Making Cultural Strides

New York’s ‘Indian Diaspora’ festival showcases the established and the emerging

By Lalita Aloor
Special to AsianWeek

The second annual Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) Film Festival, “The Indian Diaspora,” ran in the culturally robust metropolitan city of New York from Nov. 6 to 10. Presented by the IAAC, a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to promoting and building an awareness of Indian artists and artistic disciplines in mainstream America, the festival had the singular purpose of celebrating contemporary Indian cinema.

Said Aroon Shivdasani, executive director of IAAC, “This festival was conceived to celebrate our filmmakers who live and work outside India. Some like Ismail Merchant, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, Jagmohan Mundhra, have achieved recognition among the art film genre across the board. Other young independent filmmakers featured in our festivals last year and this year hope to gain recognition through visibility, distribution and exposure to mainstream media.”

The festival opened with the North American premiere of Somnath Sen’s Leela, a mature exploration that dissects the dynamics of human relationships and explores the intricacies of the webs that form and disintegrate between people. The next four days unveiled an eclectic fusion of celebrated movies like Isabel Gardella’s Tomandote, Dev Benegal’s Split Wide Open, Srinivas Krishna’s Lulu and an equal representation of work by new and budding artists.

Other prominent films in the collection included producer Anant Singh’s Cry the Beloved Country, a moving film that touches on the themes of tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation in apartheid Africa; director Darshan Bhagat’s Karma Local, a story that entwines life in the underworld and the multi-cultural visions of the American dream; Jagmohan Mundhra’s Bawandar, a true story that takes the viewer through the painful journey from being a rape victim to being a rape activist; and Ismail Merchant’s Hullabaloo over George & Bonnie’s Pictures, a film that delves into the circular debate of art versus life.

A still from festival opener Leela, a film by Somnath Sen.

A testament to the festival’s diverse representation was the inclusion of up and coming writer/actor Pavan Grover’s film, Unspeakable. A compelling psycho-thriller that explodes the unspeakable evil we repress inside ourselves, Unspeakable grips the audience in a chilling emotional roller-coaster ride.

The festival closed on Sunday with two of renowned director Mira Nair’s movies. The film 9/11/01, is part of a series of short films conceived after the events of Sept. 11 and unveiled at the Venice film festival in 2002. In a 11 minute, 9 second segment, Nair has effectively captured the phobia against Muslims that swept across the world after the political cataclysm of Sept. 11 and its resonance throughout the South Asian diaspora.

The other Nair movie, Hysterical Blindness is an unabashed portrayal of desperate love. A poignant drama set in ’80s New Jersey, the film manages to strike a personal chord across cultures as it touches on the basic human need to be loved and accepted.

In the post-screening discussion that followed, Ben Gazzara, who starred in the movie, was asked if he had any inhibitions working with a female director of Asian origin, to which he replied, “Mira’s skin may be Indian, but her heart is universal.” He added, “If you have empathy for the human condition, you can be from the moon and I’ll work for you.”

This statement echoes the core sentiment of the festival: that film transcends all barriers. In the words of Shivdasani, “Film brings together sight, sound and emotion in a powerful, integrated experience enabling viewers to escape to another world, to relive stories, and share philosophies of a cultural fabric presented by the filmmaker.”

While the festival is still in its infancy, it promises to evolve as a strong platform for new talents to showcase their work in the years to come.