Bagri Supports the UK & Europe’s largest South Asian film festival, which is back, kicking off with a series of upbeat movies, online on the last Sunday of each month, ahead of their June festival in London, Birmingham and Manchester, and online at www.loveliffathome.com
Kicking off the series of films and marking LGBT+ History Month, Evening Shadows is a tender heart-warming story, set in a small town in Southern India, where a young man comes out to his mother and the upheaval it causes with the traditional family and society around it. The sensitively handled film, directed by award winning Indian filmmaker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan, underlines the challenges gay men continue to face in India to come out to their family, as well as question the dominant patriarchal social mores. The film has won 24 international Awards and has become a success on the international film festival circuit with selection in 72 international film festivals.
As an exclusive added extra, film critic, Ashanti Omkar talks to Director Sridhar Rangayan and lead actors Mona Ambegaonkar and Devansh Doshi, who play mother and son in the film, talking about their roles and the LGBTQ+ issues in the film in modern India.
Further titles will be announced, meanwhile film buffs can catch up with some top names from Indian cinema in a series of exclusive ‘In Conversations’ with the likes of Ayushmann Khurrana, who was recently listed as one of Time’s 100 most influential people of 2020, the evergreen doyenne of Bollywood cinema, Shabana Azmi, and Mira Nair whose first all Indian-led cast brought to life Vikram Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy for the BBC. Other top names include cult director, Anurag Kashyap, Indo-Canadian Director, Deepa Mehta and Star Trekking award winning actor, Adil Hussain.
LIFF has carefully curated masterclasses and Q&As, that audiences can indulge in, as we get up close and personal with the likes of the late and legendary Irrfan Khan speaking to British Asian filmmaker and award winning Director, Asif Kapadia, Padma Shri award winning director Mani Ratnam speaking with documentary and film maker Peter Webber and Tannishtha Chatterjee, actress and director who recently made Rat–A–Tat, as part of Unpaused, an anthology of films made in Lockdown.
This programme is supported by Film Hub London (managed by Film London), Film Hub Midlands and Film Hub North, proud to be partners of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. Major partners of LIFF are the Bagri Foundation and the British Film Institute (BFI).
Cary Rajinder Sawhney MBE, Executive & Programming Director of LIFF
“After a challenging few months we are bringing some much needed uplifting entertainment and as always our quality films offer fresh views of India and South Asia; movies that may even challenge and certainly leave you thinking.”
SCREENINGS
In Conversations, Masterclasses and Q&As are available to view for FREE at www.loveliffathome.com. Film screenings may incur a ticket fee.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Film Hub Midlands
Film Hub Midlands is a driving force behind film culture in the Midlands. By providing funding and training, we aim to help more people in the region watch, make and show films. Film has the power to bring people together, change hearts and minds, as well as entertain and delight – this most democratic of arts forms should have not barrier to entry and we are passionate about being inclusive and open to all. filmhubmidlands.org
About Film Hub North
Film Hub North supports film culture in the North of England through a combination of funding, training, advocacy and community-building. We help organisations and filmmakers at a grassroots level, supporting them to screen film and create new work. Together, we’re expanding audience choice, improving access to cinema and nurturing a new wave of creative talent. filmhubnorth.org.uk
About Film Hub London
Led by Film London, Film Hub London aims to ensure audiences across the capital can discover film in all its diversity. With a broad and diverse membership of exhibitors and part of the nationwide BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), the Hub encourages small scale exhibitors to take more risks and large-scale exhibitors to expand their scope. Working to boost audiences and expand the film culture offer in Greater London, the Hub’s focus is outside the city centre and offers funding, training, screening programmes and audience research.
Film London is the capital’s screen industries agency. We connect ideas, talent and finance to develop a pioneering creative culture in the city that delivers success in film, television, animation, games and beyond. We work to sustain, promote and develop London as a global content production hub, support the development of the city’s new and emerging filmmaking talent and invest in a diverse and rich film culture. Funded by the Mayor of London and the National Lottery through the BFI, we also receive support from Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. www.filmlondon.org.uk/filmhub
About BFI Film Audience Network
Supported by National Lottery funding, the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), is central to the BFI’s aim to ensure the greatest choice of film is available for everyone. Established in 2012 to build wider and more diverse UK cinema audiences for British and international film, FAN is a unique, UK-wide collaboration made up of eight Hubs managed by leading film organisations and venues strategically placed around the country. FAN also supports talent development with BFI NETWORK Talent Executives in each of the English Hubs, with a mission to discover and support talented writers, directors and producers at the start of their careers.
About the Bagri Foundation
The Bagri Foundation is a UK registered charity, inspired by unique and unexpected ideas that weave the traditional and the contemporary of Asian culture. The Foundation, with its roots in education, is driven by curiosity and a desire to learn, and aims for each project to challenge, engage and inspire. Through a diverse programme of film, visual arts, music, dance, literature and talks, the Bagri Foundation gives artists and experts from across Asia and the diaspora, wider visibility on the global stage. Recent programmes include Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution at the British Museum; Object, Story, Wonder: Museum Collections Revealed; and From Here to Eternity: Sunil Gupta, A Retrospective at The Photographer’s Gallery, London. www.bagrifoundation.org
About the BFI
The BFI is the UK’s lead organisation for film, television and the moving image. It is a cultural charity that: curates and presents the greatest international public programme of world cinema for audiences – in cinemas, at festivals and online; cares for the BFI National Archive, the most significant film and television archive in the world; actively seeks out and supports the next generation of filmmakers; and works with government and industry to make the UK the most creatively exciting and prosperous place to make film internationally. www.bfi.org.uk
