May 5 –19, 2007
8 p.m.
Rich Auditorium
1280 Peachtree St., NE
Atlanta, GA 30309

Sponsored by:
Indo American Film Society
Georgia Indo-American
Chamber of Commerce

ATLANTA, April 2, 2007 – The High Museum of Art presents the sixth annual Film Festival of India May 5 through 19. This five-film series is co-sponsored by the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and the Indo-American Film Society.

“This year’s festival reveals India’s many faces through the lens of both Bollywood and independent filmmaking,” said Linda Dubler, Curator of Media Arts. “The films explore the cultures of both northern and southern India, as well as the experiences of communities in exile and the immigrant experience.”

Vanajaopens the festival on Saturday, May 5. The first feature from director Rajnesh Domalpalli, this film focuses on southern India’s dance traditions and tells the story of Vanaja, a young woman coming of age and confronting the barriers of caste and class.

Nina’s Heavenly Delights on Friday, May 11, is director Pratibha Parmar’s surprising love story where Scottish humor meets Bollywood spectacle. Returning home to attend her father’s funeral, Nina meets Lisa, the new half-owner of her family’s restaurant. With Lisa’s help, Nina honors her father by competing in the Best of the West Curry Competition and finds herself falling in love.

Winner of the National Critics’ Award at the 2006 Mumbai International Film Festival, Riding Solo to the Top of the World, on Saturday, May 12, is a documentary by Gaurav Jani, who will be present to introduce his film. The film records his one-man motorcycle journey from Mumbai to the remote Chang Thang Plateau, home to the nomadic Chang pa people, who are as much a revelation as the savage beauty of the landscape.

On Friday, May 18, Dreaming Lhasa, explores Dharamsala in northern India, second home to a community of Tibetans in exile. Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s moving fiction debut looks at universal themes of identity, love and exile.

The festival concludes on Saturday, May 19, with Omkara, a riveting contemporary interpretation of Shakespeare’s Othello. In Variety, Derek Elley praised the film as “smartly cast and superbly realized … director Vishal Bhardwaj’s transposition of Shakespeare’s schemers from Venice to an Indian gangster milieu works seamlessly.”

Film Series Schedule

All films are screened at 8 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) in the Richard H. Rich Theatre, located in the Memorial Arts Building, adjacent to the High at Peachtree and 15th Streets in Midtown Atlanta. Vanaja is in Telugu with subtitles. Dreaming Lhasa is in English and Tibetan with subtitles. “Omkara” is in Hindi with English subtitles.

The sixth annual Film Festival of India is organized by Linda Dubler, Curator of Media Arts at the High Museum of Art, and is co-sponsored by the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and the Indo-American Film Society. 35mm projection facilities in the Rich Auditorium were provided by a gift from George Lefont.

For more information, see www.High.org.