STAMFORD - Love, race, politics and freestyle rap all factor into the movies presented at the city's first Global Organization for People of Indian Origin of Connecticut [GOPIO-CT] Mini Indian Film Festival.
"They are not your average films," said Rameela Patel, the festival's organizer. "There's a message in each one of them."
  
The GOPIO-CT film festival features seven shorts and four feature-length films and runs from Friday, Nov. 16 to Sunday, Nov. 18 at the auditorium in University of Connecticut in Stamford.
  
Patel based the festival on the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council [IAAC] Film Festival, an independent festival in Manhattan showcasing South East Asian filmmakers. She decided to bring a smaller version of the festival to Stamford out of convenience.
  
She contacted her friend Aroon Shivdasani, IAAC executive director, to secure films for the Stamford-based festival.
  
Most of the featured films are in English and many of the filmmakers reside in Western continents.
  
Chrysovalantis Stamelos and Paras Chaudhari, directors of festival entry "Astoria Park," live in New York City and operate Crescent Street Films. The pair met at Syracuse University and generated the idea for their movie while watching an Indian film in their dorm.
  
Mitra Sen, an elementary school teacher from Toronto, wrote and directed her entry, "Peace Tree," based on an experience from her career. While researching religious holidays with her class, one student complained he only wanted to learn about his culture. Sen envisioned the movie as a reaction to this mindset.
  
"We needed to create some type of film that would open a dialog between the children and their parents and the parents and educators," she said.
  
Many of the festival's films deal with themes of racial, class or religious intolerance.
  
Filmmaker Stalin K made the documentary "India Untouched" about the nation's caste system. The ancient class system labels its lowest classification as "untouchable" and persons of separate classes cannot let the shadow of an "untouchable" touch them.
  
"Astoria Park," a 31-minute film, centers around a confrontation on a basketball court between two groups of different racial backgrounds. Stamelos envisioned it as a post-Sept. 11 update of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" with Indians playing basketball.
  
While a post-Sept. 11 mentality regarding race proved crucial to the film's character development, the filmmakers did not set out to create a film about Sept. 11 or its aftershocks.
  
"With 'Astoria Park,' we're not addressing Sept. 11," said Chaudhari. "It's a part of our story. Everyday — no matter what, no matter where you are — you are a part of post-Sept. 11."
  
Mitra Sen addressed a post-Sept. 11 feeling toward religious toleration for her film "Peace Tree." The film regards a Muslim girl and a Christian girl who wish to celebrate each other's holiday.
  
"After the [Indian Film Festival in Los Angeles], a gentlemen came up to me and said, 'This is our answer to 9/11,'" said Sen. "Because of what has happened within the Muslim community, I wanted to make a film to help the Muslim community with racism."
  
The film caught on in Toronto, where many schools adapted peace trees as a neutral symbol for the holiday season. Sen hopes more schools and municipalities erect the trees as a gesture of cultural tolerance.
  
"It's a symbol that's very inclusive," said Sen, "and, if you walk into any place and see a peace tree that shares these symbols, then you feel represented and immediately feel welcome."
  
Independent film making is widespread in India but it fails to receive the same audience share as Bollywood films, or films constructed in the Mumbai-based film industry.
  
"There's a lot of [South East Asian] independent filmmakers but a lot of times they struggle because they need the exposure," Patel said.
  
Patel wishes to make the festival a yearly venture and believes it will build in popularity, as word-of-mouth hype spreads through the community.
  
"I think the first year, people will just come to check it out," she said. "The second year, they'll say, 'Wow, this is great.' They'll tell their friends and it will start to snowball because they're excellent films."
  
The Connecticut Chapter of The Global Organization for People of Indian Origin (GOPIO-CT) www.gopio.net is having a Mini Indian Film Festival. Several films courtesy of the Mahindra Indo American Arts Council’s seventh annual film festival will be shown. The event runs the weekend of November 16, 2007 to November 18, 2007 at the University of Connecticut auditorium in Stamford, Connecticut.
  
The schedules are as follows:
November 16, 2007 - 8:00 pm double feature: "The Peace Tree"; "Losing Ahmad"; and shorts :"Guitar"; "Astoria Park"
November 17, 2007 - 6:00 pm : "India Untouched"; short "Shanu Taxi"; " Pot of Gold"
November 17, 2007 - 9:00 pm : "Grahanam"; Shorts: "Unfinished"; "Kali Ma"
November 18, 2007 - 5:00 pm: "The Speaking Tree"; Shorts: "Guroor"; "Love Story"
  
The films are produced both by well known and not so well known film makers and each has a message of its own. All of the films have been granted prestigious awards and some will be released for general viewing after the festival.
  
This is the first year the festival is being screened in Connecticut. GOPIO-CT is planning it as an on going event each year around the same time. The festival is well worth attending, not only because the screening of Indian films in Connecticut are few and far between, but because of the films unusual content.
  
Tickets at $10 for each show are a bargain for this entertaining festival and can be purchased online at https://www.sulekha.com/ticketsV3/buytickets.aspx?cid=506911