Schedule of Events:

Wednesday April 17, 2024

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Member Mixer + Badge Pickup

Vivo-Tex Mex is next to AFS Cinema, just inside The Linc.

?Join us at Vivo Tex-Mex, just across from the AFS Cinema, to kick off IMFF 2024!

2024 members and badge holders only.

6:15 PM - 9:00 PM: Sultana's Dream

Inés, a Spanish artist, lives in India and stumbles upon Sultana's Dream a science fiction story written by Rokeya Hossain in 1905. It describes Ladyland, a utopia in which women rule the country while men live in seclusion and are responsible for household chores. Fascinated by the story Inés embarks on a journey across the country to search for the one place where women can live in peace.

Director: Isabel Herguera

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Thursday April 18, 2024

11:30 AM - 1:45 PM: Shivamma

Shivamma (46), a mother of two and the wife of an ailing bedridden husband, works as a government school mid-day meal cook in a small village. She is the only active working member of her family. Her entire family is in the process of finding a suitable groom for her daughter, though she has her own affair running alongside. Shivamma is introduced to a nutritional product and, looking at it miraculously bettering her husband condition, she tries to explore it further and learns about its network marketing scheme and its financial benefits. Getting highly inspired at a motivational event, she decides to take the risk of setting up her own nutritional club, putting everything at stake. But one unfortunate event derails all her attempts and also threatens her daughter’s wedding. Despite all the opposition and the blame from her own family, Shivamma’s determination stays unaltered.

Director: Jaishankar Aryar

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2:00 PM - 3:30 PM: Amar Colony

Amar Colony is a desperate tour of the human condition in reality and fantasy. The film is set in a small hill town in the lower Himalayas in India. Meera (20), a lonely pregnant woman is caught in a maze of desires and disappointments. Devki (45), a widow confined to a wheelchair, demands respect for her pigeon. Durga (60), a religious fanatic begins to experience delusions. When mundane lives of these three women intertwine in a lonely chawl in India, we encounter an existential underworld of raw impulses, desires and fears in this human wilderness with no respite and no resolution.

Director: Siddharth Chauhan

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3:45 PM - 5:45 PM: In Flames

Mariam lives with her younger brother and their mother, Fariha, in a tiny apartment in Karachi. When Mariam’s maternal grandfather passes, his brother tries to manipulate them into signing over their apartment to him, a common occurrence in Pakistan, where women’s property rights are fragile. Mariam’s mother, grieving and isolated, is easy to influence. Mariam, distraught by her mother’s foolishness, finds solace in a secret romance with a fellow student, Asad. When their relationship takes an unexpected turn, Mariam becomes consumed by nightmares. Meanwhile, her mother, caught between her coercive Uncle and a murky legal system, is oblivious to her daughter’s deteriorating mental state. Mariam’s nightmares begin to bleed into reality. Mother and daughter must come together if they hope to overcome the real and phantasmal forces that threaten to engulf them.

Director: Zarrar Kahn

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6:15 PM - 8:45 PM: Mithya

Mithya is a journey along- side Mithun, a 11 year old, who is coming to terms with the loss of his parents. We walk in step with his tottering feet, as they search for solid ground. Can a new house be home, can friendships be forged again or is it all just a search for something long gone!

Director: Sumanth Bhat

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Friday April 19, 2024

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Opening Night Red Carpet

Attend our opening night red carpet with filmmakers, cast, and fellow members!
Badge and ticket holders only!

6:15 PM - 8:45 PM: Footprints on Water

Raghu, an illegal immigrant in Birmingham - UK, believes that he has finally struck gold as his daughter, Meera, is all set to marry a wealthy groom, a legal resident in the UK. Raghu was a small-scale business owner in India who fled to the UK with his wife and daughter after being mired in a financial scam. The life that awaited them in the UK was far from perfect – they were dumped into shared accommodation, they did not have legit visas, and they were all expected to work for a meagre wage. Raghu regrets this move, but he is left with no choice but to stay on in the UK, make enough money to pay off his debts, and return home with dignity. Six years on, Raghu now works for a fraudulent solicitor who mints money making fake passports and visa appeals. Raghu is his trusted employee, and his boss has paid back his loyalty by finding the perfect groom for Meera. Following a heated argument with Raghu, Meera storms out of the home and never returns. Raghu sets on a mission to find her all by himself without coming under the police radar. Raghu's search for Meera unveils a different side of her life that he never knew existed.

Director: Nathalia Syam

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9:00 PM - 11:00 PM: Opening Night Celebration

Celebrate the ninth year of Austin's premier South Asian film festival with us!
Platinum Badge holders only!

Saturday April 20, 2024

10:30 AM - 12:45 PM: Shorts Showcase

Five independent short films: Ullarivu, Phar Yar Sin, Vakuppu, Kamathipura, and Places I've Called My Own.

Live Q+A with filmmaker Sushma Khadepaun.

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1:00 PM - 3:15 PM: Something Like An Autobiography

Farhan and Titi are a director-actor couple living in Dhaka. In a conservative and patriarchal Muslim society, they are criticized for not having children even after 10 years of marriage.

Director: Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

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3:30 PM - 6:00 PM: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The World is Family)

‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, an ancient Sanskrit phrase meaning "the world is family" is a universalist idea that competes with dominant, exclusivist Hindu notions of caste. Anand grew up in a milieu that questioned the latter. The family's elders had fought for India's Independence but rarely spoke about it. 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity', words enshrined in India's Constitution, became subconsciously internalized. As his parents aged, Anand began to film with whatever equipment was at hand. Soon birthdays and family gatherings gave way to oral history. Revisiting home movie footage a decade after his parents had passed was a revelation. Today as self-confessed Hindu supremacists whose ideology once inspired the murder of Mahatma Gandhi rewrite India's history, memories of the past have become more precious than mere personal nostalgia.

Director: Anand Patwardhan

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6:15 PM - 8:45 PM: Sthal (A Match)

Sthal explores the tradition of arranged marriage in rural India, where a girl's marriage overshadows the very sustenance of life. Narrated from the perspective of a young girl, Savita, it highlights the patriarchy rooted in society.

Director: Jayant Digambar Somalkar

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Sunday April 21, 2024

10:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Bahadur: The Brave

A nationwide lock-down is imposed in India during the coronavirus pandemic. While all Nepalese migrant labourers are boarding the vans to leave for Nepal, Hansi sees this as an opportunity to earn more money for his ailing son in the emerging labour crises. His brother-in-law, Dil Bahadur, offers him illegal work in a godown. One day they find alcohol there that they sneak out for fun. Things take a tragic turn when Dil Bahadur is accused of stealing money instead. Hansi encourages him to leave for Nepal. However, Nepal has closed its border during the pandemic and the migrants have no place to go. Their innocent mischief has led to a tragedy of an irretrievable accord, ignorant of the pawns they have become at the mercy of the bigger powers at play.

Director: Diwa Shah

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12:45 PM - 3:15 PM: Against the Tide

Bombay fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the great Koli knowledge system—a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has strayed away from them, embracing technology. Against the Tide is a tale of deep friendship and rising resentment between the two men, as close as brothers, against the backdrop of an adoring sea, which is increasingly turning hostile because of climate change.

Director: Sarvnik Kaur

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3:30 PM - 5:45 PM: Pushtaini (Ancestral)

A struggling Bollywood actor involved in an embarrassing scandal flees to his birth village in the Himalayan foothills and by happenstance picks up a determined young woman along the way. Once at home he is unpleasantly surprised, and must, against his will, deal with a disputed inheritance. His new friend becomes an ally as he travels through the mountains, unaware of what the journey has in store for him.

Director: Vinod Rawat

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6:15 PM - 9:00 PM: Girls Will Be Girls

Follows the journey of 16 year old Mira, whose sexy, rebellious coming of age is disrupted by her young mother who never got to come of age herself.

Director: Shuchi Talati

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9:00 PM - 11:00 PM: Closing Night Party

Help us close out this year's Indie Meme Film Festival at Origins Hotel!
This event is for Platinum Badge holders only!

Date: April 17-21, 2024

Location: Austin Film Society, 6406 N Interstate 35 Frontage Rd #3100, Austin, TX 78752

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