Directors, producers, actors and film enthusiasts turned out for the opening gala of the 2014 Seattle South Asian Film Festival in Renton, on Halloween night.
Some attendees made their appearance on the red carpet at the Renton Pavilion Event Center for the very first time, but for others Renton was a familiar and welcoming stop on their film tour. Puja Maewal, director of the award-winning short film “Jaya” (India, 2014) was excited to be in South Seattle or Renton for the first time ever.
“I’m very excited; it’s like a cool Halloween-slash-film party,” said Maewal.
Attendees were dressed in both Halloween and traditional cultural outfits at the gala.Hearing great things about Seattle, Maewal was also excited to attend because she said this particular festival is famous for its daring programming, which is very different from other South Asian festivals. Her film “Jaya” is the story of a teenage girl in a street gang in Mumbai who encounters a man she thinks is her long lost father. The film was shot on the streets of Mumbai with “untrained kid actors from the slums.”
“They were really passionate about acting even though they’d never really been in front of a camera; so it was pretty fun” Maewal said.
Currently she is working on a feature-length version of “Jaya” and will soon be looking for financing. The film has been screening for a year all over cities in the U.S. and will start to screen internationally in Hungry, Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta.
Also screening with “Jaya” at the opening gala was “FU377” (UK, 2014), “My Dear Americans” (USA, 2013), “Shame,” (Canda, 2014), “Ravel” (Afganistan, 2014) and “What Remains” (USA, 2013).
Filmmaker Monish Gangwani, of Bellevue, was happy to have the film festival screening so close to home. His experimental art film “The Roar,” about a suppressed artist, trying to find his freedom of expression, will screen at the Roxy Cinema in Renton on Nov. 8.
“I’m just so glad that we’re having the festival here,” said Gangwani. “I’m a filmmaker so I know that through SIFF we’ve done stuff over here before. I’m just really excited that SSAFF is here.”
Sharing in the excitement was director and producer Jane Charles, who’s been to Renton before with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) for the movie “Fat Kid Rules the World.” Charles was at the SSAFF event to promote and screen the film “Sold.”
The film features actors Gillian Anderson, David Arquette and Tillotama Shome.It won the “Best Narrative Feature” at the Albuquerque Film Festival and the audience award at the London Indian Film Festival. “Sold” is a story about a young girl from Nepal who’s trafficked into India.
“I’m really excited for our film to be here,” said Charles. “‘Sold’ actually opened the L.A. Indian film festival and several other Asian film festivals amid the response has been amazing.”
Charles was excited for other films showing at SSAFF saying that the films screened here were some of the best international films.
“Renton’s great; I was very excited that ‘Sold’ had a screening in Renton,” said Charles.
The opening gala attendees watched the screening, dined on food from Naan-n-Curry and danced to Bollywood and Bhangra music provided by Portland’s DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid.
