FILMKARAVAN LAUNCHES DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
FOR SOUTH ASIAN INDIES
Indiepix, Reframe, Vista India among platform partners
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Media partner AVS TV
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Mira Nair’s AIDS Jaago, Arindam Nandy’s Via Darjeeling and
Gitanjali Rao's Printed Rainbow among titles on offer
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[New York, NY – April 30, 2009] – FilmKaravan today announced the launch of Karavan Kollective, a digital distribution initiative that will make south-asian independent films available online through multiple platforms and portals. The Kollective is designed to promote wider distribution of films that have had limited play on the festival circuit or in theaters, and enables filmmakers to exploit their work on new channels while still retaining their rights. Karavan Kollective will acquire titles for distribution via online streaming, download-to-own, DVD, and a DVD-of-the-month subscription service.

“TFI is excited to bring more hard to find films to the educational market through Reframe. Karavan Kollective has a great initial line-up of important south-asian indie films that we can't wait to showcase,” said Brian Newman, CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute in New York City.
The Kollective will push titles for purchase, rental and institutional sales on Amazon through Tribeca Film Institute’s Reframe project; provide direct download to own and rentals through Indiepix; and offer rentals on Netflix and supply to wholesale retailers through Vista India Digital Media.
The initial slate will consist of Mira Nair’s AIDS Jaago, Anjan Dutt's Bong Connection, Nandita Das’s shorts compilation for UNICEF, Arindam Nandy’s Via Dajeeling, Gitanjali Rao’s animated film, Printed Rainbow, and Sarab Neelam’s Ocean of Pearls.

The Kollective will promote its releases through online marketing on individual portals and their mailing lists, monthly film screenings at a premiere venue in New York City, customized grass roots campaigns, and via their mainstream media partners, including AVS TV. Additional distribution and media partners will be added to the network on an ongoing basis. A DVD-of-the-month club will provide select titles on a subscription model.

Kollective titles are selected by a programming board consisting film critic Aseem Chhabra, President of Argot Pictures and Tribeca Film Festival Associate Programmer Jim Browne, Director of Distribution for National Film Board of Canada Dylan McGinty and FilmKaravan directors Pooja Kohli and Payal Sethi,.  The Kollective will target over 150 titles that have played at festivals worldwide or had small releases in select cities but are not yet available to rent or own through major outlets. Titles will be rolled out on a monthly release schedule.
“I support Payal and Pooja of FilmKaravan completely in their endeavour to bring the most inventive cinema across the oceans,” said Mira Nair, who is on the FilmKaravan Advisory board, along with prominent Indian actor and producer, Abhay Deol, and world renowned film critic and writer, Uma Da Cunha.

“FilmKaravan is a forward thinking company and a blessing for filmmakers like me. To me, the hardest part is not necessarily making the film, but selling it and giving it to the right platforms so it can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. The transparency and the network that Karavan Kollective provides me gives me great security. It will keep the independent movement in the subcontinent just that – INDEPENDENT” said Abhay Deol.

The initiative was unveiled today at Cain Lounge in New York City with Abhay Deol and other filmmakers, talent and industry present to inaugurate the occasion. A silent auction featuring art works by celebrated Bangalore artist, Raghava KK, and up and coming jewelry designer, Riddhika Jesrani, commemorated the evening.

“What we’re witnessing through the Kollective is a film movement that will build audiences. Most people don’t have the access or stamina to watch 50 films a week at film festivals. We hope that the Kollective and film club will make it possible for them to enjoy a selection of quality films when, how and where they want,” said Pooja Kohli, co-Managing Director of FilmKaravan.

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For additional information on FilmKaravan or the Karavan Kollective please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

ABOUT FILMKARAVAN: FilmKaravan takes root from the need for a powerful network for cutting-edge South Asian filmmakers. Its programs are designed to help discover, develop and disseminate specialty films for a global audience, in addition to fostering these films along each stage of their life cycle. FilmKaravan brings together the best platforms to showcase groundbreaking cinema from the Indian subcontinent and its diaspora for a vast network of filmmakers, industry professionals and audience members
around the world.

PROJECT SLATE

Via Darjeeling
Hindi, English subtitles | 104 Min | India | 2006 |
Festivals Played/ Awards Won: 9th Osian's Cinefan, MIAAC,
Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni, Parvin Dabas, Vinay Pathak,
Rajat Kapoor, Simone Singh, Sandhya Mridul and Prroshant Narayannan.
Synopsis: A labyrinth of relationships. A tributary of tales. The 'oral tradition' rediscovered in a trip via Darjeeling. A couple on their honeymoon is about to return to the city. On the last day, one of them dissapears. The mystery returns to Calcutta one night...via Darjeeling. Faces are unmasked. New discoveries made.
Director: Arindam Nandy is a student of Comparative Literature. He spent 20 years in advertising as a Creative Executive and now heads the Creative Department of Response, in Calcutta. An avid film-watcher and writer, Arindam has both documentaries and television commercials before his debut feature film, Via Darjeeling.

Aids JaaGO (USA)
Hindi, Malayalam, English, English Subtitles | 80 Min | India | 2007 |
Festivals Played/ Awards Won: Toronto Film Festival, MIAAC,
Cast: Shiney Ahuja, Raima Sen, Sameera Reddy, Irrfan Khan, Siddhartha, Pankaj Kapoor, Ayesha Takia, Shabana Azmi, Prabhudeva, Boman Irani.
Synopsis: Under the auspices of Mirabai Films and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the AIDS Jaago Project presents four short dramatic films by cutting-edge Indian directors , Mira Nair, Vishal Bhardwaj, Santosh Sivan, and Farhan Akhtar, who aim to dismantle myths and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS. Each film also stars top Indian movie stars to maximize the exposure of the films to audiences throughout India.

Mira Nair's Migration deals with the AIDS Virus as the great class leveler in society by
following its transmission through interweaving stories linking urban and rural India.  Mira Nair’s latest film, The Namesake, opened to rave reviews, and is currently the most successful art house release of 2007. She was nominated for an oscar for her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay. Her 2001 film, Monsoon Wedding is still one of the highest grossing foreign films of all time.

Blood Brothers, directed by award-winning new wave director Vishal Bhardwaj stars
Siddhartha (Rang de Basanti) as a young man who gets a positive HIV diagnosis and
subsequently allows his life to fall apart. Vishal Bhardwaj received critical and commercial success of his newest film, Omkara, a Hindi version of Shakespeare’s Othello. Arguably India’s most recognized New Wave

Positive, follows the story of a young boy and his parents and how they cope with the devastation that AIDS can visit on the family.  Director. Farhan Akhtar, is the director of hit films Dil Chahta Hai and Don and one of Bombay’s most prominent young filmmakers.

Prarambha - The Beginning, directed by renowned cinematographer and director Santosh Sivan, features South Indian superstar Prabhudeva as a truck driver who discovers a young boy stowed away in his vehicle.  Sivan explores the question of how society deals with those who are infected. Santosh Sivan is from Kerala and is a renowned cinematographer. His directorial debut, The Terrorist, was internationally acclaimed and his most recent feature film, Before the Rains received its world premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

Printed Rainbow
Animation | English | 15 min | India | 2006 |
Festivals Played/ Awards Won: India Now at MoMA
Synopsis: A big city. A tiny apartment. There, in solitude, live an old woman and her cat, stuck in their daily chores against the hiss of the city. The Windows look out into more windows with more desolate lives. The old woman, however, has a secret window: her precious collection of match boxes. Their printed labels open into a myriad of exotic worlds. The cat is the sole companion in her explorations of these magical worlds where beauty, imagination and wonder triumph over the insignificance of her existence Director: Gitanjali Rao is a gold medalist from Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai and a self taught animator, Rao learned on the job during her association with many studios and film projects early in her career. Her keen interest in narrative techniques got her involved with acting and stage crafts. Painting, theater, folk arts of a culturally rich land finally synthesized into the creation of animation films. An earlier experimental animation short, Orange (2002) won many awards and critical acclaim internationally. She also has a string of very popular animated commercials to her credit. Rao is currently an independent animator and illustrator who makes her own films alongside her other professional assignments.

The Bong Connection
In Bengali, English subtitles | 110 min | India | 2006 | 
Festivals Played/ Awards Won: India Now at MoMA
Cast: Shayan Munshi, Raima Sen, Parambrata Chatterjee, Victor Banerjee.
Synopsis: Dutt’s utterly endearing and smart satire follows the parallel stories of two young Indian men who have difficulty adjusting to life and love in a new country: one is a charismatic Indian musician from New York who moves to Kolkata to discover his cultural roots, and the other is a conservative but ambitious Bengali computer technician who seizes a job opportunity in Houston. An award-winning actor, singer-songwriter, and journalist, Dutt brings warmth, humor, and subtlety to his tales of the Indian diaspora, and offers a touching homage to Satyajit Ray in his expert use of traditional and fusion music (the clash of Old and New World cultures) and his casting of Soumitra Chatterjee, the original Apu, as a dying patriarch. Director: Anjan Dutt is a popular artist of the 1990s Bengali music scene defined by anyodharar gaan (alternative songs). Anjan's music is somewhat influenced by blues, bluegrass, folk and country music. He is an admitted fan of Bob Dylan and his Bengali contemporary Suman Chatterjee. Anjan is also an accomplished actor. His first film was Chalachitro directed by Mrinal Sen, where he won the prize for the best newcomer actor, at the Venice Film Festival. Recently, he acted in Aparna Sen's film,
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. Anjan Dutta is sometimes regarded as being the 'angry young man' of serious cinema in contemporary India.

Oceans of Pearls
English | USA | 2008 |
Festivals Played/ Awards Won: Sikh Heritage Film Festival
Cast: With Omid Abtahi, Heather McComb, Ron Canada
Synopsis: As a Sikh man with a full beard and turban, AMRIT SINGH is often the target of racial profiling. But when he sees his dreams of becoming Chief of Surgery at a state-of-the-art transplant center dwindle because of his appearance, Amrit goes against a tradition he's maintained his whole life and cuts his hair. Hiding this decision from his girlfriend and family in Toronto is only the start of a series of compromises Amrit finds himself making as he deals with hospital politics and health care injustices. When his compromises result in the death of a patient, Amrit begins to reexamine the value of the religious traditions he'd turned his back on. Director: Sarab S Neelam. Sarab Neelam spent the first 10 years of his life in India, where he fell in love with cinema, which transported him to a whole new place. He moved to Canada at the age of 10. As a child, his grandmother, who suffered a lot during the partition of India and Pakistan, would tell him stories of their Sikh lineage. He soon started playing with a super 8 camera when in high school and making home movies. With the encouragement of his parents he became a medical doctor, where the inequities of the health care system felt more like he was running a business than practicing medicine. Upon returning to his passion of filmmaking he decided that he wanted to see Sikhs on screen. He made a documentary of his faith to educate others about Sikhism so that kids wouldn't get teased while growing up, the way that he was. His first film Ocean of Pearls is a labor of love over 10 years.

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