1st Annual NJISACF

The weekend of June 2-3rd had the inauguration of the New Jersey Independent South Asian Cine Fest 2007. This was way overdue. Given that this was its first time, it did decently well. Quite a decent turnout although it wasn't overflowing. Georgestreet Playhouse was a good choice as the venue and yeah good food at the cafe. One concern was that, during the inauguration ceremony, it seemed more like an election campaign for the NJ Senate, no, really, for some time, it seemed like we were all sitting in the auditorium waiting to vote and register ourselves and even suggest policy changes in the government! I didn't know why they had to bring people to campaign in a film festival(the chief guest was running for the NJ senate - even then). Well, let bygones be bygones.
Anyways, Men of Burden was screened on the first day at 8:30 p.m. We had a Q and A session later with some good reviews by the audience. The slate of films was very diverse although I had already seen quite a few of them at various festivals like IFFLA, IAAC and SAIFF. On the whole, I would give it a 6.5 on a scale of ten. Keep it up and good luck!

Post-screening of Men of Burden

Things have been crazy the last few days. But didn't want to forget about the May 12th, 2007 screening of 'Men of Burden - Pedaling Towards a Horizon'. The screening went well but wished we had done more promotion. Getting people to an independent screening, that too, of a documentary film is definitely a not-so-easy task.
Journalist(SAJA-er) Aseem Chabra was kind enough to moderate the post-screening discussion. We had a good discussion with some in the audience, some backs and forths and a couple of leads for the rickshaw projects. Hopefully things will work out towards the contribution.
Aicon Gallery was supportive with their help during the screening. Thanks to everyone who contributed towards the screening. Also gotta thank Nanda and Arvind for their help with the audio system and ALM Associates in Rahway and Ram Lakhani from Digimax for lending the projection and screen systems.
Anyways, do look out for our next screening at the NJSAICF on June 2nd, at 7:45 p.m. Hope to have a good NJ turnout.

Pondicherry Cycle Rickshaws & Drivers

These are some pictures of 'Men of Burden' though not necessarily film stills, these were taken at different times. Although some of them are available on our film website 'Accessible Horizon Films', take a look again. Somewhere, somehow, they resonate with the beauty of Pondicherry. It reflects the pace of the town that was. But now, with the Autorickshaws and motorbikes, things have changed a lot.