gender/women – 3rd i

Secret Screening Followed by Q&A with filmmaker & cast A smart and sassy comedy, featuring show-stopping performances by Pia Shah and Emily C. Chang, this project-in-development from Tanuj Chopra (director of Punching at the Sun, and shorts Pia and Clap, Clap) is a 'high'-light of the festival. This 'secret' work-in-progress screening will be followed by a talkback with the talent. We'll bring the director, the actresses, and the editor - you bring Mary Jane.

23 October 2015

Me, My Mom, and Sharmila

New People Cinema

7:15 pm

Live Performance! Followed by Q&A with Fawzia Mirza Told through the lens of two women’s shared love for glamorous Bollywood film star Sharmila Tagore, Me, My Mom, and Sharmila is a hilarious and heartbreaking coming-of-age story peppered with personal anecdotes, pop culture and more! Writer-performer Fawzia Mirza's dynamic piece chronicles her struggle to connect with her mother as she grapples with her own emerging identity as a queer woman of color.

01 November 2015

Om Dar-B-Dar

CineArts at Palo Alto Square

7:15 pm

Digitally Restored Version! Set in a picturesque town in Rajasthan, Kamal Swaroop's cult classic chronicles the coming-of-age of Om, a young boy interested in magic and religion. Touted as "the great Indian LSD trip," the film premiered to rave reviews at the Berlin Film Festival in 1988, and has since then achieved mythological status in India, influencing a whole generation of filmmakers.

23 October 2015

Dheepan

New People Cinema

9:15 pm

Winner of the Cannes Film Festival's highest honor, the Palme D'Or, Jacques Audiard's (A Prophet) latest film is an immensely powerful work that celebrates the human spirit. A former soldier, a young woman, and a little girl, pose as a family so they can immigrate into France. They end up settling in a housing project outside Paris – but it turns out that they've just left one conflict zone for another.

25 October 2015

Coast to Coast: Mumbai to the Mission

New People Cinema

5:00 pm

Followed by Q&A with Bay Area filmmakers From the streets of San Francisco to a Parsee home in Bombay, from gorgeously animated watercolors to hip-hop music video, from queer comedy to social documentary, this year's outstanding set of shorts offer us profiles of culture, celebration, courage and change!

25 October 2015

Silence in the Courts

New People Cinema

3:00 pm

Followed by Q&A with the filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage's (With You, Without You, SFISAFF 2013) thought-provoking film is a carefully crafted indictment of institutionalized forms of power that follows the story of two women who seek justice for being sexually abused by a Judge. An excellent analysis of how patriarchy and power work together to infect the courts, the media and the lives of Sri Lanka's most disenfranchised citizens.