Schedule

Kala Pul (Black Bridge)
with short Midnight Lost and Found

Dir: Saqib Mausoof
2008, USA/Pakistan
40 mins

Thursday, November 13
7:00pm

Local filmmaker Saqib Mausoof's ambitious film weaves a tale along the fault lines that separate Pakistan's urban modernity from its fundamentalism. Preceded by the extraordinary short, Midnight Lost and Found (Dir: Amit Sabharwal, US, 19mins), about the lonely nights of a Mumbai pharmacy-worker.

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Kissing Cousins

Dir: Amyn Kaderali
2008, USA
99mins

Thursday, November 13
8:30pm

In this funny, sassy romantic comedy, a young man employed as a "relationship termination specialist" enjoys his single life in Los Angeles amidst his newly engaged friends. But when his gorgeous British cousin visits, she tells everyone that she's his girlfriend to help him fit in…until he falls for her.

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The Sky Below

Dir: Sarah Singh
2007, India/Pakistan
75 mins

Friday, November 14
7:30pm

Armed with a video camera and a backpack, filmmaker Sarah Singh traversed through dangerous territory in India and Pakistan to examine whether sixty years after the brutal partition of the subcontinent, recognition of a shared past and common culture can bring about peace between the two countries.

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Ramchand Pakistani

Dir: Mehreen Jabbar
2008, Pakistan
105 mins

Friday, November 14
9:30pm

When young Ramchand and his father chase a ball across the border into India, they are literally taken for spies. Mehreen Jabbar's film, based on a true-life incident, captures the stark desert landscape as a metaphor for the tragedy of separation. Nandita Das is heart-wrenching as the mother devastated by the disappearance of her family.

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A Throw of Dice

Dir: Franz Osten
1929, India/Germany/UK
74 mins

Saturday, November 15
12noon

This ravishing 1929 silent co-production between India, Germany, and Britain tells the epic story of two Indian kings who gamble for their lives and the love of a beautiful woman. Newly restored by the British Film Institute with a stirring score composed by Nitin Sawhney.

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Lakshmi and Me

Dir: Nishtha Jain
2007, India/USA/Denmark/Finland
60 mins

Saturday, November 15
1:45pm

"What sin did I commit to be born a woman?" asks Lakshmi. Jain's documentary sensitively explores the personal and the political: gender, class, and the ethics of representation become touch points between filmmaker and subject, mistress and maid.

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Maqbool

Dir: Vishal Bharadwaj
2003, India
132 mins

Saturday, November 15
4:15pm

Macbeth meets The Godfather in this inspired and nuanced adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy, transposed to the mafia dens of contemporary Bombay. Irrfan Khan (Namesake) is masterful as the fickle Maqbool, while Tabu plays a sensuous Lady Macbeth to his treacherous ambitions. Naseeruddin Shah (Monsoon Wedding) and Om Puri.

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Om Shanti Om

Dir: Farah Khan
India, 2007
162 mins

Saturday, November 15
7:30pm

Romance, reincarnation and revenge! Shah Rukh Khan breaks out his disco moves (and flexes his 6-pack abs) in this spectacular, star-studded tribute to Bollywood, film-making and the swinging 70's. A must-see on the big screen. Bring out those Bell-bottom pants!

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Hell's Ground

Dir: Omar Ali Khan,
Pakistan/UK, 2007
78 mins

Saturday, November 15
11:00pm

Five Pakistani teenagers pile into a van and head for a rock concert, only to run out of gas in the zombie-infested habitat of a mace-swinging, burkha-clad butcher. Gallons of gore and atmosphere make for an instant horror classic. Copresented with Midnight for Maniacs!

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Bioscope

Dir: K.M. Madhusudhanan
India, 2008
94 mins

Sunday, November 16
11:30am

Fever dreams, memories, and moving pictures intertwine when a traveling bioscope show comes to the villages of Kerala. In his first feature, K.M. Madhusudhanan concocts a hallucinatory ode to the magic of early cinema and the power of superstition.

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King Siri (Siri Raja Siri)

Dir: Somaratne Dissanayake
Sri Lanka, 2008
88 mins

Sunday, November 16
1:30pm

A gifted boy from a Sri Lankan village wins a scholarship to an elite school in Colombo where he must prove himself by drawing upon the strength of his rural traditions. This award-winning children’s film is inspired in part by director Somaratne Dissanayake’s own experiences.

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Flow: For Love of Water

Dir: Irene Salina
USA, 2007
93 mins

Sunday, November 16
3:30pm

India, Bolivia, South Africa, United States -- different countries, same problem: the world's primary resource is being hijacked by corporate greed. In this inspiring and visually stunning doc, Salina travels across the world, documenting how dedicated activists (like Vandana Shiva) are challenging the Goliaths, and offering creative, sustainable solutions from the ground-up.

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The Glow of White Women

Dir: Yunus Vally
South Africa, 2007
78 mins

Sunday, November 16
6:00pm

Bad-boy Indian raconteur Yunus Vally was convinced that the virgins of paradise would all be white. Vally's probing and provocative doc examines images of white women in the dark continent and playfully deconstructs his sexual politics in South Africa under apartheid.

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Slumdog Millionaire

Dir: Danny Boyle
2008, UK/USA
120 mins

Sunday, November 16
7:45pm

Feel the 'heat, sweat and street life of Mumbai' in Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting) sensational roller-coaster ride, which charts Jamal's rise from the slums of Bombay to TV game show millionaire. Audience Award, Toronto Film Fest.


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