First South Asian film festival in Washington next month

Washington: The three-day first Annual Washington DC South Asian Film Festival from June 1-3 will include a Shyam Bengal retrospective, acting and filmmaking workshops and short films directed by local artists.

"DCSAFF 2012" at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, Maryland, a Washington suburb will bring together a wide variety of films from across South Asia made in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, and Telegu, according to the organisers. Sponsored by Ceasar Productions, DCSAFF aims to give South Asian filmmakers from around the world a chance to exhibit their films to the diverse cine-going audience of the American capital, they said. It will also give a chance for audiences of all ages and ethnicities to discover new South Asian filmmakers, and celebrate ones already well established. Among those expected from Indian film industry are Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta, Deepti Naval Rajit Kapur and Raima Sen. DCSAFF will also have Washington DC premieres of a number of exciting new films with a number of prominent artists who are working to promote South Asians in the American film industry, including Ajay Naidu, Samrat Chakrabarti and Manan Singh Katohora. The festival will kick-off with an exclusive opening night red carpet gala featuring Shyam Benegal`s classic film ‘Mammo’, official world premiere screening of Manan Singh Katohora`s award-winning film ‘9 ELEVEN’ and close with Deepti Naval`s directorial debut ‘Do Paise ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane ki Baarish.’ IANS