12th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL
May 23-27, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012, 9.30 pm, Theatre 2, Tribeca Cinemas.
Inshallah Football Directed by Ashvin Kumar
India 2010 83 mins English, Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri (with English subtitles)
Cast: Real people in the film - Bashir Baba, Basharat Baba, Juan Marcos Troia, Priscila Barros Pedroso
The documentary was awarded the 2011 National Award for Best Film on Social Issues and was earlier ‘banned’ by the Censor Board of India.
'Kashmiri teenagers in the early 90's did not imitate Che Guevara and Malcolm X; militants walking the ramp of war determined the fashion trends' Basharat Peer, author of 'Curfew Nights'. Flicking his cigarette, Bashir gazes into the camera with eyes that have seen worlds shattered: "I was petrified that he would lose sanity, follow my footsteps and become a militant". Bashir Baba, a leader of the armed group Hizbul Mujahideen has given-up the gun. When he left his home in Kashmir to join the training camps in Pakistan in the early 90's, his son Basharat was two months old. Basharat Baba belongs to a new generation of Kashmiris. He has grown up under the shadow of a silent war. Yet, within it, football is his passion and fuel. For the past three years, another man has made his presence felt in Basharat's life. Marcos, an Argentinean football coach, has bridged great cultural distance by founding Kashmir's ISAT football academy, which runs an exchange program to Brazil for talented players. Basharat is selected by Marcos to go to Brazil; to play in the land of Pele has fairy tale qualities but Basharat has been denied a passport by the Government of India. His crime? That he was born the son of a militant. A deeply personal narrative about father and son, the devastating conflict of Kashmir and the state of Indian democracy.
The youngest Indian writer/director with an Academy Award Oscar® nomination, Ashvin is also the first Indian to be nominated at the European Film Academy with his film 'Little Terrorist' which has been part of official selections to over 130 film festivals, winning awards in 25 of them, including the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) LA. His other films include, including Inshallah, Kashmir (2012) and Road to Ladakh. Ashvin began working as an actor and director in theatre and after a degree in Media and Communications at the University of London after which he founded one of the first digital post-production studios in India in 1996. His mother is the fashion designer Ritu Kumar. Ashvin is also a voting member of the European Film Academy.
With
Embrace by Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla Friday, May 25, 2012, 9.30 pm, Theatre 2, Tribeca Cinemas. Directed by: Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla
Cast: Rebecca Hazlewood, Randy Ryan, Ajay Mehta, Malek Yehya, Sachin Bhatt, Anoush NeVart
USA.2011. 15 mins. English
The first ever dramatization of the 2008 Mumbai attacks staring Rebecca Hazlewood and Randy Ryan as an American and his Indian wife trapped in a hotel under terrorist siege, and compelled to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla is a critically-acclaimed writer and filmmaker born in Kenya and based in Los Angeles. He is the author of the groundbreaking novel, ODE TO LATA, praised by the LA Times as "an accomplishment" and recently, the International Bestseller, THE TWO KRISHNAS. Dhalla adapted, produced and co-directed his first novel into the major motion picture, THE ODE which was praised by the UCLA Asia Institute as a film that inspired "after-film contemplation" and boasting performances that are "noteworthy." His second film, EMBRACE, which is having its world premiere at NYIFF, is the first ever dramatization based on the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Dhalla's literary and film work has been honored at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and he was the subject and distinguished guest of the Masters Tea at Yale University in 2011.
The youngest Indian writer/director with an Academy Award Oscar® nomination, Ashvin is also the first Indian to be nominated at the European Film Academy with his film 'Little Terrorist' which has been part of official selections to over 130 film festivals, winning awards in 25 of them, including the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) LA. His other films include, including Inshallah, Kashmir (2012) and Road to Ladakh. Ashvin began working as an actor and director in theatre and after a degree in Media and Communications at the University of London after which he founded one of the first digital post-production studios in India in 1996. His mother is the fashion designer Ritu Kumar. Ashvin is also a voting member of the European Film Academy. 
Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla is a critically-acclaimed writer and filmmaker born in Kenya and based in Los Angeles. He is the author of the groundbreaking novel, ODE TO LATA, praised by the LA Times as "an accomplishment" and recently, the International Bestseller, THE TWO KRISHNAS. Dhalla adapted, produced and co-directed his first novel into the major motion picture, THE ODE which was praised by the UCLA Asia Institute as a film that inspired "after-film contemplation" and boasting performances that are "noteworthy." His second film, EMBRACE, which is having its world premiere at NYIFF, is the first ever dramatization based on the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Dhalla's literary and film work has been honored at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and he was the subject and distinguished guest of the Masters Tea at Yale University in 2011.