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SCHEDULEThursday September 25th, 2008 9:00 PM: Mobile of Exceptional Stories
10th Avatar
Charuvi Agarval, 2007, India, 3 minutes, DigitalTelevision’s influence is so great that it has left us completely mesmerized and has become our new form of worship. Our faith in the divine power has been challenged several times, through the ages. According to Hindu mythology an avatar appeared who relieved man’s distress and re-established the belief in God and the avatar. Nine incarnations of God or avatars have appeared thus far and the 10th avatar appeared with the fusion of mass media and formal worship. This is the story about the challenge divine worship faced as cable TV encroached our “idle” time.
Pakistan's Dame Edna
2006, Pakistan/UK, Urdu, English, 14 minutes, DigitalOne of the last things you would expect to see on TV in Pakistan is a transvestite host tackling issues Muslim society would prefer to ignore. But Ali Saleem, Pakistan’s Dame Edna, is in her element.
“I am going to be the biggest Diva this country has ever produced!” Ali Saleem proclaims. In the guise of a snobby middle age dame, Saleem hosts one of Pakistan’s most cutting edge TV shows.
Nosh-e-Jan
Gazelle Samizay, 2008, AfghanistanIn Nosh-e Jan (Bon Appetit) the viewer is invited to witness the ritual of passing and consuming secrets within an Afghan-American family. The ritual serves as an outlet of expression for the women that bear the secrets, without violating the strict code of keeping face. The secrets are shared in three different languages (Pashto, Dari, and English), each of which signifies a different generation in the family. While the women are the main transmitters of the secrets, the impact on men must not be forgotten.
Flying on One Engine
Joshua Z Weinstein, 2008, USA/India, 52 minutes, DigitalWheelchair bound, without a larynx, and diagnosed with a life-threatening aortic aneurysm, Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet now lives only (and barely) so he can travel to India to perform free operations in marathon-like surgery sessions where up to 700 children receive treatment for their cleft lips and other deformities. Although Dicksheet survives off of social security while living in his Brooklyn apartment, his life is drastically different in India where the eight-time Nobel Prize nominee is treated like a living god. FLYING ON ONE ENGINE shows how this quirky, funny, and sometimes difficult character overcomes his own ailments by curing others.
From Dr. Dicksheet:
"$150 may mean the difference between a child suffering from disabilities and torment all of his or her life AND a full productive life.
Infants born with Cleft Lips or Palates are unable to suckle milk and die of starvation or malnutrition, or are abandoned or killed by their parents. Abandoned children live as outcasts and are further vulnerable to starvation, malnutrition, violence and death. With Dr. Dicksheet's free surgery camps, the parents are empowered to take action and shape the destiny of their children. Thus he restores the physical functions of children and reduces their vulnerability to malnutrition, ill health and violence.
You can change the life of one child by donating $150 towards the INDIA PROJECT."
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Sahar Zaheer
Really want to attend this screening but can't find a babysitter? No problem! We have a Kids Play Room.
