NY Arab & South Asian Film Festival 2008 March 5, 2008

2008 NEW YORK ARAB & SOUTH ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
MARCH 5 - 16
http://www.nyasaff.org

Venues: Tribeca Cinemas, Columbia University, Art in General, Cantor Film Center at NYU, and Two Boots Pioneer Theatre

Adults: $12; Seniors/Students: $8, Fest Pass $60
Alwan for the Arts, with partners 3rd i NY and the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, have partnered to include over 60 feature premieres, documentaries and short films from 25 countries in North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and their diasporas. See www.nyasaff.org for complete listings & to buy tix or festival passes.

THEMATIC HIGHLIGHTS

*Belly Dancing In Egyptian Cinema, curated by Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad.

*A Mid-Career Retrospective & Free Master-class with Indian Director Murali Nair

* FREE Art Video Programs on TUE 3/11 by curators, Özkan Canguven and Swati Khurana and an Experimental Video Program curated by Tala Hadid on WED 3/12 at the Pioneer

SPECIAL EVENTS

*Two Work in Progress screenings & discussions on WED 3/5 of Jawad Metni's Lebanon Cluster Bomb and Ayreen Anastas' and Rene Gabri's What Everybody Knows on THU 3/6.

*FRI 3/7 OPENING NIGHT screening at Tribeca Cinemas of the documentary I Love Hip Hop In Morocco. Director in attendance and free afterparty at Art in General. Open Bar & *dj take 5*

* Book reception with Prof. Hamid Dabashi for Makhmalbaf at Large: The Making of a Rebel Filmmaker following the SUN 3/9 screening of Hana Makhmalbaf's Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame

*Hesham Issawi will present AmericanEast, his edgy comedy about Arab American experience, making its NYC premiere at the festival on March 15.

*Festival GALA on March 14, and Closing weekend screenings, with many international guests including: Tunisian film star, Anissa Daoud, Egyptian Filmmaker, Hala Khalil, Syrian Filmmaker Abdellatif Abdulhamid, Tunisian Writer/Director, Jilani Saadi, and Moroccan director Daoud Aoulad-Syad, and Syrian-American Producer Malek Akkad, among many other celebrities and filmmakers.
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The 2008 New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival is made possible in part by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with the generous support of The September 11th Fund,as well as Columbia University Department of Middle East, Asian Languages & Cultures,The School of the Arts Film Division, and Department of Anthropology, The Arab Film Festival Rotterdam, The Tunisian Cultural & Information Center, Egypt Air, and the Arab American Family Support Center.

Additional Support from Sankalpa Media, Design Evolution, Deep Dish TV, Earseph Enterprises, Rush Graphics, NYU A/P/A Studies & Institute, Le Souk Restaurant, Damascus Bakery, Sangam Entertainment, RunRon Entertainment Inc., Thatch Caye Resort, El Massaya & Co. and Candela, Candela Restaurant.

Media Sponsors: Village Voice, indieWIRE, Rotana TV, Dandana TV, Egyptian National Film Center, Syrian Cinema Foundation, and Arab Radio and Television (ART), Egypt.

Official Website: http://www.nyasaff.org