Backgrounder
August 2005

The Filmi Entertainment Movement - A Festival First in North America

The creation of the Filmi South Asian Festival is further proof that all great things are born from a dream. In 1999, Mohit Rajhans and Dinesh Sachdev founded Filmi and together, they have grown this festival to be the largest of its kind in North America.

The word 'Filmi' is Hindi slang, referring to anything associated with the Indian motion picture industry. The festival was created to promote South Asian independant films from around the world, and to provide a forum for South Asian artists to showcase their cinematic endeavors to a culturally diverse audience.

The first South Asian Film Festival debute on September 30, 2000, at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Ontario. The Filmi launch showcase featured Bugaboo, a Silicon Valley film by Sujit Saraf, a documentary by Tony Sehgal entitled No Laughing Matter, and East is East, by Damian O'Donnell.

By 2001, Filmi had grown exponentially - both programming, and in its number of supporters. The second annual festival was a two-day free event, showcasing six features and eight short films and attracting over 2,500 theatregoers. Once again, the Harbourfront Centre hosted the event, generating interest among local and international media and drawing several over-capacity crowds. Among the feature presentations were Just a Little Red Dot, directed by Mitra Sen, Hyderabad Blues by Nagesh Kukunoor, and the shocking true story Bawandar (Sandstorm), directed by Jagmohan Mundrah.

In five years, audiences have grown to over 5,000 people. Filmi, with the support of many of its generous sponsors, continues to have the opportunity to showcase and premiere many Canadian films by South Asian filmmakers as well as South Asian film from around the world. Over the years, festival supporters have included Tonya Lee Williams, founder of the Reel World Film Festival, Alliance Atlantis, Where Magazine, India Journal, Weekly Voice and South Asian Newsweek.

Now in its sixth year, the festival has expanded to a 9-day event (August 5-14th) at three venues across Toronto, including the Harbourfront Centre, the Royal Ontario Museum and the National Film Board. Its opening weekend will be held in conjunction with Masala! Mehndi! Masti!, an annual festival that celebrates South Asian arts and culture. Programming this year will consist of 10 feature films, 10 documentaries, and 15 shorts from across North America and around the world. For 2005, our festival sponsors include Heritage Canada, Saatya Arts, Omni TV, North American Media and the National Film Board of Canada.

Please visit www.filmi.org for more information on festival programming and events.

Contact Information:
Dishesh Sachdev - Managing Director, Filmi South Asian Film Festival
dinesh@filmi.org