Welcome to the 2008
New York Arab & South Asian Film Fesitval
Alwan for the Arts, 3rd i NY, and the South Asian Women's Creative Collective are once again joining forces to bring New York audiences the best in recent features, docs, & shorts from North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and their diasporas at prestigious venues such as Tribeca Cinemas, Columbia University, Art in General, and NYU.
Scheduled for March 5-16, 2008, the New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival (NYASAFF) strives to bring you films and videos that achieve the highest artistic quality as well as provide a much-needed counterpoint to the stereotypical representations often encountered in mainstream media.
The 2008 fest rolls out a slew of US and NY Premiere features that range from politically astute comedies to gritty, yet poignant examinations of urban poverty. An emerging theme amongst this roster of films is the multi-faceted nature of sexual desire in the Arab & South Asian world, stories of love and attraction marked by racial and class tension, war, religious restrictions, and the hardships of migration.
US & NY Premieres include:
AmericanEast, Cut & Paste, Night Shadows, Tender is the Wolf, In the Name of God (Khuda Kay Liye), Mischief Night, Doll House, among other highlights.
Joseph Massad, Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University and author of Desiring Arabs - a diverse compendium of Arabic writing from the nineteenth century to the present charting changes in Arab sexual attitudes, will guest curate a retrospective program, Bellydancing in Egyptian Cinema. Tribeca alternative arts space, Art in General, will play host to an evening of Art Videos, that will be guest curated by Özkan Cangüven, a graduate of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, and Swati Khurana, a member of South Asian Women's Creative Collective and media artist, who has put together program of experimental Arab & South Asian shorts that will examine the subject of storytelling and its complicated connection to the real. Finally, filmmaker Tala Hadid has put together a collection of videos that take innovative formal approaches to the notion of resistance against contemporary imperialisms.
In all, something for everybody. We look forward to having you join us!
Festival Calendar
Also of Note
Festival Special Events:
The New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival would like to
thank all of the film makers and other creative talents
involved in making this happen for a third year. Most of all,
we would like to thank the participating
audiences, for bearing witness.
See you all next year!
2008 NYASAFF Sponsors & Support, Festival Staff and Core Organizations »