The playwrights and producing team of AEA's Asian Heritage Celebration, featuring the Leviathan Lab Asian American Women Writers Workshop (L to R) Kristine M. Reyes, May Nazareno, Leanne Cabrera, Dorim Lee, Christine Toy Johnson, Nancy Eng, Marisa Marquez, Siho Ellsmore, Nelson Eusebio, Ji Hyun Lee, Ariel Estrada, Elaina Erika Davis, Eileen Rivera. © Lia Chang

On May 12th and 13th, AEA’s Eastern Region Equal Employment Opportunity Committee in collaboration with Leviathan Lab’s Asian American Women Writers’ Workshop, celebrated Asian Heritage Month with a salon of concert readings of new monologues and 10 minute plays, at the AEA Audition Center in New York. Leanne Cabrera, Nora Chau, Elaina Erika Davis, Siho Ellsmore, Nancy Eng, Christine Toy Johnson, Dorim Lee, Marisa Marquez, May Nazareno, Kristine M. Reyes, Eileen Rivera and Susan Soon He Stanton were among the playwrights featured.

Tanforan playwright Christine Toy Johnson (center) is flanked by her cast (L-R) Jennifer Prescott, Valerie Wright, Charlotte D'Amboise, and director JoAnn Hunter. © Lia Chang

The Festival was the brainchild of Christine Toy Johnson (Playwright/Actor and Co-chair of AEA’s EEOC), Ariel Estrada (EEOC member and founder of Leviathan Lab), Nelson T. Eusebio III (Resident Director at Leviathan Lab), and Ji-Hyun Lee (playwright) who joined forces to create a platform for Asian American female playwrights.

Cast and crew of AEA’s Asian Heritage Celebration. © Lia Chang

Siho Ellsmore in...

Actor Ajay Naidu’s directorial debut Ashes screens during the 6th Annual Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival on  Sunday, May 15 at 5:30pm, at the Regent Square Theater, 1035 S. Braddock Ave in Edgewood, PA.  Faran Tahir, Samrat Chakrabarti, Firdous Bamji, Heather Burns, Maurice Carr and Piper Perabo are also featured in the Ashes cast.

The 6th Annual Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival, presented by the Silk Screen: Asian Arts and Cultural Organization, runs from May 11 -15, 2011.

Ajay Naidu is an award-winning actor, filmmaker, dancer, director, M.C., vocalist and writer. He has worked extensively in film, television and theater with more than 50 onscreen credits. He has appeared in the films Office Space, K-Pax, π, Requiem for a Dream, Bad Santa, The War Within, The Guru, Waterborne, The Loins of Punjab Presents, Where the River Runs Black, Vice Versa, Touch and Go and many more. When Naidu’s portrayal in SubUrbia as convenience store owner “Nazeer Choudhury” garnered him an Independent Spirit Award Best Supporting Actor nod, his formidable competition included Roy Scheider and Sam Jackson. He can currently be seen in Ashes, his directorial debut in which he played the title character, served as writer and director. Ashes was nominated for Best Film, Screenplay and Director, after the film screened at New York’s MIAAC Film Festival in 2010; Naidu took home the prize for Best Actor at MIAAC and the London Asian Film Festival. Ashes also won Best Film of the...

Samrat Chakrabarti at the NYIFF at Tribeca Cinemas on May 7, 2011. © liachang.com

“Samrat Chakrabarti is one of the finest Indian actors working today,” said Aseem Chhabra, Film Festival Director of the 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF). Presented by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC), the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) which just completed a successful five-day run, is the oldest and most prestigious Indian film festival in the country.

 

Chakrabarti, an award-winning actor and internationally acclaimed musician, starred in three short films- Rehana Mirza’s Zameer & Preeti: A Love Story, Soham Mehta’s Fatakra and Shiva Shankar Bajpai’s Raju- that screened at the Festival. Film projects in the can include A.J. Carter’s Extinction, Deepa Mehta’s Winds of Change, Dagen Merrill’s Murder in the Dark, Michael Walker’s Price Check, Richard Atkinson’s Dogs Lie and Salim Khassa’s Desperate Endeavors. His recent guest starring appearances on TV include “Outsourced” (HBO), “In Treatment” opposite Irrfan Khan (HBO), “30 ROCK” (NBC) “The Horrible Terrible Misadventures of David Atkins,” and “Bored to Death.”

Soham Mehta’s Fatakra copyright 2011 Soham Mehta

I was particularly moved by Chakrabarti’s soulful performance as Naveen in Fatakra (Firecracker), a tailor who left his wife and son in India to chase his dreams in America. When they join him three years and a recession later, the sparks that fly on their first day together as dreams collide with

Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony), directed by Arjun Gourisaria & Moinak Biswas was named Best Feature Film.

The 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival came to a close on May 8 with the Closing Night premiere of Rituparno Ghosh’s film Noukadubi at the Asia Society in New York, which was attended by Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, Salman Rushdie, Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Madhur Jaffrey, Ambassador Prakash Shah, Consul General Prabhu Dayal, and many other notable celebrities. After the screening, this year’s awards were announced.

Best Director winner Aparna Sen (Iti Mrinalini). Photo Credit: MichaelToolan.com

Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony), directed by Arjun Gourisaria & Moinak Biswas was named Best Feature Film. Iti Mrinalini scored two nods with Best Actress for Konkona Sen Sharma and Best Director for Aparna Sen. Rishi Kapoor was named Best Actor for Disney’s Do Dooni Chaar.

(L-R) Presenter Neetu Singh Kapoor and Best Actor winner Rishi Kapoor (Do Dooni Chaar) Photo Credit: MichaelToolan.com

Mohan Raghavan received Best Screenplay for T.D. Dasan Std. VI B., Max Carlson’s Bhopali ,which covered the 1984 Union Carbide factory gas leak that contaminated and killed thousands in Bhopal, India, was named Best Documentary, and Abhay Kumar’s Just That Sort Of A Day was named Best Short Film.

Mohan Raghavan received Best Screenplay for T.D. Dasan Std. VI B.,

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), presented by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC)

(L-R) Neetu Singh Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor on the red carpet. Photo credit: MichaelToolan.com

The 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival kicked off in spectacular fashion on Wednesday night, May 4, with the Opening Night celebration which featured the U.S. Premiere of the Delhi-set comedy “Do Dooni Chaar,” Disney’s first live-action Hindi film. The star-studded red carpet premiere, held at Manhattan’s prestigious Paris Theater, was attended by special guests Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh Kapoor along with writer/director Habib Faisal. Also attending the premiere were Aparna Sen, Madhur Jaffrey, Aditya Bhattacharya, Ajay Naidu, Samrat Chakrabarti, Meetu Chilana, Rehana Mirza, Pulitzer Prize winner Siddhartha Mukherjee, Sarita Choudhury, Ami Sheth, Poorna Jagannathan, and many other actors and filmmakers whose films will play at NYIFF through Closing Night on Sunday, May 8, 2011.

(L-R) Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, director Habib Faisal, and NYIFF director Aseem Chhabra at the post-screening Q&A. Photo credit: MichaelToolan.com

Following the screening of “Do Dooni Chaar” was a discussion with Faisal and the Kapoors moderated by festival director Aseem Chhabra which had the audience laughing throughout. A gala benefit dinner followed at the opulent Jumeirah Essex House on Central Park South.

(standing L-R) IAAC Executive Director Aroon Shivdasani and NYIFF director Aseem Chhabra. (seated L-R) Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh Kapoor at the gala dinner. Photo credit...