Meet Team Meme - the people behind Indie Meme, Austin's premier South Asian cinema organization and independent film festival We Are INDIE MEME Executive Board Ananyaa Ravi President Alice (Ali) Mechaley-Saigal Secretary Board of Directors Board of Directors Meghana Shukla Marketing Chair Hitesh Vijay Oswal Ticketing Chair Kala Ranganathan Community Partnership Chair Kalpana Jayaraman Membership & Volunteering Chair Sharmila Mehta Fundraising & Tech Chair Uma Riddle Programming Chair Staff Radhika Malhotra Executive Director Ananya Goks Marketing Coordinator Davis Kurepa-Peers Webmaster & Videographer Nitya Rayapati Box Office Coordinator Staff Staff Advisors Advisors Elizabeth Avellán Advisor Gita Lal Advisor Chale Nafus Advisor Alka Bhanot Co-Founder & Advisor Vijay Mahajan Advisor Tripti Bhatnagar Co-Founder & Advisor Ahmed Moledina Advisor Festival Team Volunteer Team Volunteer Team Suja Jose Festival Programming Shivani Mittal Festival Operations Kamal Khan Festival Programming Ramdas Menon Festival Programming Indie Meme Ambassadors Gita Singh Indie Meme Ambassador Anushka Srivastava Indie Meme Ambassador Join Our Team We are looking for committed, dedicated and energetic people to join our team! If you are interested in a position on our Volunteer Team, or simply want to get involved and want to volunteer, talk to us! We are especially looking for people that can help with fundraising, public relations, and social media. Become a Volunteer Executive Board Board of Directors Staff Advisors Festival Team Ambassadors

< Our Team Ambassadors Anushka Srivastava Indie Meme Ambassador Having moved from Mumbai to Austin at the age of 12, Anushka grew up with a deep affection for Indian cinema—the music, dance, and magic of Bollywood that connected her to home. Indie Meme, however, introduced her to a different side of South Asian storytelling. Through independent films exploring themes such as gender, class, caste, religion, and identity, Indie Meme challenged her assumptions and broadened her understanding of the many lived experiences across South Asia. These stories also changed the way she viewed India when returning to visit Mumbai, giving her a more nuanced perspective on the culture she came from and what it means to be part of the South Asian diaspora. While a song from Om Shanti Om can still bring an instant wave of nostalgia, Anushka credits Indie Meme with creating a deeper and more substantive connection to her heritage through films that inform, challenge, and inspire. Although she is now based in NYC, Anushka is proud to serve as an Indie Meme Ambassador and support its mission of bringing meaningful South Asian stories to diverse audiences in Austin.

April 26, 2026 at 6:00:00 PM AFS Cinema Texas Premiere Give It A Shot India 2026 Live Q&A with director-producer Vaishali Sinha TICKETS BUY A BADGE Big Sky Documentary Film Festival - 2026 Jury Award for Best Documentary - Indie Meme Film Festival 2026 GIVE IT A SHOT is a tender, quietly humorous portrait of Dr. Sujoy K. Guha, a visionary whose 1970s quest to develop a reversible male contraceptive set out to redefine reproductive responsibility forever. Decades later, his groundbreaking work continues to echo, inspiring a new generation of scientists, startups, and activists determined to bring his invention to the global stage. Director Vaishali Sinha takes us on a high-stakes, deeply human journey where science meets stubborn persistence, challenging long-held norms about who carries the burden of family planning. At its heart, Give It A Shot reframes the conversation around reproductive rights by centering an often-overlooked perspective: the role of men in a shared, radically equal future. It is a film filled with warmth, curiosity, and the hope that accountability can finally become a collective act. Restoration Process Film restoration process Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation About the Artist Vaishali Sinha is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and director of the feature documentaries Made in India (PBS) and Ask the Sexpert (PBS, Netflix). Her work has earned numerous honors, including the Critics Choice Award in India, a Grierson nomination for Best Entertaining Film, and a Ridenhour Peace Prize nomination for Excellence in Truth-Telling. Made in India became a case study at Harvard Business School in a course on ethics, while Ask the Sexpert achieved wide distribution across major platforms, including Netflix India. Vaishali was also a development consultant for the Academy Award–winning short documentary Period. End. Of. Sentence. and is currently on the producing team for multiple projects. She is a Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center and co-founder of Bitchitra Collective: Indian Women in Documentary, a peer-driven support network. She has mentored emerging filmmakers at Firelight Media Doc Lab, Kartemquin Film’s Diverse Voices in Docs, BAVC, and the Video Consortium. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and a diploma in 16mm film production from The New School, New York. Vaishali lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their child. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Vaishali Sinha Writer: Producer(s): Vaishali Sinha Hemang Chheda Film Editor: Featured Cast: Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

April 25, 2026 at 3:30:00 PM AFS Cinema Texas Premiere The Cycle of Love United Kingdom, Sweden 2025 Live Q&A with protagonists Lotta Mahanandia Von Schedvin and P.K. Mahanandia, & producers Karl Von Schedvin and Emelie Mahanandia Von Schedvin. TICKETS BUY A BADGE Telluride Film Festival, Hamptons Film Festival - Winner Social Impact Award Middleburg Film Festival - Winner Audience Award for Best Documentary Jackson Hole Film Festival Best Documentary Audience Choice - Indie Meme Film Festival 2026 In 1977, PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist from a poor, ‘untouchable’ family, picked up a handful of paintbrushes and a second-hand bicycle and set off on a 6000-mile cross-continent mission - to find Lotta, the woman who had captured his heart. A love story like no other, THE CYCLE OF LOVE is an inspiring, heart-warming, epic true-life adventure about the search for self-belief and risking everything for what your heart tells you. Restoration Process Film restoration process Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation About the Artist Orlando is an Academy Award-winning director and the founder of award-winning UK creative house Grain Media. His work includes Academy Award-winning THE WHITE HELMETS; Academy Award-nominated VIRUNGA; BIFA-winning EVELYN, EMMY-nominated LOST AND FOUND, EMMY-nominated CONVERGENCE: COURAGE IN A CRISIS, Platino-nominated THE LOST CHILDREN, critically acclaimed Netflix series HEART OF INVICTUS and forthcoming THE CYCLE OF LOVE. Other work includes Academy Award-winning LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WAR ZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL); EMMY-nominated SCOUTS HONOR; and EMMY-winning BUY NOW! all of which he executively produced. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Orlando Von Einsiedel Writer: Producer(s): Harri Grace Chloe Leland Film Editor: Katie Bryer Bfe Featured Cast: P. K. Mahanandia Lotta Von Schedvin Chirag Benedict Lobo Mina Dale Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

The life of a young glassblower in training and his relationships over the years, as his land goes through war and strife. April 12, 2025 at 12:45:00 PM AFS Cinema Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Indie Meme Special 10th Year Retrospective Showcase Texas Premiere The Glassworker Pakistan, Spain, USA | Narrative Feature 2024 | 98 mins | English, Urdu Preceded by the short films Da'Lit Kids and Ouroboros . Recorded Q&A with writer-director Usman Riaz TICKETS WATCH ONLINE Limited tickets available on site. International South Asian Film Festival of Canada Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival Hong Kong Kids International Film Festival A young, gifted Vincent and his father Tomas run the finest glass workshop in the country and find their lives upended by an approaching war in which they want no part. The arrival in their town of an army colonel and his young aspiring violinist daughter, Alliz, shakes their reality and tests the relationship between father and son. As the love develops between Vincent and Alliz, they will need to gather up their courage to confront their fathers. Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film. Restoration Process Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing. Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram. Meet Specific Thing About the Artist Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Usman Riaz is the Co-Founder of Mano Animation Studios, Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animation studio. A multifaceted talent, Usman has made significant strides in various creative fields. A recipient of a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music, Usman’s musical journey is marked by his albums ‘Flashes & Sparks’ and ‘Circus in the Sky,’ both released with EMI Pakistan. His prowess extends to filmmaking, having written, directed, and scored notable short films like ‘RUCKUS’ and ‘The Waves,’ with the latter being an Official Selection at the 2013 New York City Independent Film Festival. His ambitious project, ‘The Glassworker,’ showcases his storytelling and animation skills, promising to be a significant addition to his portfolio. Under Usman’s leadership, Mano Animation Studios has become a beacon of cultural storytelling and artistic excellence. The release not only marks a significant moment in Pakistani cinema but also elevates traditional animation on the global stage, showcasing its enduring charm over transient CGI trends. Usman Riaz’s artistic contributions continue to inspire a new generation of creators and storytellers worldwide. Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Trailer Credits Crew: Director: Usman Riaz Writer: Moya O’Shea Usman Riaz Producers: Film Editor: Featured Cast: Art Malik Sacha Dhawan Anjli Mohindra Tony Jayawardena Teresa Gallagher Mina Anwar Sham Ali Maya Saroya Nila Aalia Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation Restoration Credit: Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul) Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

An indigenous/tribal woman begins interacting with AI while working at a data centre in the remote Indian province of Jharkhand. August 10, 2025 at 2:30:00 PM AFS Cinema Humans in the Loop India | Narrative Feature 2024 | 74 | Hindi, Kurukh Virtual Q&A with director Aranya Sahay TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL Best Film Winner, FIPRESCI Award Best Debut Film, New York Indian Film Festival 2025 Best Feature Grand Jury Prize, IFFLA 20225 Inspired by the real phenomenon of 'data labelling' in indigenous regions across India, 'Humans In The Loop' follows Nehma, an indigenous woman who, after divorcing her Hindu husband, returns to her ancestral village with her children—Dhaanu & Guntu. To support her family, Nehma takes an unusual job—'data labelling,' tagging images to help algorithms distinguish objects. Major AI firms outsource this to remote regions of India, where labor is cheap. At the centre, a common saying "AI is like a child", resonates with Nehma. Having grown up believing in life, even in inanimate objects, she connects to the metaphor. She approaches her work with care of a parent teaching their child. As Nehma immerses herself in work, her bond with Dhaanu deteriorates. Struggling with village life, Dhaanu contemplates running away while Nehma begins to see AI as a surrogate child, hoping it will understand her perspective. But as AI mirrors human biases, Nehma questions if it can ever truly see through her indigenous lens. Restoration Process About the Artist Aranya is an Indian filmmaker based out of Mumbai. He studied Direction at FTII, Pune. He went on to assist Imtiaz Ali and Patrick Graham as an Associate Director & Director's Assistant. He has directed five short films, of which 'Songs for Babasaheb' and 'Chait' have screened at Mumbai International Film Festival, Signs Film Festival, and Jaffna Film Festival. In 2021, his film 'Saaya' was selected as a 'Film Bazaar Recommends' project. He was a participant and grant winner in the Museum of Imagined Futures Impact Fellowship Programme in 2023. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Aranya Sahay Writer: Aranya Sahay Producer(s): Storiculture SAUV Films Mathivanan Rajendran Sarabhi Ravichandran Shilpa Kumar Film Editor: Swaroop Reghu Aranya Sahay Featured Cast: Sonal Madhushankar Ridhima Singh Geeta Guha Anurag Lugun Monika Aranya Sahay Thank you to our community partners for this screening! This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

An imaginative kid in a water scarce slum realizes a superpower and decides to help his struggling mother to make her life easy. Eventive Virtual May 2 - 4, 2025 Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Indie Meme Special 10th Year Retrospective Showcase United States Premiere Waterman India | Short 2023 | 24 mins | Marathi, Kannada TICKETS WATCH ONLINE Limited tickets available on site. 16th IDSFFK - Best Film Award in Short Fiction Category 14th Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2024 - 1st Runner Up in Kannada category In a low-income neighborhood in Pune, 'Kitty', an eight-year-old boy, lives with his mother 'Saroja' amidst severe water shortages. During Kitty's summer vacation, Kitty fills his days playing with his imaginary friend while Saroja struggles to manage household tasks and water collection alone, due to her husband's absence. Their neighbor Gullamma suggests Kitty should grow-up quickly to help his mother. Meantime Kitty becomes intrigued after encountering a stiltwalker and playing with Gullamma's son, Dasthgir. He convinces Dasthgir to get him a pair of stilts. Later, Kitty discovers that whenever he walks on stilts, all the taps around him start running with water. When he shares this news with other people, he gets laughed at. His own mother gives him a scolding. Angered, Kitty runs away but is found and brought back home by Dasthgir. Saroja reassures Kitty that they will use his ability to bring water to the neighborhood. Soon after, in the middle of the night, stilts emerge from Saroja's house, and wherever Kitty's shadow passes, taps and containers start running with water, flooding the lanes and roads. Kitty continues to walk as his stilts echoes through the neighborhood. Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film. Restoration Process Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing. Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram. Meet Specific Thing About the Artist Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Vishwas K is alumni of FTII, and he graduated in Direction and Screenplay Writing. His diploma film Waterman won the Best Short film award at the 16th IDSFFK in July 2024, and first runner up in Kannada competition at the 14th Bengaluru International Short Film Festival in Aug 2024. The film has also been screened in March 2025 at Bengaluru International Film Festival organized by Govt of Karnataka. Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Trailer Credits Crew: Director: Vishwas K Writer: Vishwas K Producers: Film & Television Institute of India Film Editor: Gokul Gopinathan Featured Cast: Kartik Pujari Shwetha Rani H K Jahida M A Sanju Chavann Pruthviraj Lodga Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation Restoration Credit: Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul) Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

A hot-tempered alcoholic father drags his reticent son to a distant village to fetch back his wife whom he had chased away. But when the encounter turns ugly, the journey home through unforgiving Tamil Nadu barrens is fraught with the sweat and smudge of the deserted terrain where the land and human emotions lay brazenly palpable in the scorching heat. Eventive Virtual May 2 - 4, 2025 Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Indie Meme Special 10th Year Retrospective Showcase Pebbles India | Narrative Feature 2021 | 75 mins | Tamil ORIGINAL FILM PAGE WATCH ONLINE Limited tickets available on site. Winner of the 'Tiger Award' at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021, Netherlands, held in February 2021 Winner of the PREMIO SNCCI “Best Feature Film” adjudged by the National Syndicate of Italian Film Critics at ShorTS International Film Festival 2021, Italy held in July 2021 Winner of the 'Audience Award' at Burgas International Film Festival 2021, Bulgaria held in July 2021 A hot-tempered alcoholic father drags his reticent son to a distant village to fetch back his wife whom he had chased away. But when the encounter turns ugly, the journey home through unforgiving Tamil Nadu barrens is fraught with the sweat and smudge of the deserted terrain where the land and human emotions lay brazenly palpable in the scorching heat. Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film. Restoration Process Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing. Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram. Meet Specific Thing About the Artist Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Vinothraj P S is a filmmaker hailing from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. He dropped out of school when he was in class IV owing to poverty. To overcome the financial difficulties at home, he opted to become a child laborer at the age of 8 and worked in a textile factory until he turned 19. To eke out a living, he then sold DVDs at a roadside shop in Chennai. During this time, he was introduced to a few people from the Tamil film industry and joined several projects as an assistant director to Mr. Sargunam, a Tamil filmmaker. He began to assistant direct for ‘Manal Magudi’, a post-modernist theatre troupe ,and utilized his time during this venture to shoot a few short films. His debut feature ‘Koozhangal’ (Pebbles) premiered at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, where it went on to win the coveted Tiger Award and gain worldwide acclaim. Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Trailer Credits Crew: Director: Vinothraj P S Writer: Vinothraj P S Producers: Vignesh Shivan & Nayanthara Film Editor: Ganesh Siva Featured Cast: Karuththadaiyaan Chellapandi Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation Restoration Credit: Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul) Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

Love blossoms secretly between two elderly women at a senior care home while the spectre of patriarchy looms large overhead. April 26, 2026 at 10:30:00 AM AFS Cinema Texas Premiere Jasmine That Blooms in Autumn India | Short 2025 | 15 mins | Bengali, Hindi Followed by the film Victoria TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL 39th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2025 39th Fribourg International Film Festival 2025 – Nominated for the Best International Short Film 16th KASHISH Pride Film Festival 2025 – Winner - Grand Prize for Best Indian Narrative Short Film Jury Special Mention for Best Short - Indie Meme Film Festival 2026 In an elderly care home, Indira and Meera begin a secret romance, mindful of a society that proscribes homosexuality. While Indira tries to find solace in her newfound romantic sentiments, Meera is forthright and unreserved. Meera's assertive and heavy-handed approach reminds Indira of the repressive behaviour that she had endured at the hands of her husband and in-laws. As their romance blossoms, Indira subtly conveys to Meera that her overly demanding requests can be detrimental to their relationship. Restoration Process About the Artist Chandradeep Das started out as an associate to his father, eminent filmmaker Anjan Das, whose films were regularly feted at festivals like Berlinale, Rotterdam, BFI London, etc. He co-wrote his father's last film, which premiered at the International Film Festival of India in 2013 under the Indian Panorama section. As a writer, director, and producer, Chandradeep’s films and international TV series have been acquired by European (CANAL+, Promofest) and Indian distributors and selected at numerous prestigious film festivals, including Academy Award- and BAFTA-qualifying ones, such as BFI Flare, Fribourg, Brussels, Flickerfest, KASHISH, IDSFFK, Iris Prize, etc. His feature film in development, an India-Europe co-production, was a part of the Top 20 South Asian projects at the NFDC Film Bazaar Co-Production Market a couple of years ago. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Chandradeep Das Writer: Rahul Roye Chandradeep Das Producer(s): Nikita Ivanenko Tushar Tyagi Rahul Roye Film Editor: Aritra Dutta Banik Featured Cast: Uma Jhunjhunwala Sudipa Basu Thank you to our community partners for this screening! This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A young boy convinces a fisherman to take him out to sea, but once they are far from shore, the boy’s true intentions are revealed — leaving us to wonder if his plan succeeds. April 12, 2025 at 10:30:00 AM AFS Cinema Virtual May 2 - 4, 2025 Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Indie Meme Special 10th Year Retrospective Showcase North America Premiere Blue India | Short 2024 | 12 mins | Tamil TICKETS WATCH ONLINE Limited tickets available on site. Special prize from Arctic Open International Film Festival 2024, Russia A young boy persuades a fisherman to take him out to sea. Once there, he reveals his true intentions, sparking the fisherman’s anger. The film leaves us wondering whether the boy ultimately succeeds in his plan. Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film. Restoration Process Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing. Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram. Meet Specific Thing About the Artist Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Praveen Kumar Nagendran is an engineer-turned-filmmaker in the Tamil film industry, in India. He worked as the first assistant director in the film Maaveeran (Tamil). In 2024, he directed his first short film "Blue". Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Trailer Credits Crew: Director: Praveen Kumar Nagendran Writer: Praveen Kumar Nagendran Producers: Philomin Raj Film Editor: Tamilselvan Sakthivel Featured Cast: Palani Murugan Hemanathan Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation Restoration Credit: Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul) Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

The film follows four young girls that routinely travel from Lyari to a musical school in another area. The travel is long and dangerous, plus the girls' families are not always supportive of their desire to learn music as they feel that it violates Islamic law. Lyari Notes follows the girls over a three-year period. Eventive Virtual May 2 - 4, 2025 Lyari Notes India, Pakistan | Documentary 2015 | 70 mins | Urdu TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL World Premiere and nominated by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists – EDA Award at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam – Nov 2015 Winner of the Golden Boddhisattva Award (Patna) at the Bodhisattva International Film Festival – Feb 2017 Winner of excellence in best documentary feature (red category) at the ARY Film Festival (Karachi) – May 2017 In Pakistan a rock star teaches a group of girls to express themselves through music in Karachi’s most volatile district. Hamza Jafri travels in an armed vehicle. He is a musician famous for his hard hitting political lyrics since the 1990s. Since then religious fundamentalism has been on the rise with shops selling music torched, concerts bombed and musicians threatened with death. Seeing the shrinking space for music and artists Hamza opens a music school. Captured over 3 years Lyari Notes is the narrative of four young girls who attend Hamza’s music school and learn what it takes to express oneself despite the cycles of violence. Restoration Process About the Artist Miriam Chandy Menacherry (Director and Producer from India) – Founder, Director at Filament Pictures a Mumbai based production house. She has pitched and produced award winning films that have been broadcast on international channels like the National Geographic channel, BBC world and Arte. Her last documentary The Rat Race weaves together the narratives of rat killers in Mumbai. It won the Mipdoc Co production Challenge at Cannes, premiered at IDFA and won the audience awards at Florence and Kerala. It is one of the rare documentaries to get theatrical releases in 3 Indian cities winning critical and popular acclaim. Maheen Zia (Director and Producer from Pakistan) – Pakistani film director and editor. She has a degree in radio/tv production from Drake University USA and teaches at the Department of visual studies Karachi University. She is one of the founding members of Pakistan’s young international film festival – The Kara Film Festival and has served as a juror at international film festivals in Tehran, Tampere, Hyderabad and Kabul. She is the winner of the India EU Film initiative- Berlin Today Award- for her film `Match Factor’. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Miriam Chandy Menacherry & Maheen Zia Writer: Miriam Chandy Menacherry Abhijit Kachhap Likokba Sangtam Maheen Zia Producer(s): Miriam Chandy Menacherry Iikka Vehkalahti Maheen Zia Film Editor: Monisha R Baldawa Sankalp Meshram Featured Cast: Thank you to our community partners for this screening! This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A young sex worker embarks on a surreal journey across a dystopian city to raise money for a ritual that promises to lift a mysterious curse hanging over her life. April 25, 2026 at 8:15:00 PM AFS Cinema Fucktoys USA | Narrative Feature 2025 | 106 mins | English Live Q&A with writer-director-actor Annapurna Sriram and producer Timothy Petryni Preceeded by the short films Squat N Stool and Burnt Orange TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL SXSW Film Festival - Special Jury Award NewFest: New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize Nashville Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize Part-time sex worker, full-time chaos magnet, AP is convinced that the universe has it out for her… and she might be right. In this wild, unfiltered debut from writer/director/star Annapurna Sriram — AP seeks a cosmic reset after a tarot reader floating in a swamp tells her she needs $1,000 and a sacrificial lamb to lift her curse. Armed with neither, she meets up with her long-lost kindred spirit Danni, and together the two moped off on a bizarre quest through Trashtown USA — a dystopian, neon-drenched sprawl of strip clubs and urban decay, stocked with a series of assorted oddballs, Tom of Finland cops, and some all-too-familiar type clients. Fucktoys is rude, crude, unhinged, girlypop middle finger to filmic convention, and a comedic calling card for anyone who finds themself asking the question: am I cursed??? Restoration Process About the Artist Annapurna Sriram is an emerging horse girl from Nashville, TN. She holds a BFA in Acting from Rutgers’ Mason Gross. Her most cherished previous work includes Jesse Eisenberg’s The Spoils, Wallace Shawn’s Evening at the Talkhouse, and the feature film Feral. She is an aficionado of fetish, fantasy, and foreplay. Fucktoys is her directorial debut. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Annapurna Sriram Writer: Annapurna Sriram Producer(s): Timothy Petryni Film Editor: Lilly Wild Grason Caldwell Featured Cast: Annapurna Sriram Sadie Scott Francois Arnaud Big Freedia Brandon Flynn Damian Young Thank you to our community partners for this screening! This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.