Now in its third year, the Dallas/Fort Worth South Asian Film Festival (DFW SAFF), taking place from March 3rd to 5that the Perot Museum (downtown Dallas) and AMC Village on the Parkway 9 (Addison), reveals its slate of short films and its opening night film.
Making its Texas premiere at the festival, "A Billion Colour Story," directed by Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy and produced by Satish Kaushik, takes on religious intolerance through the lens of a half Hindu/half Muslim schoolboy. After standing ovations at its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, European premiere at BFI London Film Festival, Indian premiere at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and North American premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, "we are excited and honored to welcome the Texas premiere of this film at our festival," said founder and festival directorJitin Hingorani. "Race and immigration have, unfortunately, become such hot-button issues in our current political climate, and if a schoolboy can navigate through these topics in a film, we certainly hope our governments can attempt to do the same."
The festival's comprehensive shorts programming includes:
- "Yellow Tin Can Telephone" – Texas Premiere – directed by Arunima Sharma.
- "Silvaat" – Texas Premiere – directed by Tanuja Chandra.
- "Lala Begum" – U.S. Premiere – directed by Mehreen Jabbar.
- "Guddu Engineer" – North American Premiere – directed by Nikhil Advani.
- "Mochi (the cobbler)" – Texas Premiere – directed by Saqib Pandor. Produced by Anurag Kashyap.
- "Babu's Dilemma" – Texas Premiere – directed by Collin D'Cunha.
- "Priyanath" – Dallas Premiere – directed by Anietie Antia-Obong.
- "Jacob's Pond" – Texas Premiere – directed by Sasha John.
- "Mast Qalandar" – Texas Premiere – directed by Divij Roopchand.
- "Syaahi" – Texas Premiere – directed by Varun Tandon. Watch trailerHERE.
- "Amishi" – Dallas Premiere – directed by Malinda Kaur.
- "Leeches" – Texas Premiere – directed by Payal Sethi.
"Our short films make up more than 50 percent of our programming this year because the genre has really been gaining momentum in South Asia." said Artistic Director Ambica Dev. "Our other highlights include our focus on Marathi regional films and our Indo-Pak programming, curated to commemorate India and Pakistan's 70th year of independence in 2017." The festival's feature films, documentaries and closing night film will be revealed shortly.
JINGO Media, a Dallas and NYC-based, public relations and events management company, produces the annual festival of South Asian independent cinema in North Texas. The third iteration of the festival boasts 20 curated shorts, documentaries and feature films (over a three-day period), which will focus on issues affecting South Asians and explore the lives and stories of the Diaspora working and living in the United States.
“All-access” festival passes, which provide admission to all of the films, networking events and after parties, are currently available onwww.dfwsaff.com for the early-bird price of $150 before February 12th, after which the price increases to $175. Individual screenings are $15 per person, but due to sold-out shows, limited tickets will be available at the theater. Trailers, synopses and ticketing information are available on the festival's site.
