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Shorts with Panel Discussion

Between Two Worlds

MONA KUMAR (appearing in person)
USA, 2007, 24 minutes, DVD. In English

This is a story about that explores the assimilation of young South Asians in mainstream stream America. How different are the post 1965 immigrants from the South Asians community as appose to the earlier immigrants like the Italians and Irish. This film explores the lives two individuals who are brought up in America by their Indian parents. Pavan: In his twenties brought up in New York City where there is a large Indian community. It was an unspoken understanding that Pavan was going to be a doctor as he was growing up but he took and unconventional path. Priya: In her twenties born and brought up in Rhode Island in a small Indian community decided to follow her dreams (the conventional way). Do demographics matter in our decision making or how we are up brought up?

Director Mona Kumar focuses her film on issues that is close to her heart and that she can identify with. She is a product of "Between two Worlds" being of Indian origin and brought up in America. Her past experience films includes first assistant Director in feature films and documentary on the explosion of yoga in west. This is her first films that she produced and directed. Currently she is in pre-production of her next documentary Indians in Iran

Crossing Lines

LEENA JAYASWAL and INDIRA SOMANI (appearing in person)
India/USA, 2008, 30 minutes, DVD. In English

Indira Somani grew up in Springfield, Illinois. With her parents, who had come from India, she lived a dual life-American outside, Indian inside the home. Her father, a medical professor, had grown up in extremely modest circumstances in Hingoli, Maharashtra, and ran the household as a no-nonsense patriarch, albeit with much love. When he died, Somani, now a filmmaker, in her thirties and single, went to visit family in Kolkata, Pune, and Nanded. Crossing Lines is the story of her search for her identity, a tribute to her father, and her discovery of an essential part of herself in India.

Directors Leena Jayaswal and Indira Somani both are Assistant Professors in communications at U.S. universities-Jayaswal at American University in D.C. and Somani at Washington and Lee in Virginia. Jayaswal's photography has been exhibited nationally. Her films have been critically acclaimed and screened at juried festivals in Berkeley, CA and in D.C. Somani, a leader of the South Asian Journalists Association, earned her Ph.D. in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2008. She has written and produced broadcasts extensively for television and won the Gracie Allen Award in 1998 for the Working Woman portrait series.

Milind Soman Made Me Gay

HARJANT GILL (appearing in person)
USA, 2007, 27 minutes, BetaSP/DVD. In English

An Indian man living abroad explores desires and notions of home and belonging through narratives and visual elements taken from his own memories and those of three interviewees. All are gay South Asian men living in Washington, D.C.-one Hindu, one Muslim, one Christian and one Sikh. The film takes on the men's struggles for identity and search for a place of belonging. Theirs is complicated by the nostalgia and the reality of life "back home" as well as the harsh realities of homophobia and racism in America. Milind Soman of the film's title is a model and superstar who was charged by the Indian Government with obscenity in 1995 for appearing nude in an advertisement for shoes.

Director Harjant Gill focuses his films on social issues and the politics of identity. He is especially concerned about making marginalized members of society feel better understood. His films include: Everything, Some Reasons for Living and Mission Movie, which won Best Feature at the 2004 NY Latino Film Festival. He is pursing a PhD in Anthropology at American University.

Sunday, November 16 12:00 PM Phoenix Adlabs Theatres Union Station 9 $10.00