The story of a young tribal girl who rises from the ashes to proclaim her most essential rights, over her body and the decisions upon it. Shot with an all tribal cast at Attapadi in Kerala. April 16, 2023 at 3:15:00 PM AFS Cinema International Premiere Dhabari Quruvi India | Narrative Feature 2022 | 105 mins | Irula TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL Official Selection of the International Film Festivals of India, Kerala, and Chennai This is the story of a naive tribal girl who, facing an unwanted pregnancy, rises from the ashes to proclaim her most essential rights, those over her body and the decisions upon it. Set amid the Irula Tribal Community at Attappadi in Kerala, DHABARI QURUVI is noted as the first film to star an entirely tribal cast. The production included around sixty people, belonging to Irula, Muduka, Kurumba and Vaduka tribal communities. Dhabari Quruvi draws story inspiration from a folk myth that exists among the tribal communities at Attapadi. The title refers to a sparrow, whose father is unknown. Restoration Process About the Artist Priyanandanan is a National Award Winning Director from Kerala who has achieved great acclaim for his plays, feature films, and television projects. His directorial ventures in plays include Vaikom Muhammad Bashir's LOVE LETTER (Premalekhanam), Joy Mathew's SANKADAL, N Sasidharan's KITCHEN (Adukkala), and many more. These dramas, staged across India, received many accolades. Priyanandanan commenced his film career under famous directors KR Mohanan, PT Kunju Muhammed, and Manilal. He began by filming newsreels and documentary shorts, including FIGHT FOR MAN AND LAND & THE HISTORY OF STRIKES IN THRISSUR DISTRICT. He also directed several television films including four based on MT Vasudevan Nair's short stories. His first feature film, NEYTHUKARAN, examined the life of a weaver, who was an ardent supporter of E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the first ever Chief Minister of Kerala State. Veteran Actor Murali won the Indian National Award for 'Best Actor' for this film. His second movie, PULIJANMAM, received the National Award for 'Best Feature Film' in 2006. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Priyanandanan Writer: Priyanandanan Kuppuswami Maruthan Smitha Sylesh K. B. Hari Lijo Panadan Producer(s): Ajith Vinayaka Anila Sojan ('Aevas Visual Magic') Film Editor: Ekalavyan 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 scientist’s decades-long quest for a reversible male contraceptive sparks a modern revolution in this look at the future of reproductive equality. April 26, 2026 at 6:00:00 PM AFS Cinema Texas Premiere Give It A Shot India | Documentary 2026 | 93 mins | English, Hindi, Bengali Live Q&A with director-producer Vaishali Sinha TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL 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 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! This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

< Our Team Tripti Bhatnagar Advisors Co-Founder & Advisor Co-Founder of Indie Meme, Tripti believes in the persuasive power of cinema. She trusts that meaningful cinema has the potential to influence masses and facilitate change. Through her efforts Tripti aims to connect socially conscious cinema with a wider audience.

Bombay fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the Koli knowledge system of harvesting the sea following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods; Ganesh has instead embraced technology. April 21, 2024 at 12:45:00 PM AFS Cinema Virtual May 3 - May 5, 2024 Texas Premiere Against the Tide India | Documentary 2023 | 97 mins | Koli, Marathi, Hindi Recorded Q&A with Filmmaker Sarvnik Kaur TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL Sundance Film Festival 2023 World Cinema Documentary Competition Bombay fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the great Koli knowledge system—a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has strayed away from them, embracing technology. Against the Tide is a tale of deep friendship and rising resentment between the two men, as close as brothers, against the backdrop of an adoring sea, which is increasingly turning hostile because of climate change. Restoration Process About the Artist Sarvnik Kaur is a documentary filmmaker whose work takes a skeptical stance towards the ‘grand narratives’ of modernism and ‘Scientific Certainties’. Made of moments that hide anxiety and conflict just beneath the surface of the normal and the mundane, her films speak of the predicament of being human in our times. Her latest feature documentary ‘Against the Tide’ premiered at Sundance 2023 where she bagged the Special Jury Award for Verite Filmmaking. The film since then has received several awards including the Grand Jury at the Seattle International, the Best Documentary Award at IceDocs, the UN Perception Change Award at Visions-du-Reel, the Sustainability Award at Sydney International, The Warsaw Peace Award and also the Paznun City Freedom Award at Millenium Docs Against Gravity. Her first film ‘Soz - A Ballad of Maladies’ was awarded the President of India’s 64th National Award for best debut direction besides bagging the best film at IDSFFK 2017 and the Ram Bahadur Trophy for Best Film at the Film South Asia 2018. Her films have been part of several PHD thesis of film scholars at New York University, Harvard University, JawaharLal University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences etc. She is a HotDocs Accelerator Lab, Chicken & Eggs Eggcelerator lab and IDFA Academy fellow. Her films have been supported by Catapult Film Fund, Sundance Documentary Fund, San Francisco Film Fund, IDFA Bertha Fund etc. Made of moments that hide anxiety and conflict just beneath the surface of the normal and the mundane, her work speaks of the predicament of being human in our times. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Sarvnik Kaur Writer: Producer(s): Koval Bhatia Sarvnik Kaur Film Editor: Atanas Georgiev Blagoja Nedelkovski 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 man undergoes a mysterious transformation as a flowering plant begins to grow from his mouth, forcing him to confront his evolving relationship with his teenage daughter and the delicate balance between change and acceptance. Eventive Virtual May 2 - 4, 2025 North America Premiere Flowering Man India | Short 2023 | 24 mins | Hindi TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL "Paridrishya" International Festival of Short Films and Documentaries Karnataka Symbiosis Film Festival International Festival for Short Documentary & Fiction Films- Best Director Award in the Short Fiction category JIO MAMI year Round Programme, Goa In The Flowering Man, a middle-aged man experiences an inexplicable transformation when a delicate flowering plant begins to sprout from his mouth. As the phenomenon takes hold, he struggles to understand its significance while navigating his relationship with his teenage daughter. What begins as a surreal affliction soon becomes a profound metaphor for growth, acceptance, and the silent emotions that often go unspoken between loved ones. Through striking visuals and an evocative narrative, the film explores themes of metamorphosis, human connection, and the quiet resilience found in embracing change. Restoration Process About the Artist Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar is an Indian filmmaker known for his thought-provoking storytelling and unique cinematic vision. He studied Direction and Screenplay Writing at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), graduating in 2017. Dastidar's short film, The Flowering Man (2023), has garnered critical acclaim and was showcased at the 16th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK). The film explores the metamorphosis of a man who begins to grow a flowering plant from his mouth, symbolizing his transition and evolving relationship with his teenage daughter. In addition to The Flowering Man, Dastidar has directed other notable works, including Taap - About Mercury Rolling Down the Bodies (2020) and Whispers of the Henna Tree (2021). Dastidar's films often delve into themes of identity, transformation, and human relationships, reflecting his commitment to exploring complex narratives through cinema. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar Writer: Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar Producer(s): Film & Television Institute of India Film Editor: Arirtra Majumdar Featured Cast: Tanishka Meesala Rajeev Gaur Singh Maitreyaa Trilok Khairnar 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 United States Premiere Waterman India | Short 2023 | 24 mins | Marathi, Kannada TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL 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. Restoration Process About the Artist 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. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Vishwas K Writer: Vishwas K Producer(s): Film & Television Institute of India Film Editor: Gokul Gopinathan Featured Cast: Kartik Pujari Shwetha Rani H K Jahida M A Sanju Chavann Pruthviraj Lodga 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.

2022 Battisi (Dentures) Short Hindi mins 16 Virtual 2022 India Drama It is a special day for Ajju: he is celebrating his father's 90th birthday. However, the latter is suffering from dementia. He continually loses his bearings, and has problems recognising his own son. While his party is ongoing, the father embarks on a solitary quest to find his dentures, presumably lost somewhere in the hotel where the celebration is taking place. For him, the hotel is a strangely familiar non-place, completely void of memories, which he wanders through in a disconcerting hallucinatory quest for his missing prosthesis. Dentures is an unusual short film which enjoys gently confusing viewers and thwarting their expectations. Guided by the wanderings of a disoriented father, the film works a discontinuous and ingenious temporality that ends up in an explosive narrative chaos. Short Film Market Picks Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, 2023 Official Selection Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, 2023 Tickets 5/2/24, 11:00 PM Eventive Writer/Director Siddharth Potade & Nikhil Lama Siddharth Potade is a filmmaker from Ratlam, India, who loves telling stories in different ways. He originally studied mechanical engineering but later moved to Mumbai to work in the Hindi film industry. Since 2015, he's been gaining experience as an assistant and associate director in films and commercials. Siddharth Potade's debut short film, "Dentures," a collaborative effort with co-director Nikhil Lama, made a resounding impact with its world premiere in the International Medium Length & Short FilmCompetition Section at the prestigious Visions Du Réels film festival. Director: Siddharth Potade & Nikhil Lama Producer: Prabhav Sharma Writer: Siddharth Potade & Nikhil Lama Cast: SreeRam Dive, Satish Bhave, Dhananjay Kanade, Nirmal Kumar Devda, Kamal Chiplunkar, Mayuresh Bhave Editor: Parashar Naik Crew: Jigmet Wangchuk, Abhijit Chetia, Rahul Rabha, Arnav Moulik This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films

2022 The Leopard's Tribe Documentary English, Hindi, Marathi mins 40 In-Person 2022 India Documentary Mumbai authorities plan to axe thousands of trees to expand a mass transit system. Home to the 10,000-strong Warli tribe, a scuffle unfolds to protect the forest and the leopard the tribe worships. The Bhoir family finds they are at the forefront of a battle to save the green lungs of India’s financial capital, the last natural forest in a megapolis. In-Person Q+A with Director Miriam Chandy Menacherry Tickets 10/27/24, 3:00 PM AFS Cinema Director Miriam Chandy Menacherry Miriam Chandy Menacherry is a Keralite documentary filmmaker and producer based in Mumbai, India. She founded Filament Pictures in 2005, a production house that creates socially relevant feature-length documentaries. Director: Miriam Chandy Menacherry Producer: Writer: Cast: Editor: Crew: This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films

2021 Junko Short Nepali, English mins 15 Virtual 2021 Nepal Drama 'Best Cinematography' - Linz Int'l Short Film Festival Tickets 4/28/23, 12:00 PM Free with IMFF Badge Director Minsho Limbu Minsho Limbu is an Independent filmmaker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He holds graduation in screenplay writing and direction from Everest Film Academy. JUNKO is his directorial debut short film. It has been screened at film festivals including; Fribourg, Torino, POFF Shorts Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Washington DC Film Fest, Anchorage Int'l Film Festival, London Short Film Festival, Ajyal Film festival, Tel-Aviv Int'l Student Film Festival, VGIK Int'l Student Film Festival and Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival. It won best film, best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography Award at VGIK, Early Bird, Inter-University and Linz International Short Film Festival,2022; Director: Minsho Limbu Producer: Writer: Minsho Limbu Cast: Garima Singh, Sarita Giri Editor: Crew: This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films

Once upon a time in a village, an old lady steals the rooster and the sun never rises again... April 12, 2025 at 10:30:00 AM AFS Cinema Virtual May 2 - 4, 2025 Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know India | Short 2023 | 15 mins | Kannada TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL 1. First Prize - LA CINEF- the 77th Edition of Festival De Cannes, France 2. Best Film in Indian Category - 14th Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2024 3. Best First-Time Filmmaker Award - 4th Greece International Film Festival The sun never rises again after an elderly woman steals the village's rooster, which throws the community into disarray. To bring the rooster back, a prophecy is invoked, sending the old lady's family into exile. Restoration Process About the Artist Chidananda S Naik is alumni of FTII, where he graduated with Post Graduate Certificate in TV Direction. He won the Cinéfondation 1st Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for his film 'Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know...' which is his final project at FTII. He pursued his passion for filmmaking after studying medicine at Mysore Medical College. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Chidananda S Naik Writer: Chidananda S Naik Producer(s): Film & Television Institute Of India (FTII), Pune Film Editor: Manoj Gowda Featured Cast: Vishwas B S Jahangeer M S Vasudha Bharighat Anup Gowda Kushal B K Sanju Chavan 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.

Michael Okeke, a Nigerian living in New Delhi wants to get his MBA and settle in India. But his part-time job as a drug dealer will jeopardize his plans, not to mention the open racism he is facing. December 8, 2024 at 4:30:00 PM AFS Cinema Dilli Dark India | Narrative Feature 2023 | 101 mins | English, Hindi, Yoruba, Pidgin, Bengali, Gujarati In-Person Q&A with Director Dibakar Das Roy TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL Official Selection of the Mumbai Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights, and the New York African Film Festival Michael Okeke is one of the many Nigerians living in the city, part of a larger African diaspora which is often looked down upon by the locals.. Michael is studying for his MBA and dreams of joining the booming corporate sector in India, but is hopelessly stuck. He works as a small-time drug delivery guy to make ends meet. His search for gainful employment lands him in the fringes of society, where the only person who takes him in is a sketchy godwoman by the name of Maansi. While Maansi may not discriminate between black and white, she also seems to find no difference between right and wrong - a sentiment echoed in every aspect of the city's DNA. As Michael navigates this treacherous landscape, we are taken on a journey into Indian society’s tricky relationship with race, colour, and identity. Restoration Process About the Artist Dibakar Das Roy left a career in advertising in the USA to come back home to learn filmmaking on the job; writing, producing and directing under his banner www.braincell.in DILLI DARK is his first feature film. He spends his time between Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Dibakar Das Roy Writer: Producer(s): Film Editor: 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.

"Manthan" is a compelling film about an idealistic veterinarian who sparks a milk cooperative movement in a village, challenging deep-rooted caste hierarchies and exploitation, facing fierce resistance, false accusations, and political strife, but ultimately igniting change and hope for a better future. April 9, 2025 at 6:30:00 PM AFS Cinema Manthan (The Churning) India | Narrative Feature 1976 | 134 mins | Hindi Virtual Q&A with actor Naseeruddin Shah TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL Cannes Classics 2024 "Manthan”, a fictionalized version of the beginnings of the remarkable dairy cooperative movement that transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world’s largest milk producer inspired by Verghese Kurien, the Father of the White Revolution, is also India’s first crowdfunded film produced by 500,000 dairy farmers who contributed Rs. 2/- each towards the production of the film. Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Restoration Process 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. Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation About the Artist Shyam Benegal, a pioneer of Indian parallel cinema, is renowned for his socially conscious films tackling caste, gender, and socio-political issues. Born on December 14, 1934, he debuted with Ankur (1974), followed by acclaimed films like Nishant, Manthan, and Bhumika. Manthan was uniquely crowd-funded by 500,000 farmers, highlighting India's White Revolution. Benegal has collaborated with legendary actors like Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah and directed the iconic TV series Bharat Ek Khoj (1988). Honored with the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and multiple National Film Awards, his work continues to inspire and challenge societal norms. Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Shyam Benegal Writer: V. Kurien Shyam Benegal Vijay Tendulkar Producer(s): Shyam Benegal/Sahyadri Films for Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. Film Editor: Bhanudas Diwkar Featured Cast: Girish Karnad Smita Patil Naseeruddin Shah Anant Nag Amrish Puri Kulbushan Kharbanda Mohan Agashe Sadhu Meher Rajendra Jaspal Abha Dhulia Anjali Paigankar and the people of Sanganva 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! This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.