17th Annual New York Indian Film Festival: Bold & Brave

Details: Parent Category: Film Festivals; Category: Previews; Published on Wednesday, 15 March 2017 16:24; Written by Brad Balfour

New York’s longest running film festival made by, about, and of the people of the Indian subcontinent, the 17th Annual New York Indian Film Festival brings daring works of cinema, panels, and special events celebrating the films of India. Running April 30 to May 7, 2017, the gala opening night will be held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (1 Bowling Green, New York, NY). The festival opens with Alankrita Shrivastava's Lipstick Under My Burkha, a film India's Central Board of Film Certification refused to certify because it claimed the story was too "lady-oriented," effectively banning the film in India, but it has gone on to garner acclaim in Tokyo and Mumbai film festivals.

lipstick The festival's centerpiece film is the New York premiere of Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla's critically-acclaimed documentary about India's Aam Aadmi Party activist, Arvind Kejriwal, called An Insignificant Man. The festival will close its programming on Sunday, May 7th, with the North American premiere of Milind Dhaimade's You Are My Sunday, an uplifting, slice-of-life comedy about five close friends who struggle to find a place to play soccer in Mumbai every Sunday.

In addition to the New York, North American and World Premieres of 44 shorts, documentaries and feature films over a week-long period, NYIFF will present the following sidebar festival programming:

Sibling Filmmakers: Deepa Mehta & Dilip Mehta present their respective New York premieres of Anatomy of Violence and Mostly Sunny on Saturday, May 6th. Both films' world premieres took place at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2016.
A Death in the Gunj, directed by Konkona Sen Sharma, pays tribute to the late Om Puri, one of India's most versatile character actors who starred in more than 147 films during his illustrious career; he was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India in 1990. NYIFF Screening on Monday, May 1st.
Priyanka Produces: Ventilator and Sarvaan, produced by actor Priyanka Chopra - NYIFF Screenings on Thursday, May 4th.
Mobile Bollywood: One Minute Cell Phone Films presented by NYU Tisch Cinema Studies students.
SHOOT A SHORT FILM: Workshop by National Award-Winning Filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni - May 5th & 6th

To learn more, go to: http://www.iaac.us/nyiff2017/

17th Annual New York Indian Film Festival

April 30 - May 6, 2017

Various Locations