Wednesday 3 March 2010

Tongues of Fire: London Asian Film Festival, March 2010

The 12th London Asian Film Festival starts this Friday, 5 March running through to 14 March. Known as the 'Tongues on Fire' festival, it aims to highlight indepdendent Asian cinema and has a focus on women. As I wrote last year, the festival manages to put together a great collection of films and guests around London and yet it is strangely under-advertised.

The festival has a great balance this year between 'Bollywood' (going big on the Bachchan family), middle-art cinema in Shyam Bengal, and some British-Asian cinema ('Life Goes On', 'Cash and Curry'). Here's just a taste of what's on:

Friday 5 March - BAFTA - "A BAFTA INTERVIEW" with ABHISHEK BACHCHAN
18:15 Reception
18:45 interview

Saturday 6 March - ACTING MASTERCLASS
11:30 Masterclass with Abhishek Bachchan
14:00 Guru screening  (at Apollo, Piccadilly Circus)

Sunday 7 March - CELEBRATING SPORTS THROUGH FILMS
13:00 Reception
14:00 Chak de India screening (at Rich Mix, London E1)

BAFTA - "A BAFTA INTERVIEW" with SHYAM BENEGAL
18:00 Reception
18:30 Interview
20:30 Well Done Abba screening
(Exclusive to TOF and BAFTA members - how annoying....)

Monday 8 March - DIRECTOR'S WORKSHOP
10:30 Bhumika screening
14:00 Workshop with Shyam Benegal (at University of Westminster)

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
14:30 Kora Kagaz screening
16:45 Q&A with Jaya Bachchan
17:45 'High-Tea in the presence of Jaya Bachchan' (sic)
18:30 Shyam Benegal Talk - Women in Films (all at the Nehru Centre, London W1)

Tuesday 9 March - JAYA BACHCHAN'S RETROSPECTIVE
18:30 Guddi  (at the Nehru Centre, London W1)

Wednesday 10 March
18:30 Abhimaan  (at the Nehru Centre, London W1)

Saturday 13 March
SCREENINGS
14:00 Cash and Curry (just got to see this...)
20:45 Lovesongs + Introduction by director (both at Watermans Cinema)

Sunday 14 March
CLOSING GALA PREMIERE16:00 Life Goes On - Premiere
18:00 Q&A and Reception with stars + director (at Apollo, Piccadilly Circus)

See the Festival website for more details, other events.which are part of this festival and for details about how to book. Let me know what you thought if you go to see anything here.

7 comments:

Plummy Mummy said...

That does look good. I wonder if this is why Sholay is on at the RFH this month too. Great film but far too long for me to sit through on a sunday night.

Raven said...

I see what you mean about Sholay - though that seems to be part of something else which I hadn't picked up on before which I must look into some time.

One bit of Indian culture I have passed on to my kids (in my otherwise woeful performance in this area) is that I've taught them to recognise, and even sing a bit of, the 'Yeh dosti' song from Sholay! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck77d3joH6I).

Plummy Mummy said...

Good for you.
I'm partial to singing Mere Juta Hai Jaapani. Mind you, I don't speak a word of hindi and often get all the words wrong so little one isn't learning anything useful.
I think I'm going to have to buy her the DesiGuru vid for hindi. She has the one for gujarati which i force her to watch. :)

Plummy Mummy said...

Oh talking about film,I'm quite keen to see My Name is Khan as I want to see how well an autistic character is displayed (my nephew is autistic).
I just hope it isn't some awful Forest Gump remake...not that FG was autistic.

Raven said...

I don't know about Desiguru - sounds interesting.

But we did go and see Khan last weekend. It was a bit Forest Gumpy and a bit Rain Man-y. I thought it was worth going to see overall - it takes you on a real rollercoaster of emotions. But I can't see that it will achieve the 'cross-over' success which it is seeking and was marketed for. There's still too much Bollywood 'suspension of belief' required, which Asian viewers are well used to, but jars with western audiences. But it's getting there...

Plummy Mummy said...

www.desiguru.com :)

Raven said...

Thanks. I tried it (I think you might have meant www.mydesiguru.com/)- they don't do Punjabi, though Hindi might be worth thinking about.