India Film Festival of Alberta 2022
Edmonton Movie Club is a local non-profit society and a supporter of Independent/Regional cinema from India.
Remote countryside in India. On discovering film, SAMAY, age 10, and his wild bunch of kids move heaven and earth to catch light, control light –and then project that light to achieve a 35mm film projection. What follows is an amazing story of Samay and his friendship with a film projector operator FAZAL. Samay and his wild bunch observe, think, invent, lie, steal, run, fall, rise -and finally using innovative hack, they jubilantly succeed in making a film projection system. But little do they know that the digital era is arriving to annihilate film and celluloid from the surface of this earth…
Emergence: Out of the Shadows is a 2021 documentary based on the lives of three people and their terrifying experience on expressing their sexuality in their conservative south-Asian families. Directed by Vinay Giridhar, this movie features Kayden Bhangu, Harv Nagra and Jag Nagra
The vibrant cultures of India, Uganda, and the American South are blended and simmered into a rich and fragrant fusion feast in Mira Nair’s luminous look at the complexities of love in the modern melting pot. Years after her Indian family was forced to flee their home in Uganda by the dictatorship of Idi Amin, twentysomething Mina (Sarita Choudhury) finds herself helping to run a motel in the faraway land of Mississippi. It’s there that a passionate romance with the charming Black carpet cleaner Demetrius (Denzel Washington) challenges the prejudices of their conservative families and exposes the rifts between the region’s Indian and African American communities. Tackling thorny issues of racism, colorism, culture clash, and displacement with big-hearted humor and keen insight, Nair serves up a sweet, sexy, and radical celebration of love’s power to break down the barriers between us.
For his latest art installation, Rudro journeys to a remote mangrove isle on the Bangladeshi Delta, a day’s boat ride and a world away from modern, crowded Dhaka. Welcomed by the local fishermen and their leader Chairman, Rudro’s modern ideas and lifelike sculptures enchant the village boys and his landlord’s daughter. But when the local Ilish catch proves elusive, the elders blame Rudro’s “idolatry” for the curse of empty nets. In this vanishing land where sea and sky merge, a storm is brewing and change –welcome or not—is coming.
The ray tribute film sees actor Jeetu Kamal playing a fictional filmmaker Aparajito Ray and revolves around the efforts to bring to life his dream project ‘Pather Podaboli’. While Jeetu takes on the role of Aparajito, a character that has similarities with Satyajit Ray, Saayoni Ghosh plays Bimola Roy, a character inspired by Ray’s wife Bijoya Ray.
Muthayya is a comedy/drama set in a remote village in India, and it tells the story of a 70-year-old man, Muthayya, who dreams of acting in movies before he dies. Although he lives with his family in the village, he shares all his joys and sorrows with his best friend Malli, a 24-year-old guy, who runs a cycle repair shop in the same village. Despite being a theatre actor, Muthayya’s longtime dream has been to see himself on the big screen; however, age, time, and even luck have never been in his favour. He hesitates to leave his family and his life in the village to pursue his dream. As the story unfolds, Muthayya finds different ways to exhibit his acting skills through every possible medium including short films and TikTok videos, but the obstacles he faces in the process leave him heartbroken. The rest of the story is about how Muthayya dares to dream to fulfil his ambition and inspires everyone around him. The bottom line is – You are never too old to dream big.
Mintoo & Mitra (Both 11 Year Old) are know for two things, firstly their collective potential towards mischief and secondly for their legendary friendship with Bharat Bhai. The boys are clever but scrupulous and our old man is an embodiment of all the teachings of Gandhi.
An unexpected happening corners Mintoo ( a Superhero Jango fan) into proclaiming Mahatma Gandhi as his role model. Mintoo soon starts mimicking Gandhi’s behavior but he is nowhere close to imbibing Gandhi’s values. His deceiving ways are fetching him rewards but little does he know how these ways are pushing him into troubled waters.
Bharat Bhai takes it upon himself to teach the unprincipled boys a valuable lesson in honesty & harmony. Can these contrasting personalities work towards complimenting each other? How will Bharat Bhai catalyst this change? As he rolls up his sleeves to watch events unfold all he can hear is the voice of Gandhi saying “In a gentle way you can shake the world”.