Birdsong explores the dying whistling traditions of the Hmong people of northern Laos, whose sonic exchanges straddle the boundary between music and speech. The film follows the personal stories of three individuals from Long Lan village, as they reflect on their experience as practitioners of a vanishing musical language. Filmocracy Virtual April 28 - May 1, 2023 Birdsong Laos | Documentary 2022 | 18 mins | Hmong, English TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL Restoration Process About the Artist Omi Gupta and Sparsh Ahuja are filmmakers based between London, Melbourne and New Delhi. Their first collaboration, 'Child of Empire', a VR experience of the 1947 Partition of British India, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The film opened to glowing reviews in The Economist, and was also the front page article of The Hindu weekend following Sundance. Sparsh is lead producer on 'Lost Migrations', a series of three animated shorts on postcolonial South Asia. Omi has written one episode in this series, called ‘Seabirds’, which follows the story of the Tamil exodus from Burma following the Japanese occupation in the Second World War. Their work has exhibited at the BFI and V&A, London. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Sparsh Ahuja & Omi Gupta Writer: Sparsh Ahuja & Omi Gupta Producer(s): Film Editor: Featured Cast: Neng Chue Vang Neng Chi Lee Chia Por Lee 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 Ramdas Menon Festival Team Festival Programming A long-time resident of Austin, Ramdas got hooked onto films at a very young age, for reasons that he has only shared with his therapist. He joined Indie Meme (IM) in 2015 as a volunteer, and has been associated with all the IM film festivals. As an IM volunteer, he has performed several duties: chauffeur, delivery guy, ticket collector/clicker, vote counter, theater manager and also served on the 2018 programming team. In 2019, he served as the interim Chief Executive Officer at IM.

The Threshold details one day in the life of a couple who have been married over two decades. Eventive Virtual May 2 - 4, 2025 The Threshold India | Narrative Feature 2015 | 87 mins | Hindi, English TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL The Threshold details one day in the life of a couple who have been married over two decades. On this day, the day after their newly married son, and the guests from his wedding party, have left, the wife informs her husband that she is leaving him. For good. Presented with this fait accompli, two people on the verge of an idyllic retirement are forced to confront the truth of their marriage, without the masks. Even as the couple tries to get to the heart of the matter, they find the big questions of their lives beyond their grasp. They are two people, isolated in a house in the hills, preparing for the harsh Himalayan winter, trying to find themselves one last time. This film was an opportunity to explore a corner of our world that never makes it onto screen. The people we don’t normally notice. The people who are always at the edges of the family photograph. Except we know these people. They are our aunts and uncles. They are our parents. They are our grandparents. We will become them. It was an opportunity to examine an existential crisis: The unraveling of the idea of the ideal Indian marriage all of us are familiar with. Restoration Process About the Artist Pushan Kriplani is a cinematographer and a theater director. He graduated with a degree in English literature and earned his Master’s in Film and TV production from the University of Bristol, with a sprecialization in Cinematography. He has worked on over thirty productions for the stage and for the radio, in capacities ranging from director to actor to designer, musician and producer. He is a founder member of the industrial theater co. As a cinematograpger, he has filmed several features, as well as commercials, documentaries and shorts, working with Shyam Benegal, Ram Madhvani and Zafar Hai, amongst others, as well as for National Geographic, Discovery and the BBC. He has also directed six documentary shorts. He lives and works in Mumbai, India. This is his first feature film as director. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Pushan Kriplani Writer: Nihaarika Negi with Neena Gupta Rajit Kapur Pushan Kriplani Producer(s): Vishal Dhandhia Akshat Shah Film Editor: Pradip Patil Featured Cast: Neena Gupta Rajit Kapur Dhanendra Kawade 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.

Kacchey Limbu is a heartwarming coming-of-age story that follows a pair of siblings as they struggle to balance their families’ expectations, while pursuing their individual passions. December 2, 2023 at 6:00:00 PM AFS Cinema Kacchey Limbu India | Narrative Feature 2022 | 109 mins | Hindi TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL "Will keep you entertained throughout" - Archika Khurana (Times of India) Restoration Process About the Artist Shubham Yogi was a lawyer before he became a director in the film industry. The switch between these two is a leap only a few can dare to take. But Yogi took it, from a well-paying job that promised comfort and convenience to the world of cinema where success never comes easy. The risks paid off, and today Shubham has many films on his resume, from short films like Uninvited, and Glitch to blockbusters such as Barfi and Jagga Jasoos. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Shubham Yogi Writer: Neeraj Pandey Producer(s): Film Editor: Featured Cast: Sukhita Aiyar, Rajat Barmecha, Samuel Charle 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.

2023 Sthal (A Match) Narrative Feature Marathi mins 104 Texas Premiere In-Person 2023 India Drama Sthal explores the tradition of arranged marriage in rural India, where a girl's marriage overshadows the very sustenance of life. Narrated from the perspective of a young girl, Savita, it highlights the patriarchy rooted in society. Toronto International Film Festival 2023 (NETPAC Award) 22nd Pune International Film Festival 2024 (Best Marathi Film, Best Screenplay) In-Person Q&A with Filmmaker Jayant Somalkar and Producer Shefali Bhushan Screens with Next, Please Tickets 4/20/24, 6:15 PM All Badges, Individual Tickets AFS Cinema Director Jayant Somalkar Born in a village in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Jayant Digambar Somalkar is an engineering graduate, but his creative bent of mind made him veer towards filmmaking. His debut short film, ‘Iyatta - Class,' showed at many film festivals and won many awards. He has co- written and co-directed the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime Video Original Series 'Guilty Minds’. ‘Sthal - A Match’ marks the director's debut feature, showcasing his talent for storytelling and commitment to presenting social issues in an authentic and compassionate manner. Director: Jayant Digambar Somalkar Producer: Shefali Bhushan, Karan Grover, Riga Malhotra, Jayant Somalkar Writer: Jayant Digambar Somalkar Cast: Nandini Chikte, Taranath Khiratakar, Sangita Sonekar, Suyog Dhawas, Sandip Somalkar, Sandip Parkhi, Swati Ulmale, Gauri Badki, Mansi Pawar Editor: Abhijit Deshpande Crew: Manoj Karmakar, Vikram Singh, Madhav Agarwal, Sanjay Chaturvedi, Mayank Asthana, Anuttama Nayakavdi, Bharti Shinde, Ashish Narkhedkar, Chandanshesh Waghmare, Dhanaraj Chandrakant, Vikrant Shinde This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films

2023 Faces Short English mins 11 Virtual 2023 USA Drama In-Person Q&A with Texas director Kumar Mayank Tickets 4/28/23, 12:00 PM Free with IMFF Badge Director Kumar Mayank Kumar Mayank completed his engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi and worked a few corporate jobs before getting into filmmaking. Since then he has assisted on and off in TV commercials and feature length films in Mumbai and has worked as a freelancer. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in filmmaking from UT Austin. His short films have screened internationally at Split Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, Carmarthen Bay Film festival, Filipino Arts and Cinema International, Trenton Film Festival and IntimaLente Ethnographic Film Festival among others and have been awarded at Festival International Signes De Nuit, Bare Bones International Film Festival etc. He is interested in exploring new ways of filmic storytelling to bring to screen the tragedy, comedy and the not-so-extreme of the human condition. Director: Kumar Mayank Producer: Writer: Kumar Mayank Cast: Olivia Tovar, Jasper Jones Editor: Crew: This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films

Sheila and Imran haven’t seen each other since college, but when Imran moves back to Austin, an opportunity arises for the pair to get acquainted once more. AFS Cinema Virtual May 3 - May 5, 2024 So, That Happened USA | Short 2024 | 9 mins | English, Urdu In-Person Q&A with Filmmaker Neha Aziz TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL Sheila gets a phone call from her mom letting her know that a family friend, Imran, is moving back to town. Her mom is adamant that Sheila should do her duty as a good daughter to extend a hand and makes sure he feels welcome. Eventually, Shelia relents to her mom’s request. When she hangs up the phone, she goes to Imran’s Facebook page and reminisces about her college days. The pair meet at a wine bar in the early evening, and their hangout lasts for several hours. They talk about how the city has changed, what they are both up to, their dating lives, and finally their one night stand in college. Imran said that Sheila ghosted him, and Sheila insists they just fell into different social circles. After this discussion, Imran asks, “and now?” They have a very affectionate and passionate moment, but Sheila abruptly pulls away. Imran asks if he did anything wrong, and Sheila tells him a secret. The film ends on an ambiguous note. Restoration Process About the Artist Neha Aziz is a Pakistani-born writer, filmmaker, festival programmer, and podcaster living in Austin, TX. From 2017 - 2020, Neha worked at SXSW as a member of the Communications team. She currently works as the Artistic Director for Austin Asian American Film Festival, Film Programmer for rePRO and the Cleveland International Film Festival, in addition to being the Communications Manager for the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc).In 2021, she was named an iHeartRadio NextUP fellow for their inaugural podcast program; her show, PARTITION (limited series) debuted in August 2022 and has been featured on Apple Podcasts, Forbes, NPR, The Austin Chronicle, The 19th News, The Austin American - Statesman, The RepresentASIAN Project, Asian Founded, and more. In 2023, Neha was one of five recipients of the WAVE Grant from Wavelength Productions, a grant and one year mentorship given to first time female/non-binary directors of color. Her short, SO, THAT HAPPENED marked her directorial debut and will premiere in the Spring of 2024. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Neha Aziz Writer: Neha Aziz Producer(s): Mase Kerwick, Alifya Ali Film Editor: Anna Romano Featured Cast: Anu Mysore, Harsh Milan 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.

2023 Sultana's Dream Narrative Feature Basque, Spanish, English, Italian, Hindi, Bengali mins 83 US Premiere In-Person, Virtual 2023 Spain, Germany, India Fantasy, Animation, Drama Inés, a Spanish artist, lives in India and stumbles upon Sultana's Dream a science fiction story written by Rokeya Hossain in 1905. It describes Ladyland, a utopia in which women rule the country while men live in seclusion and are responsible for household chores. Fascinated by the story Inés embarks on a journey across the country to search for the one place where women can live in peace. World Premiere - San Sebastián International Film Festival, Spain Screens with So, That Happened & A Road Not Taken Tickets 4/17/24, 6:15 PM All Badges, Individual Tickets AFS Cinema Director, Producer Isabel Herguera Isabel Herguera is a Spanish animation film director with an international background. She studied fine arts at the Universidad del País Vasco and continued her studies at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf. She later earned a master's degree from Calarts in Los Angeles, where she directed Los Muertitos (1993), an animated short about the wall separating Mexico and the United States. In 1997 she founded her own studio Loko Pictures (1996-2004), with which she produced numerous commercials and her animated short The Balloon (2003). In 2003, Isabel returned to Europe, where she became director of Animac, the Catalonia International Animated Film Festival (2003-12) and coordinator of the Laboratorio de imágen en movimiento at Arteleku in San Sebastian (2003-14). She directed various animated short films that won awards and were nominated for the Goya Prize. Isabel has been a professor at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, since 2005, at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing since 2012 and has been a professor in the animation department at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne since 2017. She has held workshops on animation in many places around the world such as Ethiopia, China, Cuba, Australia, Korea, Colombia, Mexico and Italy, although this is the place where she has most recently developed her work, in India, which gave rise to the Sultana's Dream project, is her first feature film. Director: Isabel Herguera Producer: Isabel Herguera, Chelo Loureiro, Mariano Baratech, Fabian Driehorst, Iván Miñambres Writer: Isabel Herguera, Gianmarco Serra Cast: Miren Arrieta, Dedjani Mukherjee, Miren Gabilondo, Nausheen Javeed, Ranjitha Rajeevan, Mary Beard, Paul Preciado, Roberto Bessi, Manu Khurana Editor: Gianmacro Serra Crew: Eduardo Elosegi, Gianmacro Serra, Simon Bastian This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films

2023 Sona Short Farsi, English mins 15 Virtual 2023 Iran Drama Tickets 4/28/23, 12:00 PM Free with IMFF Badge Director Zahra Torkamanlou Zahra Torkamanlou is a filmmaker from Iran whose work has screened at numerous international film festivals. Director: Zahra Torkamanlou Producer: Writer: Zahra Torkamanlou Cast: Zahra Torkamanlou Editor: Crew: This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films

A raw look at the hidden world of 'Harm OCD,' following two individuals as they fight to break the silence and shame surrounding their most intrusive thoughts. April 23, 2026 at 6:00:00 PM AFS Cinema Texas Premiere An Unquiet Mind USA | Documentary 2025 | 76 mins | English Live Q&A with producer Kovid Gupta and distribution producer Sarah Kuck Shown as part of the Texas showcase TICKETS DONATE TO NEPAL New York Women in Film and Television and ReelAbilities Film Festival: Excellence in Directing Award 2025 DC South Asian Film Festival: Best Documentary 2025 Tasveer Film Festival 2025 Beyond the common myths of light-switch flipping and hand-washing lies the hidden, harrowing reality of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. In this raw and deeply intimate documentary, director Rachel Immaraj pulls back the curtain on "Harm OCD"—a stigmatized form of the condition where sufferers are haunted by intrusive, unwanted thoughts of causing harm to those they love most. The film follows Natasha and Vinay as they navigate the invisible internal battles of Post-Partum and "Taboo" OCD, fighting a culture of shame that often leads to extreme isolation. By interweaving their personal journeys with expert insights, An Unquiet Mind reframes OCD not as a quirky personality trait, but as a complex neuropsychiatric battle. It is a powerful, essential film that seeks to replace silence with a movement of radical understanding and support. Restoration Process About the Artist RACHEL IMMARAJ is a filmmaker from Austin, Texas who works in set decoration for film, television, and commercials. Her recent work includes shows such as A24’s Mo on Netflix and 1923 on Paramount +. Movies she collaborated on have premiered at Sundance and SXSW, and commercial clients she designed for include Hugo Boss, ESPN, Shiner, & Instagram. Rachel’s interest in documentaries began when she was in high school during her family’s summer visits to India. She began documenting stories first through 35mm street photography, and then moved on to creating short documentaries for various organizations. AN UNQUIET MIND is Rachel’s directorial debut. Trailer For English subtitles, make sure to turn on the YouTube closed captions. Credits Crew: Director: Rachel Immaraj Writer: Producer(s): Kovid Gupta Natasha Paradeshi Film Editor: Travis Lee Ratcliff Lee Rothenflue Featured Cast: Vinay Krishnan Natasha Peters 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.

2023 Bandar Short Hindi, English mins 15 Virtual 2023 India Romance, Drama Neil eagerly anticipates his reunion with his girlfriend, Hiya, after a year spent long distance. However, when he picks her up at the airport he’s taken aback to find a workaholic version of his once carefree partner. 

As he spirals down memory lane, Hiya accidentally ruins a surprise he’d had planned for them. This comical mishap brings back the Hiya he once knew and reignites the spark they once had. Tickets 5/3/24, 11:00 AM Eventive Writer/Director Geet Gangwani A copywriter turned filmmaker, Geet is driven to human stories and waves ideas out of the fabric of his surroundings and beyond. 

In 2021, he created PNG Films, a media house dedicated to storytelling through a variety of formats through which he directed, produced, and wrote his debut film, PAV BHAJI, which was very well received at the film festival circuit and has garnered more than 10 awards and been an official selection of 14+ festivals, including CSAFF, MUMBAI INDE FF, & VISAFF. 

After receiving a scholarship to study at NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY, Get has been working in NYC and expanding PNG films. PNG Films is now a close-knit team of dedicated collaborators, united by a love of cinema and advertising. Director: Producer: Ghalib Datta Writer: Geet Gangwani Cast: Ria Nalavade, Jai Khadilkar Editor: Ranjabati Sarkar Crew: Leslie D'Souza, Kartikeye Ojha, Yash Soni, Yash Shinde This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films

2022 Desi Standard Time Travel Short English mins 20 Virtual 2022 Canada Drama, Family, Comedy Tickets 4/28/23, 12:00 PM Free with IMFF Badge Director Kashif Pasta Kashif Pasta is an award-winning director, writer, and producer using film and storytelling to tell character-driven stories centered on South Asian and Muslims with a sense of joy and wonder. He is the co-founder of Dunya Media, a production company that empowers filmmakers of color to tell stories with purpose, where he recently won the 2022 SXSW Grand Jury Prize and Audience Awards- Music Video as a producer. Director: Kashif Pasta Producer: Writer: Kashif Pasta Cast: Adolyn H. Dar, Ali Kazmi, Anika Zulfikar Editor: Crew: This Event is supported in part by a Mini Grant from Humanities Texas. Community Partners for the Film More Films