The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles will screen 40 titles, including PS Vinothraj’s award-winning Koozhangal, Thamizh’s Seththumaan, Ajitpal Singh’s Fire in the Mountains, Akshay Indikar’s Sthalpuran, and Rima Das’s For Each Other. The festival’s 19th edition will be held virtually between May 20 and 27 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The online screenings will be geo-blocked for delegates in California, according to a press release.
The features in the IFFLA programme include Pusphendra Singh’s Laila Aur Satt Geet, Sajin Baabu’s Biriyaani, Kislay’s Aise Hee, Bhaskar Hazarika’s Aamis, Indranil Roychowdhury’s Debris of Desire and Ashish Pant’s Uljhan.
Among the documentaries and shorts are Farida Pacha’s Watch Over Me, Karishma Dube’s Bittu, Sushma Khadepaun’s Anita, Suneil Sanzgiri’s Letter From Your Far-Off Country, Shahriar Azim’s American Anomie, J Nicholas Meese’s Last Night In Vegas, Ashmita Guha Neogi’s Catdog, Alisha Tejpal’s Lata, Theja Rio’s Angh, Ambiecka Pandit’s Custody and A Rifle and a Bag, by Arya Rothe, Cristina Hanes and Isabella Rinaldi.
Fire in the Mountains, about a mother who battles blind faith to treat her son, will be the opening film, while Sthalpuran, tracing a boy’s experiences at his new home, will be the concluding movie.
Veteran casting director and programmer Uma Da Cunha has curated the section Childhood on Edge, featuring six coming-of-age films. These are Bridge, The Tenant, Vanaja, Rettai Jadai, Kanya and Rammat-Gammat. There will also be a special screening of Prakash Deka’s LGBTQ-themed Fireflies.
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The fire in the belly from which the award-winning Tamil film ‘Koozhangal’ emerged
In Tamil film ‘Seththumaan’, a craving for pork exposes the fault lines of caste
In Marathi film ‘Sthalpuran’, a boy seeks his place in a new world