Projects in genres: Asian

Synopsis

Ismail and Muhuit are standing as independent candidates in the local council election, fighting on the issue of providing detox centres for the crack and heroin addicts on the streets in and around Brick Lane, Banglatown, London E1.   In and around these same streets, tour guides peddle gory tales of Jack the Ripper and trivia about the local gangsters, the Krays. Tourists cling to this tabloid version of remembrance of things past.  Is everyone oblivious to the Bengali community and their history?   Delwas has lived in E1 for more than 15 years and takes us on an alternative tour of the area. We find it is rich in history, art and politics and discover the only museum of immigration in Europe.

Synopsis

A poetic and compelling 16mm film shot in London, Karachi and Lahore which encompasses five stories relating to the times of day for Muslim prayer. The work explores overlaps between time, memory and location. Connecting different places and people through images and sounds, Eating Grass contains documentary footage accompanied by a voiceover in both Urdu and English. The textures of individual voices continually slip from one language to another, creating and repeating rhythms. Meaning is not only conveyed by what is said but also by building tonal rhythmical cadences, similar musical structures to those found in jazz or Indian classical music.

Synopsis

Mother/Country is a stunningly filmed, intimate experimental documentary. The film charts the director's return journey back to her Mother's house 20 years after the Iranian Revolution. Through the development of fiction with actors, the filmmaker attempts to unravel the events of the past and to find resolution.

Synopsis

Irrfan Khan (The Warrior) and Koel Purie (Everybody Says I'm Fine) lead this surreal rites of passage encounter between a dysfunctional, coke-snorting fashion model and an ultra-focussed, strong-silent stranger who are thrown together by chance. Set in the magnificent wilderness moon-scape of Ladakh, India, the road journey and the strange encounters that follow provide a dramatic backdrop for the relationship that develops. Both are outsiders, both are lonely, both crave the human contact that their roles in society deny them. Tentatively they search each other out in a film that is poised between elusiveness and engagement, suspicion and tenderness - at once hilarious and sinister, bizarre and moving, psychedelic and intensely real, Road to Ladakh is an original story scripted, edited and produced by director Ashvin Kumar.

Synopsis

Seafood is a jaundiced romantic comedy about modern metropolitan love, lust and disappointment. Colin wants to fall in love. Naveen is looking for sex. During an unexpected Friday night on the tiles their hopes are thwarted and their frustrations fuelled as they travel across the changing landscapes of East London.  

Synopsis

Set in 1970s Salford, amidst a forgotten landscape of decaying half demolished post war slums; 10-year-old Alan and his family make their way to the clinic for Mum's regular injection of Largactil, a torpifying drug intended to subdue her 'schizophrenic' inner voices and visions.   Alan takes upon himself the responsibility for holding his family together. He negotiates the two worlds his family inhabit: his mother's vivid inner world occupied by demons and angels, and the stark reality of everyday life haunted by poverty and the ever-present threat of the social services splitting up his family.   To others Alan's family is a world of 'spazos', of madness, neglect, and eccentricity - a dysfunctional family. To Alan, it is his family.

Synopsis

Alim thinks he's living with the ghost of Cary Grant - and with Cary's help Alim manages to keep his wonderful boyfriend and carefree London lifestyle hidden from his mother Nuru who lives oceans away in Toronto. But things get messy when Nuru arrives to visit - with the intention of persuading Alim to come 'home' and marry - and Alim has to choose between his relationships with his mother, his boyfriend and his imaginary friend.

Synopsis

Asian Invasion is a fly on the wall, behind the scenes documentary of what was going to be one of the biggest events of its kind. Until things went wrong! This documentary follows a group of Asian models and the organisers as they try to put on the show of shows with Bollywood stars and Mainstream Bhangra groups participating.

Synopsis

An Indian man, Rahul watches his girlfriend, Angie - whom he loves, leave to makeway for Sangita in his home and his life. Sangita is Rahul's wife from an arranged marriage in India. Rahul becomes a mute spectator to his changing life - rendered passive by tradition.

Synopsis

When Ajay introduces his black girlfriend to Uncle Vikram the shock kills him instantly! A strange Will, a few white lies and a video tape later, lead to uproar in the Asian community. But will Ajay get to keep everything he so desperately wants?

Synopsis

Set inside Tihar Central Jail in Dehli and shot over a period of a year, this film looks at life inside the jail focusing on a handful of characters. Raymond from London is on remand and is accused of smuggling 70 kgs of heroin. If convicted he would face the next 10 years in Tihar. Lakshmi is in the women's part of the prison, serving life for the murder of her husband's mistress. She thinks about him all the time, even though he has not visited her for six years. Bhabhuti, his wife, Prempatta and their son, Rama Shankar are all serving a life sentence for a death in the family. Prempatta's youngest daughter, Pushpa, also lives with her mother in the prison. But Puspha's future is uncertain as she is at an age when she must leave jail. There is a choice of either sending her to the village or to a boarding school where a charity has found a place for her. The film charts the conflicts that arise in the family as Pushpa's time of departure approaches. The pressures of life in Tihar are movingly captured in this engaging documentary.

Synopsis

One day top stylist Pim comes face to face with her past when Debbie walks into her salon and back into her memory. Pim's in turmoil as she remembers the summer day when they were ten and her then best friend rejected her. Pim's crime: her Asian hair was black, not blonde. Now Pim has Debbie's head in her hands. Pim has her chance for revenge.