16th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL FULL LINEUP ANNOUNCED

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the full lineup last night for their 16th year of celebrating independent, art house, alternate, and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent (May 7 - May 14). Dedicated to bringing these films to a New York audience, the festival will feature 40 screenings (35 narrative, 5 documentary) - all seen for the first time in New York City. In addition, the festival will also feature five programs of short films.

The festival highlights various cinemas of India's different regions. All the films are subtitled in English and some of the languages this year include Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telegu, Assamese, Haryanavi and Urdu. This year’s festival will feature a couple of sidebars --NFDC restored first films of filmmakers and a three-generations sidebar, films of Bimal Roy, Basu Bhattacharya and Aditya Bhattacharya. 

The festival’s film lineup includes 2016 National Award winners A FAR AFTERNOON, BIRDS WITH LARGE WINGS and THE RIVER OF FABLES (KOTHANODI). THE RIVER OF FABLES is an Assamese language feature film written and directed by Bhaskar Hazarika and stars Seema Biswas and Adil Hussain. The story of the film is based on folktales from Assam, India.
   
“We are thrilled to be able to share these films with the New York audience,” states Aseem Chhabra, NYIFF festival director. “Three of the feature films are National Award winners. And out of the nearly 40 shorts we are showing this year, there are two National Award winners: FAMOUS IN AHMEDABAD and DAARVATHA.”

Straight from the Sundance Film Festival, BRAHMAN NAMAN is a true Indian teenage comedy. It is funny, touching and will be universal in its appeal. It is about the exhilaration and confusion of being 17 - the pleasure of being in a gang, breaking the rules, acting big, falling in love - coming of age.

From the Tamil films, CRIME IN PUNISHMENT is the latest film from NYIFF alum and 2015 NYIFF award winner M. Manikandan. FOR THE LOVE OF A MAN is a documentary film that explores the popularity of the Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth. 

GOOD OL’ BOY is the feel-good, coming-of-age story of Smith, a 10-year-old boy from India growing up in Small Town, America in 1979. This Diaspora film features actors Samrat Chakrabarti (Midnight’s Children, The Waiting City) and Poorna Jagannathan (Delhi Belly, Nirbhaya).

Bengali master, Soumitra Chatterjee starrer PEACE HAVEN is the story of three septuagenarian friends who embark on a journey to build their very own mortuary. 
  
Multiple award winner and fresh from the international film festival circuit PARCHED is a story about women set in the heart of parched rural landscape of Gujarat, India. It traces the bittersweet tale of four ordinary women Rani, Lajjo, Bijli and Janaki. We see them unapologetically talk about men, sex and life as they struggle with their individual boundaries to face their demons and stage their own personal wars.

WORLD PREMIERE of KAGAZ KI KASHTI (PAPERBOAT)

In an era when Bollywood music ruled the Indian households and when Ghazal as a genre was limited to only the connoisseurs, Jagjit Singh made Ghazals a necessity of every music lover's collection. KAAGAZ KI KASHTI traces the life journey of a down-to-earth, small-town boy, who made it big by breaking through the norms and the Ghazal scenario, by texturing traditional Ghazal singing with western instrumentation and making it simple and hummable, enticing new listeners into becoming Ghazal fans.
  
“The 2016 festival features a wide array of films from all over the South Asian diaspora,” states IAAC founder Aroon Shivdasani. This year our films reflect the reality of India, dealing both with LGBT issues that have surfaced in the supreme court and on the streets, as well as strong feminist films dealing with female infanticide, child marriage, domestic abuse, trafficking and several other key issues that affect women in a world that still leans towards chauvinism.”

Festival Passes and Individual Tickets can be purchased at the festival's website:

Full line up Schedule with films synopsis:

URL: http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2016/schedule.htm

The 16th Annual NYIFF’s features selections include:

OPENING NIGHT GALA
Saturday May 7, 2016 at 6 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC

16th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL - Opening Night Film: Let's Dance to The Rhythm

Let's Dance to The Rhythm
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2014/2 hr 36 min Directed by Bardroy Baretto Cast: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob

CENTERPIECE
Tuesday May 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm at Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave & 12th Street, NYC
Highway
US PREMIERE
India/2015/ 2 hr 17 min Directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni Cast: Mukta Barve, Sunil Barve, Tisca Chopra

CLOSING NIGHT
Saturday May 14, 2016 at 5 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Aligarh
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2015/114 min Directed by Hansal Mehta Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Rajkummar Rao

A Far Afternoon- A painted saga by Krishen Khanna
Sruti Harihara Subramaniam
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 11 min 9 sec
English

Krishen Khanna, Ashvin Rajagopalan, Gayatri Sinha, A.Ramachandran, Ranjit Hoskote, Akbar Padamsee

Anubhav

Basu Bhattacharya
Feature Narrative
1971/India/2 hr 19 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Sanjeev Kumar, Tanuja Samarth, Dinesh Thakur, A. K. Hangal

Arshinagar

Aparna Sen
2015/India/2 hr 14 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Dev, Rittika Sen, Jisshu Sengupta, Waheeda Rehman, Kaushik Sen, Jaya Seal Ghosh, Roopa Ganguly, Swagata Mukherjee

Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastan

Saeed Mirza
Feature Narrative
1978/India
Hindi with English subtitles
Dilip Dhawan, Anjali Paigankar, Shreeram Lagoo, Om Puri, Sulabha Deshpande, Rohini Hattangadi, Satish Shah

Birds with Large Wings

Dr. Biju Damodaran
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 56 min
Malayalam with English subtitles
Kunchacko Boban, Nedumudi Venu, Suraj venjaramoodu, Salim Kumar, Prakash Bare, James Bradford, Thampy Antony, Sajeev Pillai, Anumol

Brahman Naman

Qaushiq Mukherjee
Feature Narrative
2016/USA/1 hr 35 min, English
Shashank Arora, Tanmay Dhanania, Chaitanya Varad, Vaishwath Shankar, Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, Subholina Sen

Cinemawala

Kaushik Ganguly
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 35 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Paran Bandopadhay, Parambrata Chatterjee,Arun Guha Thakurta, Sohini Sarkar, Lama Halder

Cities of Sleep

Aman Mann
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 14 min
Hindi with English subtitles

City of Dark

Spandan Banerjee
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 15 min
Bengali with English subtitles

Crime in Punishment

M. Manikandan
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1hr 37 min 22 sec
Tamil with English subtitles

Dubai Return

Aditya Bhattacharya
Feature Narrative
2005/India/1 hr 36 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Irrfan Khan, Divya Dutta, Razak Khan, Vijay Maurya, Mukesh Bhatt, Anupam Shyam, Ritu Shivpuri, Shaukat Baig as Casper

For the Love of a Man

Rinku Kalsy
Feature Narrative
2015/India, Netherlands/1 hr 22 min
Tamil with English subtitles
G. Mani, Suganthi Mani, N. Ravi, N. Murugan, Kamal Anand, Quadir Hoseyn, Ravi Anna, K. Hariharan, Uma Vangal

G - A wanton heart

Feature Narrative
2015/India/1hr 43 min 13 sec
Haryanavi with English subtitles

Gaman

Rajah Muzaffar Ali
Feature Narrative
1978/India/2 hr 15 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Farooq Shaikh, Smita Patil, Jalal Agha, Nana Patekar, Gita Siddharth

Good Ol' Boy

Frank Lotito
Feature Narrative
2015/USA/1hr 43 min
English
Jason Lee, Anjul Nigam, Brighton Sharbino, Hilarie Burton, Roni Akurati

Island City

2015/India/1hr 51 min
Feature Narrative
Hindi with English subtitles
Tannishtha Chatterjee, Vinay Pathak, Ashwin Mushran, Amruta Subhash

Ka Bodyscapes

Jayan K Cherian
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1 hr 38 min 44 sec
Malayalam with English subtitles
Naseera, Jason Chacko, Rajesh Kannan

Kadambari

Suman Ghosh
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 30 min
Konkona SenSharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Kousik Sen, Titas Bhowmick, Srikanto Acharya, Sanjoy Nag, Senjuti Mukhopadhyay, Sreelekha Mitra

Kagaz Ki Kashti (Paperboat)

Brahmanand S Singh
Documentary
2016/India/
Hindi/ Urdu with English subtitles
Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh, Gulzar, Mahesh Bhatt, Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota

Khoya

Sami Khan
Feature Narrative
2015/Canada/1 hr 22 min
English
Rupak Ginn, Ravi Khanvikar, Rachel Wilson

Life in Metaphors: A Portrait of Girish Kasaravalli

OP Srivastava
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 24 min
English
Girish Kasaravalli

Luka Chuppi (Hide and Seek)

Bash Mohammed
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 49 min
Malayalam with English subtitles
Murali Gopy, Jayasurya, Joju George

Moh Maya Money (In greed we trust)

Munish Bhardwaj
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1 hr 48 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Ranvir Shorey, Neha Dhupia, Devendra Chauhan, Vidushi Mehra, Ashwath Bhatt

Nila

Selvamani Selvaraj
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 36 mins
Sruthi Hariharan, Vicky, Sarvesh Sridhar, Rajan Sekri, Srikanth, Pooja

Parched

Leena Yadav
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 58 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Tannishtha Chatterjee, Surveen Chawla, Radhika Apte, Lehar Khan

Peace Haven

Suman Ghosh
Feature Narrative
2015/India, USA/1 hr 17 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Soumitra Chatterjee, Arun Mukhopadhyay, Poran Bandopadhay

Rajkahini

Srijit Mukherji
Feature Narrative
2015/India/2 hr 40 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Rituparna Sengupta, Lily Chakraborty, Parno Mitra, Jaya Ahsan, Sudiptaa Chakraborty, Priyanka Sarkar, Sohini Sarkar

Sahib Bibi Aur Goolam (The Drifters)

Pratim Dasgupta
Feature Narrative
2016/India/2 hr
Bengali with English subtitles
Anjan Dutt, Swastika Mukherjee, Ritwick Chakraborty

Sujata

Bimal Roy
Feature Narrative
1959/India/2 hr 41 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Nutan, Sunil Dutt, Shashikala, Lalita Pawar, Tarun Bose, Sulochana Latkar, Asit Kumar Sen

The River of Fables

Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 58 min
Assamese with English subtitles
Adil Hussain, Seema Biswas

The Silence

Gajjendra Ahire
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 31 min
Marathi with English subtitles
Raghuvir Yadav, Nagraj Manjule, Anjali Patil

The Threshold

Pushan Kripalani
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 27 min
Hindi, Punjabi, and English
Rajit Kapoor, Neena Gupta

Tiladaanam (The Rite, a passion)

K.N.T. Sastry
Feature Narrative
2002/India/1 hr 29 min
Telugu with English subtitles
H. G. Dattatraya, Jaya Seal, Brahmaji, Thanikella Bhavani, Attili

U Turn

Pawan Kumar
Feature Narrative
2016/India/2 hr
Kannada with English subtitles
Roger Narayan, Shraddha Srinath, Dileep Raj

Waiting

Anu Menon
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 30 min
Hindi/English
Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin

White Nights

Razi Muhammed
Feature Narrative
2015/India/2 hr 10 min 28 sec
Malayalam with English subtitles

About the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC):

The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian Sub-Continental and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from the Indian Sub-Continent to exhibit, perform and produce their works here.

About the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF):

The New York Indian Film Festival is the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States. It is dedicated to showcasing, promoting and building an awareness of Independent, art house and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent. Our mission is to encourage filmmakers to tell their stories, to educate North America about them and their talent and to facilitate the making and distribution of these films. NYIFF boasts eight days of premiere screenings of feature, documentary & short films, industry panels, special events, retrospectives, red carpet galas, an award ceremony, packed audiences and amazing media coverage.

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THE 16th ANNUAL NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES OPENING NIGHT GALA FILM
Festival also reveals centerpiece and closing films  

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the Opening Night Gala film: Bardroy Baretto's Nachom-ia Kumpasar (Let's Dance to the Rhythm). LET'S DANCE TO THE RHYTHM is a Konkani feature film- a tribute to Goan music and her musicians. Narrated through the emotional rollercoaster of a love story destined to tragedy, it celebrates Goan music through the eyes of its eclectic's generation of musicians in the 1960s and 70s.

"Lets Dance to the Rhythm is a beautiful representation of another era, where jazz music flourished outside of the realms of the popular Hindi cinema of Bombay. The film is a joyful celebration of the music, the energy and the musicians and it is a story that not many people know about, states Film Festival Director Aseem Chhabra. "It is truly a happy film and a perfect way for us to launch the 16th edition of the New York Indian Film Festival." 

The festival is widely recognized as the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States, showcasing some of the greatest talents working in the diaspora. Celebrating its 16th year, NYIFF will run May 7 to 14 at a variety of prestigious New York City venues, including the Skirball Center for Performing Arts, where the opening and closing films are set to take place.

In addition, the centerpiece and closing films were announced. Renowned filmmaker Hansal Mehta will be closing the festival with his latest work, ALIGARH. Director Mehta provides a look into the real life incident of Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was suspended from his job because of his sexual orientation. Siras was the professor of Marathi at the Aligarh Muslim University. After successfully appealing his suspension, he died under suspicious circumstances. 

HIGHWAY will be featured as the centerpiece film. Umesh Kulkarni's HIGHWAY is a Marathi film set on the Bombay-Pune Highway and it examines diversity and soul searching.

Aroon Shivdansani, Executive Director and Artistic Director of IAAC states "The excitement is growing as our festival approaches! Our flagship event, NYIFF 2016 is proving to be even more exciting than last year!" She adds "The recently announced Indian National Awards included both our 2015 Opening & Closing Night films as well as five films from our current schedule. This year our festival has grown in the number of days, the number of films screened, as well as the depth and variety of themes and languages. Three theatres will screen films simultaneously all day for 8 days with films from all over India and the subcontinent representing myriad regional languages (with English subtitles) while the fourth theatre will entice audiences with fascinating panels on LGBT, Regional Language Cinema, Directors' First Films, Animation, Industry Panels on Shooting in NYCity & NYState as well as Special Events such as the presentation of films from three generations of filmmakers in the Bimal Roy/Basu Bhattacharya family. Guests to our Opening & Closing Night Galas will be welcomed by amazing local dancers, while filmmakers & celebrities walk off the red carpets to glamorous cocktail parties prior to the reality screenings."

The full line-up of screenings and events will be announced April 10, 2016. 

For IAAC Membership and NYIFF Tickets: 
Celebrating its 16th year, NYIFF will run May 7 to May 14. Memberships may be purchased at:http://www.iaac.us/Contribution.htm

Festival Passes and Individual Tickets are on sale at the film festival website: http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2016

About the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC):
The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian Sub-Continental and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from the Indian Sub-Continent to exhibit, perform and produce their works here. 

About the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF):
The New York Indian Film Festival is the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States. It is dedicated to showcasing, promoting and building an awareness of Independent, art house and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent. Our mission is to encourage filmmakers to tell their stories, to educate North America about them and their talent and to facilitate the making and distribution of these films. NYIFF boasts eight days of premiere screenings of feature, documentary & short films, industry panels, special events, retrospectives, red carpet galas, an award ceremony, packed audiences and amazing media coverage.

OPENING NIGHT GALA
Saturday May 7, 2016 at 6 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Let's Dance to The Rhythm
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2014/2 hr 36 min
Directed by Bardroy Baretto
Cast: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob

CENTERPIECE
Tuesday May 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm at Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave & 12th Street, NYC
Highway
US PREMIERE
India/2015/ 2 hr 17 min
Directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni
Cast: Mukta Barve, Sunil Barve, Tisca Chopra

CLOSING NIGHT
Saturday May 14, 2016 at 5 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Aligarh
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2015/114 min
Directed by Hansal Mehta
Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Rajkummar Rao

A Conversation with Joel Fendelman, director of Game Night #Tribeca2016

Game Night is a movie about a lonely taxi driver, who when happens upon a football field, he falls into a memory of his past. Here’s excerpts from conversation with the director of Game Night, Joel Fendelman.

Art Shrian: What inspires you to be a storyteller? And as a storyteller, what kind of story you want to tell?

Joel Fendelman: Storytelling to me is a vehicle to look within and outward at the same time. It is the method as to investigate and heal blocks with in myself and then through that I can connect with other people, many times people I would otherwise never connect with otherwise which what makes it so special. These are the stories I am interested in telling, the ones that show the universality between all of us showing how alike we are.

A: What inspired you to make this particular film?

J: For this film I was looking at the idea that when we are younger we have certain ambitions of what we make accomplish in the future. It is usually very rosy fantasies and since it can be 10, 15, 20 years or more in the future it all seems possible. But one day we wake up and those years have passed and the future is now the present so we must confront the unfulfilled ambitions. For me this film spawned from this concept. I think we all in some way or another can resonate with that feeling.

A: What was the most best & worst part of making this film?

J: The best part about making this film was filming. We could only shoot 2hrs a day for three nights because the field closed at 10pm. It was fast paced and exciting. The biggest challenge was the rain. I literally had to post-pone three times because of the rained out field. Sometimes minutes before call time. With that said, it was the best thing to happen because the days we did end up filming were much better in many ways.

A: How do you feel about being at Tribeca Film Festival, and NYC?

J: Screening at the Tribeca film festival has been a dream come true. It has been a pleasure feels really good to be validated in such a way. I lived here for ten years and feel tingling sensations every time I come back. New York city is the best city in the world!

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Joel Fendelman has worked ten years in the film industry in New York City producing content for companies such as A&E, PBS, American Express, Ovation TV, Allure, and MTV. His films have shown around the world at prestigious festivals such as Cannes, Chicago, Miami. He has lectured about Independent filmmaking at various film festivals and is currently pursuing an MFA in Film at the University of Texas.

Further details and Tribeca 2016 schedule here:

https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/game-night-2016

Conversation with Ingrid Jungermann - WOMEN WHO KILL #Tribeca2016

Ingrid Jungermann is one of the most talented storytellers I have met. She’s a writer, director and an actress, “all-in-one”. And she’s a very honest, intelligent and inspiring person as well. Her wonderful film WOMEN WHO KILL, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2016, in New York City. The film is an evolved-adaptation of her WGA-nominated web-series ‘F to 7th’. It’s definitely a must watch film for all film lovers. I had an opportunity to talk to her, and it was just a great conversation. Read below, and you'll agree for yourself.

Art Shrian – Congratulations on your wonderful film, and it’s world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival. You’re a brilliant writer, director, actor, “all-in-one”. So, what inspires you to be a storyteller?

Ingrid Jungermann – I think it really started as a kid, me being the youngest of 3 siblings, with single mom. As the youngest of 3, you are lucky enough to just be an observer, and you’re kind of the one without the voice. While you may get more attention and people think what you say is cute, people do not take you that seriously. And coming from that, and being innately drawn to any kind of arts, I started writing at a very young age. I started to realize that, through writing I could have a voice. I could process things that were happening in my life. So I learned it as a coping mechanism, and a way to be heard.

A.S – What’s your message to other people who want to be storytellers?

I.J – For me specially, female filmmakers, people of color, socio economic challenges are all important subjects. Sometimes in this diversity conversation, poor people are not talked about. Making a film is not a poor person’s art form, unfortunately. That perspective is really lacking. I would say to people, who feel like there’s no opportunity, everyone is telling them to not do the thing they want to do, there’s no other point. I don’t see another reason to live a life, without doing the thing that you love. That makes no sense to me. It sucks some time, a lot of times. But I do not see any reason, why you would ever take the tiny amount of time we have, and do something you don’t love.

A.S – Wow, that’s very inspiring and moving. Thanks… So, how has been your journey? From working in Taco Bell, to Blockbuster, to selling Swarovski crystals, to being a filmmaker in New York; it’s quite a journey. How do you feel?

I.J – I don’t know if I’m a person who’s able to live in the moment, unfortunately. I struggle with that for my whole life. I feel like, I have some blinders on. I might keep those on, just because I want to do the work. And I think you constantly have to be able to tap into who you are, and be honest with yourself. Of course I appreciate it all, I feel amazing. But I also feel that this is what I wanted. I took the steps to get here. I kind of weirdly, expect it. But also realize, that it could be fleeing. And it’s going to take 10 harder steps to get to next place. I’m not sure I’m answering your question. I probably can answer that in 3 months from now (laughs).

A.S – I think I understand. You set new goals, and you’re always focused and working hard to just keep moving towards that.

The subject of the film is quite interesting. The general Hollywood perception or perspective about woman filmmakers could be quite narrow. But you make an amazing comedy/drama/thriller. What inspired you?

I.J – I think the perspective in Hollywood has mostly been masculine, by males. Like every other industry, men run entertainment too. Things are slowly changing, which is really exciting. But I have always been, sort of drawn to both sides of myself, masculine & feminine. If we are talking about a masculine film, not gender wise, since both male & female can be masculine, is like horror or even comedy. But there’s this exciting thing happening, where this great group of talented women filmmakers, are making horror or comedy or all kind of genre. They were finally given the opportunity, to embrace our masculine perspective, along with the feminine. And if people started to think more on the lines of perspective, in terms of masculine and feminine, rather than male and female, then that will open up the world little bit more. This applies across the board, even in life, if we didn’t separate it so much into male & female.

But that said, I’m very excited for what’s happening right now, because if it hadn’t been for all the female filmmakers before us, making those films they were “supposed to be making”, we wouldn’t have had opportunity to change things a little bit, and leave our stamp on films, that otherwise are not supposed to be “female films”. I’m thankful to all those women before me!

A.S – Very true. And it’s changing a lot with wonderful shows like Jessica Jones or others, where women TV/filmmakers are making these wonderful shows.

What was the most challenging and most fun part of being a writer, director and an actor for the film?

I.J – The most challenging is not being able to be at 2 places at once. So you have to give up some control of your vision. And it’s really challenging, since you start to feel, am I failing as a director if I’m not in control every moment. In the same way, that’s very freeing, because you have to trust your team - my first AD Eric LaFranchi, my DP Rob Leitzell, my PD Olga Miasnikova, my producer Alex Scharfman, my entire team and there artists. So, where it made me uncomfortable to have to let go, luckily I was lifted by the people who knew my vision, and they wanted to communicate it. So communicating your vision early on is very important, when you are in your own movie. Prep is very important, being very clear as to what you want, what you’re trying to get constantly is very important.

A.S – So where do you see yourself heading? Woody Allen of women?

I.J – My initial response is, no. I really want to sink my teeth into writing-directing, and see how far and deep I can go with that. There are many-many things that I haven’t even tapped into. And many things I want to learn. And acting, while it’s incredible, it’s keeping me from exploring other things I want to explore. I would love to be in other people’s films, but I don’t think I’ll be a lead in my own. I could be supporting character. But if I want to grow as a filmmaker, I think I need to focus.

A.S – Your next project is a Sci-Fi? How did that come up?

I.J – I started the story with Stewart Thorndike. She’s a huge inspiration to me, and she’s of that up & coming crop I was talking about. We were very collaborative for little while. She inspired me and we talked about and developed the story together for this film. I said, I want to do a female fight club movie; she suggested that we should set this in Barnard College. So this is like a privileged female fight club thing. When I was in comedy, I was always drawn to dark comedy. She comes from horror sci-fi world. So together we came up with this idea. I wrote the script, and she has been a major inspiration in creating that world for that film. It’s in development stage. And right now I’m focusing on a TV project, adapting my web-series ‘F to 7th’ into a TV show.

A.S – Last question, how do you feel about being a filmmaker in and from New York?

I.J – Is there any other city to be a filmmaker? (laughs). I want to be here. People that we are surrounded by, inspire me. I have been to LA a few times, and I’m not drawn in. I think it’s beautiful; there are very talented people there. There’s a cool indie filmmaker thing happening. But New York is my home, and the people here are the smartest, coolest and most neurotic bunch, that I’m drawn to. I feel right here!

WOMEN WHO KILL – Synopsis

Commitment phobic Morgan and her ex-girlfriend Jean are locally famous true crime podcasters obsessed with female serial killers. There’s a chance they may still have feelings for each other, but co-dependence takes a back seat when Morgan meets the mysterious Simone during her Food Coop shift. Blinded by infatuation, Morgan quickly signs up for the relationship, ignoring warnings from friends that her new love interest is practically a stranger.

When Jean shows Morgan proof that Simone may not be who she says she is, Morgan accuses Jean of trying to ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to her. But as she and Simone move into commitment territory, Morgan starts to notice red flags -- maybe Jean was right and Simone isn’t as perfect as Morgan’s made her out to be.

Morgan and Jean investigate Simone as if she were a subject of their podcast, they uncover disturbing clues -- a death at the Food Coop, a missing friend, a murder weapon -- leading them to suspect her not only of mystery, but of murder. In the end, Morgan has to examine all the evidence in front of her: Is she just afraid of what it means to be in a relationship or is her life actually in danger?

  • Checkout the film at Tribeca Film Festival below:

https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/women-who-kill-2016

  • More about the film:

http://www.wwkmovie.com/

Imagination Day - Tribeca Film Festival

Every breakthrough is born in the imagination

The 2016 Tribeca Festival® Hub hosts some of the most influential, provocative, and groundbreaking creative minds for an all-day summit on what happens when our wildest dreams become reality and what that reality will be in the not-so-distant future. Experience the wonder and inspiration of new technologies, as tech's thought leaders reveal what is just beyond the horizon.

2016 AGENDA

10amDoors open

10:30amOpening Remarks: Jason Kelly, New York Bureau Chief of Bloomberg

10:45am Bryan Johnson, OS Fund: Tools of Creation: Reorienting Humanity's Identity and Aspirations

11:20am Jon Iwata, IBM: From Metropolis to Her — Artificial Intelligence in Film and the Real World

11:55am Dr. James Canton, Institute for Global Futures: The Extreme Future of Medicine: From Prediction to Longevity

Medicine is being transformed by radical technologies that will offer a new era of prevention, prediction and longevity. Discover the future of how digital health, mobile, big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, genetics, nanotech, neuroscience, synthetic biology and smart drugs will offer health and human performance enhancement.

12:30pmMeredith Perry, uBeam: World Without Wires

Meredith Perry, founder and CEO of uBeam will talk about the potential for truly wireless power and the impact this technology will have on the world. In this session, Meredith will share how she founded uBeam in her college dorm room and discuss the impact it will have on our daily lives by wirelessly powering everything from smartphones to lightbulbs to hearing aids. Find out how close we are to living in a world without wires, and what that world might look like

1:05pm - 1:50pm Lunch Break

1:50pm VR Headsets (need to be in your seats to get one)

2:20pm Felix Lajeunesse & Paul Raphael, Felix & Paul Studios: Inside Story: A Journey Into Virtual Reality

An immersive virtual reality experience as a talk by the masters of virtual reality. See the most evocative worlds and feel the story as VR channels empathy. See it, feel it, how they do it, and the future of the technology and creativity

3:15pm Philip Rosedale, High Fidelity: The Final Medium: Humans in the Machine

Is it possible that Virtual Reality in its maturity may allow us to communicate and be creative in ways that are more sublime than even our greatest real-life experiences? As computers become ever more powerful, might our virtual worlds grow to become larger and more unknowable that our own planet? An examination of how the growth of VR technology may give us something more disruptive and unpredictable than the Internet.

3:50pmDerek Belch, STRIVR Labs: Virtual Reality in Sports: Immersive Performance Training and Immersive Entertainment

Just as sports have become one of the last television events that people actually watch, many folks in the VR industry are betting that sports content will be a driving in helping drive mass adoption of headsets sales and content consumption. STRIVR founder and CEO Derek Belch will share the company's experience working with more than a dozen NFL and collegiate football teams over the past year, while also creating and staffing several major VR fan engagement experiences. Belch will share the positives and negatives of sports-focused VR.

4:15pm Sir Richard Branson & Jason Hirschhorn: Daring to Dream

From starting his own airline to ballooning around the world and shooting for the stars, Sir Richard Branson has never shied away from a challenge either in business or personally. He discusses his penchant for dreaming what could be possible and the gut instinct that drives his endeavors

4:55pm Katherine Oliver: Advisor to Bloomberg Philanthropies and Principal of Media and Technology at Bloomberg Associates

5:05 - 5:25pmBreak

5:30pmScreening: Don't Look Down

7:00pm Q&A Sir Richard Branson

Event Description

WHEN

Tuesday, April 19, 2016 from 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM (EDT) - Add to Calendar

WHERE

Spring Studios - 50 Varick Street , New York, NY 10013 - View Map

For more details check the link below:
https://tribecafilm.com/festival/imagination

 

Conversation with Daniel Burman from THE TENTH MAN #TFF2016

Daniel Burman from THE TENTH MAN - conversation with Art Shrian, from myNewYorkeye, at Tribeca Film Festival 2016

Director Daniel Burman (All In, TFF 2012) returns to Tribeca with THE TENTH MAN, continuing to wrestle with notions of identity, home and the intricacies of the father-son relationship. This well-observed comedy is at once a heartfelt valentine to the El Once district, Burman’s own Jewish upbringing and his continuing desire to use cinema as a means of self-exploration.

THE TENTH MAN tells the story of Ariel, a man who returns to his childhood neighborhood in Buenos Aires, a Jewish district named El Once, after a long stay in New York City. In the process of trying to meet his father Usher, and getting entangled in his charitable commitments, Ariel also reconnects with his own Jewish roots. But Usher appears to be staving off a meeting with his son; instead he keeps roping him into a number of small assignments during the course of which Ariel meets Eva who volunteers for Usher’s charity. Eva’s radiant inner strength and independent spirit inspires Ariel to come to grips with the religious customs of his Jewish community as well as the traditions that once divided him and his father and rethink his own identity.

THE TENTH MAN (EL REY DEL ONCE) (Section: International Narrative Competition)

Director: Daniel Burman (Lost Embrace, All In)

Starring: Alan Sabbagh (Focus), Julieta Zylberberg (Wild Tales), Usher, Elvira Onetto, Adrian Stoppelman, Elisa Carricajo

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2016 - PUBLIC SCREENING SCHEDULE:

Friday, April 15 at 6:15PM at Regal Cinemas Battery Park 06 (US PREMIERE)

Sunday, April 17 at 3:15PM at Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 04

Tuesday, April 19 at 3:30PM at Regal Cinemas Battery Park 01

Wednesday, April 20 at 9:30PM at Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 06

Running Time: 82 Minutes/ Language: Spanish / Country: Argentina

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Berlin Film Festival 2016 (Opening Night Film-Panorama Section)

KINO LORBER will release THE TENTH MAN theatrically in New York and major cities in August 2016.

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/thetenthman

@TribecaFilmFest | Imagination goes wild with Tribeca Talks Imagination #TFF2015 #TFF

April 22, 2014 was day of Silicon Alley, in our own New York City in Spring Studios. Forget TED, forget tech expos, and forget Silicon Valley. This truly amazing day, which will blow your mind away, was Tribeca Talks Imagination Day, powered by The Hatchery. Some of the most influential, provocative and creative minds came together for an all-day summit that asks: what happens when our wildest dreams become reality and what will that reality will be in our not-so-distant future? We got to experience the wonder and inspiration of new technologies, as tech’s thought leaders revealed what is just beyond the horizon through multisensory storytelling.

Here is the list of geniuses who adorned the stage and a peek in to what they talked about.

  • You can change your face, right in front of many eyes. It’s supposed to be possible, although we didn’t get to see that. Reason was disctance, says Natasha Tsakos, who was the host and presenter of the evening. She is known for pioneering ways of integrating technology with live performance. She is the President of NTiD: a creative powerhouse dedicated to inspiring and activating imagination through theatrical experiences with work for Cirque du Soleil, Super Bowl, Pharrell Williams, Miami Heat, Coachella Festival, Nickelodeon, MTV, BBC, and 900 TV shows and feature films with 2 books. TED speaker and Finalist for the World Technology Awards presented by CNN, Time, Fortune, and Kurzweil Ai.
  • Wanna ride a car without needing to drive it? And be safe secure and more efficient too. It’s not too far, told Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, who oversees Google[x] moonshot factory for building magical, audaciously impactful ideas that can be brought to reality through science and technology. He shared the wonderful work his group at Google, Google[x] is doing in the field of emerging technologies, with the goal of solving problems, innovatively and making things at least 10 times better. Like spreading internet to the remotest parts of this world through balloons and connecting this world together even better. Making quick deliveries throughAnd the Driverless Cars, which have become a reality and probably will be in our hands (without steering wheel!) very soon.
  • You can get out of your house, get in your car, take it to a nearby “heli-pad” kinda flying terminal, and just fly away. And still pay same for gas as your car, and be 4-5 times faster. Yes, I’m talking of a FLYING CAR! And he can make it happen in less than a decade, says Carl Dietrich, CEO of Terrefugia. He is an expert in liquid bi-propellant rocket propulsion, aircraft design & fabrication, as well as plasma physics & fusion energy. As an aerospace industry entrepreneur, Dietrich raised over $12 million of private capital, grew Terrafugia through the successful development of airworthy prototype vehicles, and built a $30 million order backlog for Terrafugia’s launch product, the Transition®.
  •  Robots of future may not REALLY kill us all. They could be neurotic and may not follow our commands all the time.  But they will be more empathetic and nice. Doing baby sitting, taking care of elderly. And they will be able to feel. This was shared by Anthony Lewis who is Senior Director, Technology at Qualcomm leading biologically-inspired computing and robotics. Dr. Lewis is an expert in robotics and neuromorphic engineering with more than 80 publications and patents in these fields. Dr. Lewis directed a multi-faculty robotics lab focused on cooperative robotics at UCLA, and developed high-performance control systems for robotic hands and force feedback exoskeletons as a member of the technical staff for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also founded Iguana Robotics, a private research company, where he spearheaded the development of biologically inspired robots.
  •  Let’ stalk of some reality now. Robots talking to kids, listening to kids and responding intelligently. Answering there questions, playing games. Playing jeopardy, analyzing millions of data points in few seconds. Learning engineering, medicine and working on field with other engineers & doctors in remotest part of worlds. IBM’s Watson, is already doing that and possibilities are endless. And you may not believe, but IBM is sharing this technology for free, with innovators to find more innovative uses for this. Lauri Saft, shared some amazing information about the Watson project. She is Director of the IBM Watson Ecosystem program. In her current role she is responsible for developing  a network of partnerships consisting of entrepreneurs & established companies who will build their applications on a foundation of cognitive computing.  These companies will take advantage of the natural language processing and deep QA capabilities of Watson in order to serve their customers in new ways.
  •  One of the oldest Tech giants and pioneers of the world and one of the earliest startups, General Electric, is not any behind when it comes to imagination and innovation. There robots are talking with people, interacting, learning on the spot (like, how to poke!) and doing things like sorting & cleaning rooms, to working on assembly lines in production, to hazardous environments as well. GE’s goal is to make robotics and innovative technology, work side by side with humans to compliment things they do and save time & improve quality. This was shared by Alex Tapper who is Managing Director in GE’s Ventures group, where he focuses on growth strategy and venture investments in Robotics and other disruptive technologies. Prior to that role, Alex was GE’s Global Director of Innovation where he worked across all the GE businesses and the Global Research Center to design and bring to market breakthrough products and new business models. He is also the co-founder of the GE Open Innovation (crowd-sourcing) Center of Excellence.
  • You can become Superman, fly over cities and save a child’s life. And you can make you more helpful towards other. Or you can embody a woman’s body, or body of a person of different race, and experience the prejudice and bias. And that can make you more empathetic towards there realities. How? Through Virtual Reality! And that’s just couple of the many amazing things VR can do. We listened to Jeremy Bailenson, who is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Bailenson’s main area of interest is the phenomenon of digital human representation, especially in the context of immersive virtual reality. He explores the manner in which people are able to represent themselves when the physical constraints of body and virtually-rendered behaviors are removed. He designs and studies virtual reality systems that allow physically remote individuals to meet in virtual space, and explores the manner in which these systems change the nature of verbal and nonverbal interaction.
  •  Any of you who thing AOL is dead or a thing of past, may need to rethink. They are not just around, but they are still BIG, they are still GREAT and they are doing amazing things, like no one else. Adapting and defining how media is consumed today via internet and handheld devices; shows for mobile, shot on mobile, presenting relevant advertising content, which is dynamic and adjustable to individual; ability to reach out and read millions of household in USA; that’ sjust few things AOL is capable of and doing it like no one else. AOL is redefining new media content, shared Tim Armstrong, the Chairman and CEO of AOL which serves nearly 250M global consumers and is a leader in the digital content, video, and advertising industries. Armstrong served as an executive of multiple internet and media companies, including President of Google's Americas Operations, Snowball, Disney's ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures, and Paul Allen's Starwave Corporation.
  • Did you ever imagine you could just print pancakes for your mother or child or loved ones, remotely, without being with there. Yes, you can print a delicious meal, without needing to cook it. Just print it! Sounds crazy? Well, not as per Ping Fu, the Chief Entrepreneur Officer of 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) works on the cutting edge of 3D printing at scale. Honored as Inc. magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Fu co-founded Geomagic, a 3D imaging software company, which was acquired by 3D Systems. The 3D technologies they developed were created to fundamentally change the way products are designed and manufactured around the world. She serves on the NACIE (National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship) at the Department of Commerce.
  • To talk about future of medical technology was Efi Cohen-Arazi is CEO of Rainbow Medical which is at the forefront of implant technologies to restore and heal. Cohen-Arazi has over 25 years of experience in the medical and biotech industry. Cohen-Arazi served as CEO of IntecPharma Israel, General Manager & VP at biotech giant Amgen, Senior VP at Immunex and General Manager, and VP at the Merck-Serono.
  • How many of you saw landing of NASA’s Curiosity on Mars? Are you aware of amazing findings and research that they are able to do to explore this universe? And not just that, are you aware of the technology that made this happen and its wonderful uses that we may be able to see in our daily lives? Are you aware of how NASA has changed the world we live in and is still changing it? We heard about some of that from Ashwin Vasavada, Project Scientist for NASA, who is a planetary scientist leading work on Mars. He has participated in several NASA spacecraft missions including the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn.

This was truly an awesome day of imagination, innovation and inspiration. To see what technology of future can do, not just for techies, but for all of us is amazing. How it can and it will impact our daily lives and the way we do things, is inspiring. Tribeca Film Festival has crossed a new mark by bringing this amazing event to New York City.