New York, N.Y. The closing gala for this year’s New York Indian Film Festival (HuffPo), held in a banquet hall above NYU’s Skirball Auditorium, was alive with artists, actors, filmmakers, and thinkers with work clearly committed to making the world better – and celebrating the illuminating power of film. I was fortunate to strike up [...]
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NY Indian American Film Festival Triumphant in 13th Year
New York, N.Y. The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the winners of its competition categories at a ceremony at NYU’s Skirball Center last week, in the final event for the monumental festival. I was delighted to attend for the fourth year – a relative latecomer to this well-established cultural smorgasbord. The winners were [...]
Next Generation of Global Indian Cinema
New York, N.Y. I recently attended Ticket2Bollywood (T2B) sponsored by Molecule Communications. I had the opportunity to interview its director Ajay Shrivastav and his sister and business partner Kiren. Brother and sister Ajay and Kiren Shrivastav are opposites. He is the creative one and Kiren more the businesswoman operating Molecule Communications in Mumbai and Ajay is opening [...]
Bollywood for Beginners – A Seeker’s Guide
New York, N.Y. Speaking broadly, we don’t appreciate Bollywood because we don’t understand it. We fail to grasp it not for any intellectual flaw, but for a major cultural one: we didn’t grow up in India. The biggest point to absorb to better get Bollywood is that Indian cinema is both sophisticated and unique. Films began [...]
Bollywood’s Economic Impact — on New York
I first met New York-based music composer Wayne Sharpe two years ago at the New York Indo-American Film Festival (NYIFF). He was the first American I had ever encountered who worked for Bollywood. Recently I had the chance to attend a conference that focused on the economic impact of Bollywood in New York City – [...]
In the Eye of the Spiral: Haiti’s Forgotten Story
New York, N.Y. Haiti, categorized among the world’s poorest and least developed countries, has in recent years grappled with political instability, health crises, an annual barrage of hurricanes and a devastating earthquake, the worst in the region in over 200 years. In the midst of this trail of unending stories of trauma, pain and hopelessness [...]
A “Gandhi” for our Age: Indian Film Chittagong
New York, N.Y. Using visual cues from the paintings of Caravaggio, Indian filmmaker Bedabrata Pain has produced a triumphant film, Chittagong, that screened in New York last week. It is based upon a little-known episode leading to Indian Independence: a group of schoolboys who, with the help of their teacher, temporarily toppled the British a decade before [...]
Indian Film Festival Thrills New York – Again
New York, N.Y. Over fifty Indian features, documentaries and short films screened over Memorial Day Weekend as the 12th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) played at the Tribeca Cinemas and NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Presented by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC), the Festival opened with the world premiere red carpet [...]
