Austin-based non-profit Indie Meme presents the official lineup for their 9th annual Indie Meme Film Festival (IMFF), taking place April 17 - 21 at the Austin Film Society Cinema (located at 6259 Middle Fiskville Rd, Austin, TX-78752).
This year’s festival will explore themes like women's rights, immigration, and human interests stories centered around child psychology, family, sexuality, societal pressures, religion and more. The festival includes parties, mixers, QAs & audience conversations with the Directors and Actors both in attendance and virtually.
Kicking off the festival on Wednesday, April 17th is “Sultana’s Dream”, a surreal, animated feature about a women’s search of “Ladyland”, the Utopian land of women. Thursday’s spotlight shines on the Kannada feature “Mithya”, a sincere tale focused on a young boy’s grief after losing both of his parents.
Friday’s opening night film entitled “Footprints on Water” is a dramatic thriller set in the UK that delves into immigration and family narratives. It will include a Q&A after the screening with director Nathalia Syam and lead actor, Adil Hussain. Hussain has appeared in over 80 films, and is best known for his work in Ang Lee's Oscar winning “Life of Pi”.
The weekend fare includes Marathi feature, “Sthal”(A Match) directed by Jayant Digambar Somalkar, which examines the practice of arranged marriage in rural India, and “Against the Tide”, a documentary on two indigenous fishermen striving against a cruel sea and climate change. A not-to-be-missed poignant film & live filmmaker Q&A, at the festival is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The World Is Family). It is veteran documentarian Anand Patwardhan’s rare personal story created from home videos and archival footage.
The final closing night film of this year’s incredible lineup is “Girls will be Girls,” centered around a young woman’s experience through a coming-of-age story shared with her mother. There will be a Q&A with director and writer Shuchi Talati following the screening.
“Indie Meme is a labor of love for everyone involved! I am truly proud of how the festival has maintained a soul and grown into a 5 day celebration of art & culture through film. Our programming is bold, pushing boundaries and showcasing some of the most amazing films and filmmakers from South Asia” - Alka Bhanot,
Festival Director and Co-founder.
You can attend the festival by purchasing a Regular Badge for all films, A Platinum Badge for all films & Parties or Individual Tickets for each screening.
The virtual edition is May 3-5 on demand, and a virtual badge or individual tickets are available for that too. All info is on the Indie Meme website.
Indie Meme is funded in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin, Economic Development Department, Texas Commission on the Arts, and Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information about Indie Meme and their mission to share the best of South Asian Film with the United States, see their website, indiememe.org