Location
The Second Toronto Nepali Film Festival (TNFF) will be held on Saturday March 12, 2011 in Toronto at Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto, 2 Sussex Ave (at St. George Street). The one-day festival will showcase nine extraordinary Nepali films from Canada, Nepal, UK and the US.
The program will start at 11:30 am and end at 10:15 pm. The festival is organized with the goal of promoting Nepal's rapidly emerging and vibrant independent filmmaking sector and adding a distinctive voice to Toronto's arts and cultural landscape.
The festival programme includes fiction, documentary, experimental and shorts. Forgive! Forget Not! is an experimental film narrated by Nepali journalist Bhaikaji Ghimire, who was illegally detained in blindfold inside Kathmandu's infamous Bhairavnath barracks for 15 months during the Maoist insurgency. In Search of the Riyal is the first film of Tibet-born Nepali filmmaker Kesang Tseten's trilogy on Nepali migrants in the Arabian Gulf. Nepal has become a pipeline of cheap labour for the Gulf, emptying villages of its young men, who set out to escape their family woes and poverty for wages of US $7 a day in the alien and stultifying conditions of the Qatari desert. In Three Years is an innovative documentary film based on video correspondence between fourteen-year old Bikash and his father, who immigrated to the US seven years ago. Pooja is a beautifully shot fiction film that revolves around two teenagers in love amidst traditional societal and family values. The Last Race is set in the picturesque valley of Manang bordering Tibet, and explores the friendship between two boys, Karma and Lakpa. The Rat Hunters is a documentary that deals with the shameful tradition of bonded labour in the southern plains of Nepal. Sherpas: The True Heroes of Mount Everest focuses on the Sherpas of a Swiss Everest Expedition team, and it unveils the heroic role of Sherpas who make it possible for the big-pocketed Western climbers to reach the Everest summit. The Struggle Within is a documentary film that focuses on gay, lesbian, bi and transgender youths in Kathmandu as they prepare for Mr. Pink, an upcoming pageant. Vhando is a psychological representation of poor Bhime, who in the course of his unappreciated work feels his identity is nothing more than a cooking pot. Together, the films provide an insightful glimpse into Nepal's cultural and political landscapes in transition.
The films will be screened in two sessions. Session A begins at 11:30 am and will feature The Last Race, In Three Years, Vhando, The Rat Hunters and In Search of the Riyal. Session B begins at 4:45 pm and will screen Pooja, The Struggle Within, Forgive! Forget Not!, Sherpas: The True Heroes of Mount Everest and a dance performance by Deepali Lindblom and Swechchha Pokharel. Filmmakers will be present for Q&A and for interaction. Ticket price for session A is $10, Session B is $20, Full Day Pass is $25 and the TNFF Gold Pass is $50. Delicious Nepali cuisine will be available during the festival. Two Audience Choice Awards and one Jury Choice Award will be
announced at end of the festival.
Please visit www.tnff.ca for further details.
