Zee Cinema Panel Featuring
Paras Chaudhari (Writer and Actor of independent film “Astoria Park”)
Jaideep Balial (VP, Head of Programming at Zee Cinema)
Ami Sheth (rising TV/film actress)
Mon., March 29, 6:15 PM; Miami Science Museum

Sindoor
Directed By: Mangla Bansal
India/Canada, 2009
8 mins, Narrative Short, Color
Mon., March29, 7:30 PM; Miami Science Museum $12
Sindoor is a short dramatic film about a young Indo-Canadian woman’s search to find peace after losing the love of her life in a car accident
World Premiere

Land Gold Women
Directed By: Avantika Hari
India/UK, 2009
Urdu with English subtitles
109 mins, Narrative Feature, Color
Mon., March29, 7:30 PM; Miami Science Museum $12
Tradition and modernity clash in this heartbreaking tale of a loving father who wants what is best for his 17 year old daughter about to finish school. She has a different opinion and soon their worlds are on a collision course.
North America Premiere

Behind Closed Doors
Directed By: Pracheta Sharma & Jessica Hopper
India/USA, 2009
27 mins, Documentary Short, Color
Tues., March 30, 5 PM; Cosford Cinema $12
Live-in nannies and maids are part of a large workforce that is often ignored, underpaid and exploited in the privacy of homes. Caught in a vicious cycle of labor trafficking, a group of South Asian domestic workers is fighting back. These women have only one thing to rely on: themselves.
World Premiere

Delhi Bound to Work
Directed By: Reena Kukreja Starring: Narinder Samra
India, 2009
Hindi & Oriya with English subtitles
58 mins, Documentary Feature, Color
Tues., March 30, 5 PM; Cosford Cinema $12
An intimate look at the lives of rural women migrating to work as
live-in domestic workers in urban centers of India in this sensitive portrayal of the young domestic workers.
World Premiere

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Zee Cinema, renowned for its extensive library of Bollywood films and its expansive reach to South Asian homes around the world, is pleased to announce its “Indian” panel discussion at the 5th Annual Women’s International Film & Arts Festival in Miami, FL.

On Monday, March 29, independent filmmaker and actor Paras Chaudhari and up-and-coming television and film actress Ami Sheth will join Zee Cinema executives in a lively discussion on the history and future of Indian cinema, while examining the evolution of cinematic portrayals of women in India.

“We’re proud to be associated with an event dedicated to celebrating the dreams, visions and voices of women around the world,” says Subroto Bhattacharya, CEO of Zee TV USA, Inc.  “Our partnership with WIFF further solidifies Zee Cinema’s commitment to recognizing, engaging and empowering women in a variety of roles – mothers, sisters, daughters, writers, directors and even actors – to strive to achieve their goals.”

Since co-founding Crescent Street Films, Paras Chaudhari has produced three short films, three web series, and over twenty commercial ad campaigns for clients ranging from Mercedes Benz Fashion Week to the rock group Black Lips.  Rising star Ami Sheth embodies rich non-Hollywood talent, exotic beauty and versatility to each television and film role she undertakes.

“We believe that the images of women in film directly influence how they are perceived, valued and treated in society,” says Yvonne McCormack-Lyons, Executive Director of the Women’s International Film & Arts Festival.  “As the South Asian entertainment network synonymous with providing the “Best of Bollywood” entertainment experience, Zee Cinema is a perfect fit to create ongoing dialogue and debate about women’s roles in film.”

This year’s event will feature the festival’s “WIFF Around the Globe” theme, a nightly celebration focusing on regions of the world: North America, Africa & Its Diaspora, Europe, India, Asia and the Caribbean with films, food, drinks and other cultural components.  In addition, there will be a Celebration of Women Concert/Family Fun Fest featuring Sony Latin America Artists on March 28.

Held during Women’s History Month from March 26 – April 3, the annual festival has evolved from a one-day film showcase in 2005 to its current 9-day program of film exhibits, seminars, and panel discussion of films from across the globe.

Zee Cinema is available on Dish Network across the United States.

They include: Today’s Special (David Kaplan), Love Aaj Kal (Imtiaz Ali), Cooking With Stella (Dilip Mehta), Diana (Aleem Khan), Scene 32 (Shambhavi Kaul), Talentime (Yasmin Ahmad), and Flying (Kirthi Nath). In addition, the following Indian or India related shorts will participate: Narmeen (Dipti Gogna), Clap Clap (Tanuj Chopra), Anjali (Maya Anand), Kavi (Gregg Helvey), and A Day’s Work (Rajeev Dassani).

The SFIAAFF, presented by Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) every March, is claimed to be the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asian films, annually presenting approximately 120 works in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose in California (USA) since 1982. Chi-hui Yang is Festival Director while Stephen Gong is CAAM Executive Director.

Photocredit: SFIAAFF

Sharpe has previously composed music for Oscar nominated “Firedancer”, John Shea directed “Southie”, and internationally acclaimed documentary “Peace One Day”.

This Warner Bros distributed film, which has won Special Jury Award at WorldFest Houston, was shot in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Genting Highlands, Putrajaya), Pakistan (Lahore), and India (Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu-Kashmir, Maharashtra). This sports-action film; directed by Sanjay Puransingh Chauhan and produced by Vivek Khatkar; stars Aanaahad, Shraddha Das, Farouque Shaikh, and Nafisa Ali.

Lisbeth Scott, whose credits include “Avatar”, “The Passion of the Christ”, “The Chronicles of Narnia”, “and Munich”, is one of the playback singers. Other playback singers include Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, and Daler Mehndi.

While Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Fashion’, a dark tale about the Indian fashion industry, won its heroine Priyanka Chopra the best actress award and got Kangana Ranaut the best supporting actress honour, Farhan Akhtar’s cult music-based film ‘Rock On!!’ got the best Hindi film award. Actor Arjun Rampal won the best supporting actor for the film too.

Ashutosh Gowariker’s epic ‘Jodha Akbar’ won Chinni Prakash and his wife Rekha Prakash the best choreography award for the song ‘Azeem-o-shaan shehenshah’, a number that depicts dance forms of different Indian states. Fashion designer Neeta Lulla, who styled actress Aishwarya Rai in the film, has won the best costume designer award.

Nandita Das’ directorial debut ‘Firaaq’, which was based on the 2002 Gujarat riots, has won the awards for best editing (A. Sreekar Prasad) and best art direction (Gautam Sen).

Even films like ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Roadside Romeo’, ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’, ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’ and ‘Thanks Maa’ took one award each.

While Neeraj Pandey’s ‘A Wednesday’ has bagged the Indira Gandhi award for Best First Film of a director, Yash Raj Films’ ‘Roadside Romeo’ bagged the best animation film.

Dibakar Banerjee’s satirical ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’ has been adjudged the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment, ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’ directed by Nishikant Kamat has got the award for best special effects (Govardhan), and ‘Thanks Maa’ has got Shams Patel the best child artist award.

The award for best direction has gone to Bala for Tamil film ‘Naan Kadauul’, while the best actor is Upendra Limaye for Marathi film ‘Jogva’.

Bengali film ‘Antaheen’, directed by Annirudh Roy-Chowdhary, has won four awards including for best feature film.

~IANS

On Monday, hundreds of locals in ethnic Tujia costumes launched an “official ceremony” to rename the Qiankunzhu mountains, prototypes for “the Hallelujah Mountains,” reports The China Daily.

The peak is 1,074 meters above the sea level and one of more than 3,000 mountains in the Yuanjiajie Scenic Spot- the core area of the World Natural Heritage Wulingyuan Scenic Zone in Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province.

Hollywood photographers spent four days shooting there in 2008 and the pictures became the prototypes for many elements in “Avatar”, said Song Zhiguang, director of the Yuanjiajie Scenic Spot Administration.

The photos inspired the movie director Cameron to feature the floating “Mt. Hallelujah” in the world of “Pandora,” he said.

Li Ping, an official with the Zhangjiajie branch of the China International Travel Service, revealed that about 25 minutes of “Avatar” were shot in Zhangjiajie, and the “Qiankunzhu mountains” appeared for several times.

“Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near. Tourists are welcome to the ‘Miracle tour to Avatar’s floating mountains,” said Song.

~ANI

“It is expected to draw hundreds of India’s leading actors, actresses and filmmakers”, according to South Korea’s leading daily JoongAng Ilbo’s English edition JoongAng Daily.

Starting with London (United Kingdom) in 2000, these annual Awards events have been held in South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, People’s Republic of China and are announced to be held in Canada (Toronto) in June 2011 . IIFA Awards are said to recognize, honor and celebrate the achievements of India’s film industry. It claims to attract a worldwide television audience of over 350 million.

Welcoming Seoul’s move to host Awards events, acclaimed Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was time now for American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize India’s contribution to world cinema and introduce a new award category of “Best Bollywood Film” in Oscars for films made in India. This gesture would bring more credibility to Oscars also in the international arena, as it was long overdue, Rajan Zed, who is chairperson of Indo-American Leadership Confederation, added.

Seoul has been described by Lonely Planet as a “fashion-filled” city that “vibrates with energy night and day” and South Korea as “a country of endless possibilities”. Bollywood is said to be producing about double the number of movies than Hollywood and about four billion cinema tickets are sold annually in India.

Mumbai based IIFA endeavors to promote Indian cinema and showcase its talent globally. Its founder-directors are Andre Timmins, Viraf Sarkari, and Sabbas Joseph. Its Advisory Board boasts of big Bollywood names: Amitabh Bachchan (Brand Ambassador), David Dhawan, J.P. Dutta, Jaya Bachchan, Karan Johar, Manmohan Shetty, Pahlaj Nihalani, Ramesh Sippy, Shyam Shroff, and Vinod Khanna.
~ANI

Among the traitors selling out his homeland was the father of Thavisouk Phrasavath, a military man whose job involved directing B-52s on their missions. However, following the fall of Saigon, the GIs high-tailed it out of Southeast Asia, leaving the local collaborators holding the bag.

After Thavisouk’s father was arrested and imprisoned, most of the family emigrated to America including him, his mother and seven of his siblings. When they were brought directly to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, they actually panicked, fearing that they had somehow been mistakenly relocated to Africa since so many of their new neighbors were black. But they adjusted to life in their new environment, despite having to share a two-bedroom apartment with eight strangers from Cambodia and Vietnam.

Their whole challenging ordeal is recounted in The Betrayal, a documentary that’s difficult to stomach on a lot of levels. For, not only did these lost souls suffer the loss of their beloved patriarch, which led to the crumbling of the family structure, but they had to deal with the cultural shock of the melting pot to deal with, too. And there was no turning back, because they couldn’t return to Laos because of Papa P’s having collaborated with the enemy.

One of those overcoming the odds tales which you could easily see adapted into a touching feelgood saga, if stripped of its sorrowful and sobering elements. No such luck, here, as this warts and all expose’ is designed to leave you outraged about the way America treats naive allies and about the unresolved, ugly fallout of the Vietnam conflict.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
In English and Laotian with subtitles.
Running time: 92 minutes
Studio: The Cinema Guild
DVD Extras: Director’s commentary, Q&A with the director and co-director, conversation with the director and composer, archival footage and newsreels, montage of Laos, additional scene, theatrical trailer, photo gallery, filmmaker biographies and more.
~Visit Betrayal the Movie website
~Purchase the film on Amazon
~by Kam Williams

Set in 1987 Harlem, Precious is the story of a 16-year-old girl struggling in a bleak and brutal world. Gabby Sidibe, Mo’Nique and Mariah Carey star in this powerful film based on the novel Push by Sapphire.

Other films included:
Autumn

Tell me a story

Walls

All my mothers

Photocredit: Oprah at Toronto film festival courtesy Getty Images