease, one variant of which is endemic to South and Southeast Asia where millions are affected with potentially fatal consequences. "Blood Relative" was shown at the South Asian International Film Festival Thursday night. The truest meaning of selflessness and humility defines the contributions of Vinay Shetty, the leader of [...]
