South Asian Heritage Month at The Garden Cinema
Throughout July and August, we present an array of screenings and special events around South Asian Heritage Month 2024, which is themed ‘Free to Be Me.’ From Bhutan to Bangladesh, these films weave tales of resilience, identity, and personal freedom with a special focus on female voices and queer stories.
The programme includes an array of films from exciting new female filmmakers. The season opens with a preview of Fawzia Mirza’s vibrant Bollywood–inspired LGBTQ+ drama The Queen of My Dreams, from Pakistan, and closes with a preview of Shuchi Talati’s Sundance winning Girls Will Be Girls, from India.
Elsewhere, we present Nida Manzoor’s exuberant feminist action comedy, Polite Society, which turns genre etiquette on its head whilst examining the complexities of navigating life as a British-Pakistani teenager. The film will be followed by a Q&A with lead actor Priya Kansara.
Families can attend our Pay-What-You-Can screening of Rima Das’s instant crowd-pleaser Village Rockstars, which follows a 10-year-old girl in an Assamese village who dreams of having her own rock band.
Tongues on Fire – UK Asian Film Festival presents a screening of the trans drama Blue Sunshine, which won a top prize at this year’s festival. The screening will be followed by a Zoom Q&A with the director Samyuktha Vijayan, and all proceeds from the screening will be donated to LGBTQ+ charities in India.
The season includes three extraordinary documentaries. Steve Loveridge’s Sundance award winning MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. – a startlingly personal profile of the critically acclaimed artist, chronicling her remarkable journey from Sri Lankan refugee to groundbreaking musician. An essential documentary for cinephiles, Original Copy follows Sheikh Rehman, Mumbai’s last painter of film posters, and his colleagues, as they battle against declining audiences at an old Hindi Film palace. Spanning 14 years, I Am Belmaya, documents the transformational journey of a young woman in Nepal as she reclaims her voice through filmmaking.
Also showing is Bhutan’s first Oscar-nominated film, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, which gives a fascinating insight into a region rarely seen on screen. Plus, a screening of the exquisite Bangladeshi drama The Salt in Our Waters, by debut director Rezwan Sumit who was awarded the Spike Lee Fellowship.
Guest curator Anupma Shanker has selected two classic titles for the season: David Lean’s 1984 epic historical drama, A Passage to India, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and will screen on Indian Indepence Day (15th August). And the newly restored lavish historical drama, Shiraz: A Romance of India, about the events leading to the construction of the world’s most beautiful monument to love, the Taj Mahal, with a new score by Grammy Award-winning sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar. We’re delighted to welcome back Dhanraj Persaud for a traditional tabla performance prior to the screening.
Our member’s choice during the season is The Lunchbox, starring the late Irrfan Khan, which enchanted audiences around the globe, winning an audience award at Cannes and a Best Film nomination at the London Film Festival.
Whilst the protagonists of these films often wrestle against societal and cultural expectations, they also find the strength and unity from within their communities to be true to themselves and embrace their freedom.
