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FILMS BY INDIAN AMERICANS, AS WELL AS FILMS FROM THE INDIAN DIASPORA AND THE SUBCONTINENT

22nd SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL, MARCH 4-11, 2004 IN SAN FRANCISCO AND BERKELEY, AND MARCH 19-21, 2004 IN SAN JOSE

The 22nd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) offers more than 14 films and videos from Indian and Indian American filmmakers. The Festival unspools March 4-11 at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres and the Castro Theatre in San Francisco and at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley and March 19-21 at the Camera 3 Cinemas in San Jose. For more information or tickets please telephone (415) 856-1588 or visit www.naatanet.org/festival on the internet.

Feature length films include Nisha Ganatra's COSMOPOLITAN, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK's FLAVORS, and Jon Sen's SECOND GENERATION. With COSMOPOLITAN, Nisha Ganatra creates a complex and lighthearted tale about aging first-generation South Asian immigrants. Gopal (Roshan Seth) must reinvent his suburban life after his wife leaves him for an ashram in India and his daughter disappears to Mongolia with a German boyfriend. Left alone, and challenged to break the boundaries of his complacent, mundane existence, he looks to Cosmo magazine as a guide to understanding and negotiating romantic relationships, and as a means to pursue the attractive divorcee next door (Carol Kane). FLAVORS, the opening night film in San Jose, is a delightful romantic comedy centered around young Indian American IT workers and a host of other characters. SECOND GENERATION, a British TV soap opera about South Asian immigrants in the UK, has it all: the family patriarch felled by a stroke, scheming children trying to take over the curry empire, adultery, suicide, shirtless hunks and a dream cast featuring Parminder Nagra (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM/SFIAAFF 2003), Om Puri (EAST IS EAST), Anupam Kher (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM/SFIAAFF 2003), Rita Wolf (MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE), Roshan Seth (GANDHI) and Christopher Simpson (WHITE TEETH).

Following up on last year's popular screening of the Bollywood extravaganza KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI, this year's program offers Nikhil Advani's much anticipated KAL HO NAA HO. The film marks the return of silver screen heartthrob Shahrukh Khan and the creative team of Karan Johar and Nikhil Advani, creators of the award-winning KKHH (SFIAAFF 2003). KAL HO NAA HO tells the story of Naina (Preity Zinta), an all-business, no-play daughter struggling to keep her financially distressed family together with some cross-cultural turmoil thrown in for good measure. Featuring an all-star line up that sings, cries, dances and romances their way through New York City to some very catchy songs, this film is sure to entertain.

The Festival is proud to announce the new documentary from Jason DaSilva, LEST WE FORGET, which urgently looks to the near American past to point out the political crimes of today. The film remembers Japanese Americans who were interned as "enemy aliens" during World War II and connects those alarming violations of civil liberties with recent events where people of Arabic, South Asian and Muslim origin were named as our new "enemy aliens" following 9/11. Sharat Raju's AMERICAN MADE, a short drama about a South Asian family stranded in the Arizona Desert, screens with LEST WE FORGET.

The Festival is pleased to present "3rd I South Asian International Shorts 2004," a selection of underground short works from India, New Zealand, the UK and the US. Included in the program are Prashant Bhargava's SANGAM, Mandrika Rupa's LAXMI, Amyn Kaderali's TAKE THE A TRAIN, Avie Luthra's CROSS MY HEART, and Sujit Sircar's MANN KE MANJEERE..

Additional short works screening in the Festival include Shilpi Gupta's WHEN THE STORM CAME, which recently won best short film prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, in the "Shadows And Light" shorts program, and Avie Luthra's BABY, in the "Call Me Ms." Shorts program. Avie Luthra's endearing cross-cultural love story BLOODY FOREIGNERS screens with Nisha Ganatra's COSMOPOLITAN.

The 22nd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival is supported in part by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Asian Art Museum, California Arts Council, Community Technology Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Grants for the Arts, Koret Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, NOON, San Francisco Film and Video Arts Commission, and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, runs March 4-11, 2004 at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, 1881 Post Street, and the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street in San Francisco and at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way in Berkeley, and March 19-21 at the Camera 3 Cinemas, Second and Carlos Street in San Jose. For more information, please telephone (415) 865-1588 or visit www.naatanet.org/festival on the internet.