[Reader-list] Info on South Asian film festivals

[Mridu Chandra]

Dear Friends,

I recently finished producing a feature length documentary that we would 
like to send to film festivals in South Asia.   It’s difficult to find 
information about some of these festivals and their deadlines, so I thought 
I’d ask the community.  I was wondering if you have any thoughts on film 
festivals we should apply to, such as gay and lesbian film festivals, or 
human rights film festivals, and simply international film festivals that 
take documentaries.

I was particularly looking for the correct email address for the Bombay 
‘Sexual and Gender Minority Film and Video Festival,’ and any information 
(i.e. web site or contact, deadline for entry, etc.) on international film 
festivals in India.  I once attended the International film festival in 
Bombay but can’t find any contact info on the web.

BROTHER OUTSIDER is a feature-length documentary portrait of Bayard Rustin 
-- a lifelong crusader for justice, a disciple of Gandhi, a mentor to Martin 
Luther King, and a gay man who paid a remarkably steep price for daring to 
be open about his sexual identity during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. This 
award-winning film was broadcast nationally on PBS here in the U.S. and was 
featured at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. It has been invited to lesbian 
and gay festivals in London, Turin, Toronto, Boston and other cities and 
will be part of the upcoming Amnesty International Film Festival.

I thought this film would be of particular interest to Indian festival 
audiences because our film demonstrates clearly how Gandhi influenced the 
American civil rights movement.  Rustin studied Gandhian principles of 
nonviolence as they were demonstrated in the 1930s and 1940s by reading 
articles in the African American minority newspapers. Moreover, Rustin 
visited India in 1948 to study Gandhian protest and met Nehru and other 
prominent writers and scholars at the 1948 Jaipur Congress session. Rustin 
then developed an American version of nonviolent protest—including sit-ins 
in restaurants which would not serve black people— and later advised Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. on how to lead a nonviolent movement which spanned 
30 years and led to the establishment of civil rights legislation in 1965.  
This is all part of the film.

Hope to hear from you,

Mridu Chandra
Producer, BROTHER OUTSIDER: THE LIFE OF BAYARD RUSTIN
Question Why Films
32 Union Square East - Suite 1005
New York, NY 10003
voice: 646.602.2375
fax: 646.602.2571
www.pbs.org/pov/brotheroutsider
www.rustin.org



CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR "BROTHER OUTSIDER":

"Vividly brings back to life a man who deeply and brilliantly influenced the 
course of the civil rights and peace movements ... a thoroughly honest 
portrait of Bayard and his tumultuous times." --Nat Hentoff, The Village 
Voice


"Poignant ... Rustin came to see his struggle as a homosexual as 
inextricable from his struggle as a black man in America. But neither 
mainstream society nor even the civil rights leadership could cope with his 
honesty."   --TIME Magazine

"Like Rustin, the film is alive with ideas, fast-paced and surprising, and 
rich in humanity. It’s beautiful like him … and it’s got rhythm." --Kate 
Tuttle, Africana.com

"Evokes with poignancy the many trials of Rustin -- a beautiful man, a 
gifted singer, a dynamic speaker, and a successful civil rights leader -- 
who never attained the stature of King, Ralph Abernathy, or Jesse Jackson, 
primarily because he was gay at a time when homosexuality was fodder for 
blackmail." --The Boston Globe

"Outstanding." --Associated Press

"Marvelous." --Wall Street Journal

"Well-crafted and even-handed ... first-rate." --Variety

"Illuminating." --Chicago Tribune

"Powerful ... startling." --The Advocate




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