The Asia Society presented the third annual three-day South Asia Human Rights Festival from April 7- 9, 2005 for a receptive audience . Undoubtedly reinforcing the viewers’ concern for extensive past and present human rights violations, the organizers succeeded in selecting productions which linked South East Asian issues to problems faced by advanced industrial societies as well. Thus the productions included the first Indian feature film on HIV/AIDS, Phir MiLinge / We will meet again by R...

The 2004 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Wednesday April 14-April 18 SundayCHOKHER BALI (premieres in Toronto)will open the festiival on April 14. Next day IFFLA will feature a Gala Film Tribute to Celebrate Career of Indian Actress Kirron Kher on April 15 Rituparno Ghosh's CHOKHER BALI (A Passion Play) as the opening night film of the 2004 festival. The film, based on Rabidranath Tagore's novel CHOKHER BALI, is a period drama featuring superstar actress Aishwarya Rai as a young widow in Bri...

The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to bring remarkable or urgent feature films and feature length creative documentaries by innovative and talented filmmakers from developing countries closer to fulfillment. The HBF provides grants that often turn out to play a crucial role in enabling these filmmakers to realize their projects. In its Fall 2003 Selection Round, Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of the International Film Festival Rotterdam grants a total of Euro 467,000 to twenty-eight non-Western film-maker...

Fiction film sectionOrisel Gaspar, one of the lead actresses of Siete dias, siete noches (Seven Days, Seven Nights), had written a song especially for the closing ceremony of the Festival of the 3 continents in Nantes, western France. She definitely put her whole heart in her voice when she sung her moving lyrics after Cuban director Joel Cano received the Montgolfière d’Or for the film in which she co-stars. The movie, which depicts a week in the lives of three very strong women in Cuba, i...

Fiction film sectionOrisel Gaspar, one of the lead actresses of Siete dias, siete noches (Seven Days, Seven Nights), had written a song especially for the closing ceremony of the Festival of the 3 continents in Nantes, western France. She definitely put her whole heart in her voice when she sung her moving lyrics after Cuban director Joel Cano received the Montgolfière d’Or for the film in which she co-stars. The movie, which depicts a week in the lives of three very strong women in Cuba, i...