(Dallas, Texas – February 10, 2017) Now in its third year, the Dallas/Fort Worth South Asian Film Festival (DFW SAFF), taking place from March 3rd to 5th at the Perot Museum (downtown Dallas) and AMC Village on the Parkway 9 (Addison), will showcase 19 shorts, documentaries and feature films, over a three-day-period.
The closing night film will be the North American premiere of Ananth Mahadevan’s Marathi biopic “Doctor Rakhmabai,” starring Tannishtha Chatterjee, the queen of independent cinema, in the title role. It is the story of India’s first practicing lady doctor, social rebel and medical pioneer who paved the way for a fight against gender discrimination. “Not only will this be our closing night film, it will also nicely round out the women’s programming at our festival,” said founder and director, Jitin Hingorani.
The entire festival schedule is as follows: Friday, March 3rd – Opening Night Screening, Red Carpet & VIP Reception at Perot Museum (downtown Dallas) from 6 p.m. to midnight.
On Saturday, March 4th – Shorts, Documentaries, Centerpiece Programming at AMC Village on the Parkway 9 (Addison) from 11 a.m. to midnight: And, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Youth Programming; “India in a Day” (documentary) will be followed by winning videos of Parish School’s “One Minute Smartphone Video” contest & scholarships.
“The highlights of our programming this year are a focus on Marathi regional cinema with one short and two feature films in that language,” said Ambica Dev, the festival’s artistic director. “You’ll also notice themes of Indo-Pak (Hindu/Muslim) programming sprinkled throughout, given that 2017 is the 70th anniversary of India and Pakistan’s independence. Finally, we are proud to say that almost one-third of our films have a child as the central or prominent character.”
Actors, Directors & Producers in attendance at the festival include Satish Kaushik – actor/producer/writer/director; Viveck Vaswani – actor/producer/writer; Tannishtha Chatterjee – actor; Sayani Gupta – actor; Rupak Ginn- actor; Mehreen Jabbar – director; Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy – director; Mian Adnan Ahmed – director; and Sami Khan – director.
JINGO Media, a Dallas and NYC-based, public relations and events management company, produces the annual festival of South Asian independent cinema in North Texas. The third iteration of the festival boasts 19 curated shorts, documentaries and feature films (over a three-day period), which will focus on issues affecting South Asians and explore the lives and stories of the Diaspora working and living in the United States.
“All-access” festival passes, which provide admission to all of the films, networking events and after parties, are currently available for the early-bird price of $150 before February 15th, after which the price increases to $175. Trailers, synopses and ticketing information are all available on the festival’s web site, www.dfwsaff.com. ;
