This is the archival page for the 2007 Kriti Festival, a four-day event held in Chicago to celebrate South Asian and diaspora literature, with panel discussions, performances, readings, music and song, storytelling for kids, and much more!
The 2007 Kriti was even more exciting than the 2005 festival, where we had 30 visiting writers, editors and agents, and huge fun -- for more info on that festival, take a look at our archive here: http://www.desilit.org/kriti2005.php
Our Guest of Honor in 2007 was the award-winning author Anita Desai, noted In dian novelist, short-listed for the Booker Prize three times. (Her daughter, Ki ran Desai, recently won the 2006 Booker Prize.) Just a few of Anita Desai's won derful books include Fasting, Feasting; Baumgartner's Bombay; Clear Light of Day , and In Custody (which was made into a Merchant/Ivory film, starring Shashi Kap oor, Shabana Azmi, and Om Puri). More info on Anita Desai: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Desai
Download the Kriti 2007 flyer.
- Schedule
- Panel Topics and Descriptions
- Registration Info
- Venue
- Hotel and Travel
- Program Book Ads
- Kriti Panelists
- Independent Short Film Screenings
- More Festival Info
- Kriti 2005 (archive)
Schedule
Preliminary Full Festival Schedule: (download Word .doc file, 40K)
Panel Topics and Descriptions (download Word .doc file, 40K)
Schedule in Brief:
Thursday, April 26th: (Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave.)
- 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. opening reception
- 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. rapid-fire reading by attending
panelists
(this Thursday evening event is free and open to the public)
Friday, April 27th: (UIC Student Center, 750 S. Halsted)
- 10:00 a.m. - registration opens, writing workshop
- 11:00 - 5:00 p.m. - panels, readings, film screenings
- 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. - Anita Desai reception
- 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. - Anita Desai Keynote Speech
- 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. - Voices of Resistance (presented in
collaboration
with SAPAC)
- 9:30 - 1:30 a.m. - Funkadesi at Fitzgerald's (separate cover
charge)
Saturday, April 28th: (UIC Student Center, 750 S. Halsted)
- 9:00 a.m. - registration opens, writing workshop
- 10:00 - 7:00 p.m. - panels, readings, film screenings, art
show
- 11:30 - 12:30 p.m. - Anita Desai reading and signing
- 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. - Rasaka performance (Desi Women of the
Diaspora)
- 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. - open mic, hosted by Yesha Naik, film
screening
Sunday, April 29th: (UIC Student Center, 750 S. Halsted)
- 9:00 a.m. - registration opens, writing workshop
- 10:00 - 3:00 p.m. - panels, readings, film screenings
- 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. - Maahaul classical music concert
Registration Info
Kriti Festival pre-registrations are currently available in a variety of registration options. These early-bird rates are only available until April 15th, and certain events are limited to 150 participants, so reserve early to guarantee your spot!
The full weekend pass guarantees you admission into all festival events, including keynote speech, guest of honor reading and reception, Rasaka Theatre performance, writing workshops, literary panels, author readings, and much much more. (Please note: this rate does not include any special meals with the guest of honor that may still be arranged, but it does ensure that you'll be the first to be offered the opportunity to sign up for such special events.)
You can also register for either Friday, Saturday or Sunday's full-day events, if you prefer. Friday will include the keynote speech with Guest of Honor Anita Desai, Voices of Resistance's political arts show and a Funkadesi performance. Saturday will include Desai reading and signing, Rasaka Theatre's show, and an open mic. Check the schedule often for more exciting updates on day-specific events.
NOTE: Festival registration is free for Roosevelt University and UIC students, faculty and staff, but you must register early to reserve your spot, by e-mailing info@desilit.org. Free registration does not include any private meals with the keynote speaker, or any workshops with separate charges; those events must be paid for separately.
Click the buttons below to add registrations to your shopping cart, and then click 'View Cart' to check out, using your credit card for payment.
Voices of Resistance 6 only (Friday evening): $8
Kriti 2007 Friday Day Pass (Adult): $30
Kriti 2007 Friday Day Pass (Student/Senior): $20
Kriti 2007 Saturday Day Pass (Adult): $35
Kriti 2007 Saturday Day Pass (Student/Senior): $25
Kriti 2007 Sunday Day Pass (Adult): $20
Kriti 2007 Sunday Day Pass (Student/Senior): $10
Kriti 2007 All-Weekend Festival Pass, Thurs-Sun (Adult): $60
Kriti 2007 All-Weekend Festival Pass, Thurs-Sun (Student/Senior): $30
View Cart / Check Out
To pre-register by sending a check, please e-mail Mary Anne directly at info@desilit.org, and she'll let you know where to send your check.
NOTE: DesiLit is a non-profit organization, and as such, offers sliding-scale admission to those suffering financial hardship. If you need a discounted (or free) admission, please e-mail info@desilit.org with your request. We wi ll accommodate as many requests as possible.
Venue
The Kriti Festival will be held at two locations, Roosevelt University (Thursday evening) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) (Friday - Sunday). The final concert will be at Hull House on the UIC campus. Both sites are wheelchair-accessible and generally ADA-compliant.Roosevelt University: 430 S. Michigan Ave., Rm 244
UIC: Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted Street, see detailed schedule for specific rooms. Note: Friday and Saturday registration will be in the 3rd floor lobby.
Hotel and Travel
Hotel
We're delighted to note that we've negotiated a heavily-discounted rate at the luxury Crowne Plaza Metro (733 W. Madison Ave.), just a few blocks walk from the festival (and a few blocks west of downtown Chicago). Lovely rooms, plasma tvs, etc. You can book a room with two double beds or one king-size bed for $139/night by mentioning the Kriti Festival when you call, or, even better, by just using their online reservation system. The form defaults to the nights of 4/27-4/28, but if you want to arrive earlier or stay later just speak with their in-house reservations person Mary Arcuri and she'll take care of you. Ask for her at 1-312-829-5000.Please Note: This rate is only available until April 6th, so please book soon!
Travel
The festival is easily accessible by subway from either O'Hare or Midway airports; just take the Blue line to the UIC stop, and from there it's just a few blocks to either the UIC campus or the Crowne Plaza hotel. The subway is safe, fast, and inexpensive ($1.75 each way). A cab from Midway will cost about $20, and from O'Hare will run closer to $40-$50.If you're driving to the festival, there are convenient pay lots on campus, as well as some street parking. A full day of parking in the lot will cost between $9-$11; please note that some of the fixed-rate lots only accept cash in advance.
For extensive travel info, Visit UIC's visitor info page.
Program Book Ads
We're pleased to note that ad rates are now available for the Kriti 2007 prog ram book. We're anticipating a print run of 300-500 copies, to be distributed to festival attendees and to others interested in South Asian literature and arts.
Note that this is a particularly good opportunity for those of you with S. As ian arts/literary/non-profit ventures to advertise your books, events, organizat ions, etc. to a dedicated audience likely to be very interested in what you have to offer! (If you need help designing an ad, we may be able to assist you in th at; please inquire.) All funds raised go towards supporting Kriti 2007 festival programming.
Kriti 2007 Ad Rates
- Back cover (8" wide x 10" high, full-color): $750 (SOLD)
- Inside front cover, full-color: $450 (SOLD)
- Inside back cover, full-color: $400
- Last page: $250
- Full page: $200
- Half page (8" wide x 5" high): $125
- Quarter page (4" wide x 5" high): $75
Some discounted rates are available for non-profit organizations; please inqu ire.
Please send all ad bookings and requests for further info to info@desilit.org.
Kriti Panelists
Vidhu Aggarwal's poems and photo-text works have appeared in such publicatio ns as Bint El Nas, Interlope, and Limestone. She has work forthcoming in Norton.s Contemporary Voices from the East: An Antholo gy of Poems. She teaches at Rollins College with a specialty in poetics a nd post-colonial literature and is working on essays and a poetry manuscript cal led Playback Singer, oriented around the Bollywood film industry, A merican silent film, and karaoke.
Shobhan Bantwal is the author of The Dowry Bride, her debut novel set in Indi a and slated for release by Kensington Books in September 2007. It is the first of a two-book contract with Kensington. Since 2002, Shobhan's articles and short stories have appeared in a variety of publications like India Abroad, Lit tle India, U.S. 1, Desi Journal, India Currents, Overseas Indian, New Woman Indi a, Kanara Saraswat and Sulekha. Her short stories have won h onors and awards in fiction contests sponsored by Writer's Digest, New Yor k Stories and New Woman magazines. For more information, vis it her web site at www.s hobhanbantwal.com.
Sita Bhaskar is a Wisconsin based writer whose first book Shielding He r Modesty is a collection of short stories set on both sides of the globe . Her reviews mention "Shades of R.K. Narayan" and "The writer who comes to mind is R.K.Narayan". Sita Bhaskar is also the winner of Desilit's Rapid-Fire Writing Contest held in August 2006. Under the fiction category, her sto ry "A Betrayal" was published in the Winter issue of Desilit magazi ne. For more information, visit her web site at www.sitabhaskar.com.
Marina Budhos is an author of award-winning fiction and nonfiction. She has p ublished two novels, The Professor of Light (Putnam, 1999), House of Waiti ng (Global City Press, 1995) and a nonfiction book, Remix: Conversa tions with Immigrant Teenagers (Henry Holt, 1999). Her short stories, art icles, essays, and book reviews have appeared in publications such as The Kenyon Review, The Nation, Ms., Travel & Leisure, Time Out, Los Angeles Times, < /cite>and elsewhere. She has received an EMMA (Exceptional Merit Media Award) an d a Rona Jaffe Award for Women Writers. Ms. Budhos has been a Fulbright Scholar to India, and is currently an assistant professor of English at William Paterso n University. In 2006, she published her first young adult novel, Ask Me N o Questions (Ginee Seo Books/Atheneum/Simon & Schuster) which was recentl y chosen as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA Notable Children's Book .
Anita Chandwaney's first full-length play Gandhi Marg won 2nd place in the 75th Annual Writers Digest Stage Play Competition. It was given staged readings by Chicago.s Rasaka and Toronto.s Rasikarts. Anita was the Founding Executive Director of Rasaka. As an actress she recently appeared in the Pulitzer Finalist, Miss Witherspoon.
Archana Chowhan was born and raised in Hyderabad, India. She is a bilingual writer, who began writing in Telugu and gradually shifted to English. She has pu blished about 15 short stories and two serials in Telugu (one of which was late r published as a novel). She has also done some translations from Telugu to Eng lish published in a journal from Sahitya Akademi. She has an MFA in creative wri ting from the University of Alabama and currently writes short fiction and creat ive nonfiction in English. For her thesis, she wrote a short story collection ca lled The Wedlock and Other Stories.
Madhuri Deshmukh teaches literature and writing at Oakton Community College, just outside of Chicago, where she is also working on developing new Women's Studies and Peace Studies programs. She is currently working on a research project on devotional women's poetry in India in her spare time.
V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan is a writer and journalist living in New York. Sh e has two novels forthcoming from Random House; the first, Love Marriage, will be published in May 2008. She is a 2002 graduate of Harvard College and a 2005 graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. In 2005-2006, she was the wri ter-in-residence at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She also specializ es in reporting on education, arts, and culture, and has written for the T he Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, and The American Prospect Online, among others. For more info, visit www.vasugi.com.
Anna Ghosh has been an agent at Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency in New York City since 1995 where she represents a wide variety of adult fiction and nonfiction books. She is particularly interested in literary nonfiction, journalism, history, science and books on social and cultural issues.
Her recent and upcoming titles include the New York Times Bestseller, THE LAST TRUE STORY I"LL EVER TELL: AN ACCIDENTAL SOLDIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE WAR IN IRAQ by John Crawford from Riverhead, SIN IN THE SECOND CITY: MADAMS, MINISTERS, PLAYBOYS, AND THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA'S SOUL by Karen Abbott from Random House and KING OF BOLLYWOOD: SHAHRUKH KHAN AND THE SEDUCTIVE WORLD OF INDIAN CINEMA by Anu Chopra from Warner Books.
Anjali Goyal was born and raised in Ohio, and currently coordinates the public programs and publications at The Asian American Writers' Workshop in New York City. She is a fiction editor and copyeditor for Desilit magazine, and is also organizing the South Asian Women's Creative Collective's annual literary festival in New York, taking place this fall.
Kanak Hota, Ph.D. is an academic specializing in Indian writings in English, who has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in India for more than fifteen years. She currently focuses on postcolonial literature, diaspora writing and f orm and the structure of world fiction. She also currently works with Desi Talk in Chicago, covering community activities in the area.
Gitanjali Kapila completed Columbia University's graduate film program in 1999. Shortly thereafter she moved to Denmark where she worked as a director in both television and film for four years. She is currently in development on several feature length scripts and sits on the artistic committee of Rasaka Theatre Company.
Vijay Lakshmi has published Pomegranate Dreams and Other Stories
(2002, 2004) and several short stories in journals such as, Amelia,
Wasaf
iri, Paris Transcontinental, Short Story, and Journal of Indian Writing in
Engli
sh. She has been invited to give readings at various international
confer
ences in Spain, London, Italy, and France, including one at the
Smithsonian. She
is an associate professor of English at the Community College of
Philadelphia.<
/p>
Hari Lamba recently authored a non-fiction book titled, "Rethinking Pro gress <96> Towards a Creative Transformation of Global Society", by Daanish Books, India (http://www.rethinkingprogress.com), that focusses on problems and solutions related to the global environment and development crises. As yet unpu blished English and Hindi poetry of his focuses on the joy of living things, nat ure and the planet. An engineer by profession, he lives in the Chicago area, and plans to help in renewable energy and global warming. Hari is active in nonprof it groups relating to global and South Asia issues.
Marina Lewis is the Associate Editor of the nationally distributed, award winning literary journal, Other Voices, and serves as a Senior Editor for OV Books. She is a writer whose fiction and non- fiction have appeared in numerous journals including the Indiana Review and the Chicago Reader, and her first editorial position was at TriQuarterly in Evanston, Illinois.
Queer writer and social justice worker Sharmili Majmudar's poetry can be found in Contours of the Heart and Riksha. Daughter of Gujarati immigrants, she stirs up trouble with Mango Tribe and other wordsmiths from L.A. to New York. By day, a domestic violence program director; by night, a sitar student; by twilight, she's anybody's guess.
Hemant Mehta received national attention, including being featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, for his work as the "eBay Atheist." He blogs at www.friendlyatheist.com and his book "I Sold My Sou l on eBay" (WaterBrook Press) is now available at bookstores everywhere.
Anil Menon's stories can be found in magazines such as Albedo
One, Chia
roscuro, InterNova, Lady Churchill's
Rosebud Wristlet, New Genre, Strange Horizons and anthologies such
as
Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of Bodies in Motion, a set of Sri Lankan-American linked stories, covering two families and three generations (HarperCollins), which has been translated into several languages, including Fre nch, Portuguese, and Serbian. She teaches fiction at Vermont College and Roosev elt University, and is working on a follow-up book, The Arrangement , a contemporary threesome novel (forthcoming HarperCollins). Mohanraj recently received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Prose. She currently serves as the Executive Director of DesiLit (www.desilit.org), an organization that works to support S. Asian and d iaspora literature, and also directs the Speculative Literature Foundation (www.speclit.org). Mohanraj wa s born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. http://www.maryannemohanraj.com.
Sushil Nachnani has lived in San Francisco for the last fourteen years. His r oles as interested observer and awkward participant in relationships involving I ndian women led him to write a collection of short stories, titled "The Te apot Conspiracy." For more info, visit www.nachnani.com. He is currently working on creative non-fi ction based on his fight with cancer and his encounters with spirituality. Sush il moonlights as an Articles editor for Desilit magazine and is the San Francisco Desilit co-coordinator. He volunteers regularly with the non-prof it Art of Living Foundation.
Sandhya Nankani is Senior Editor of Writing, a Weekly Reader Publishing classroom magazine for middle and high school students that was nominated in 2006 for a "Best Young Adult Periodical" Distinguished Achievement Award by the Association for Educational Publishers. She has edited two anthologies, written a memoir, and had articles published in outlets including Ms., WomensWire, MSNBC.com, The Times of India, and Kahani. Sandhya regularly conducts writing workshops for nonprofit and educational organizations in the NY area, and in 2006, was the recipient of a literature research fellowship from the Asian American Writers Workshop. Sandhya was born in Ghana and has lived there, in India, and in the U.S. She regularly blogs at w ww.literarysafari.com and www.readandwriting.com.
Monica Pradhan's parents emigrated from Mumbai, India, to the United States i n the mid-1960s. Monica was born in Pittsburgh, raised outside Washington, D.C, and now lives in Minneapolis and Toronto. Her first desi-lit novel, The H indi-Bindi Club <97>about six Indian-American mothers and daughters<97>hi ts bookshelves 5/1/07. (Bantam, N.A. Bloomsbury, U.K.)
Ligy J. Pullappally's debut feature film, The Journey
("Sancharram"), has won jury and audience awards worldwide,
screened at nearly 100 film festivals, and is distributed in North
America, the U.K., and France. After early successes as a
playwright, Ligy went to law school, and practiced in Chicago for
seven years. Having written, directed and produced short films
while practicing law, she left her position as a litigation
director and traveled to India where she wrote, produced and
directed The Journey. She has served as a jury member at the
Chicago International Film Festival, and as a speaker on
independent feature filmmaking. Ligy J. Pullappally was born in
Kerala, India, and resides in Chicago.
imi rashid is a queer bengali muslim writer, swimmer and pool shark cleverly disguised as an accountant. she was born in bangladesh, raised in boston and dhaka, and has been freezing her butt off in chicago for the past 15 winters. she is published under a pseudonym in the anthology .voices of resistance: muslim women on war, faith and sexuality. (seal press, 2006) and her goal is to one day escape the claws of corporate america to become a full-time writer, swimmer, pool shark and, weather permitting, beach bum.
Sankar Roy, originally from India, is a poet, translator, activist, essayist and multimedia artist living near Pittsburgh, PA. He is a winner of PEN USA Emerging Voices, winner of Rosenthal Fellowship, finalist for Benjamin Franklin Award, winner of Skipping Stone Award, semi-finalist for Crab Orchard Review Open Book Competition, author of three collections of poetry. Moon Country (Pudding House 2006), The House My Father Could Not Build (Pudding House, 2007) and Mantra of the Born-free (Pudding House, forthcoming, 2007). He is an associate editor of international poetry anthology, Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami (Rupa Publication, India and Bayeux Arts, Canada). Sankar's poems have appeared or forthcoming in over thirty-five literary journals including Bitter Oleander, Crab Orchard Review, Harpur Palate, Icon, Natural Bridge, Runes, RHINO and Poetry Magazine. His recent project is creating a multimedia website ( www.writersalliance.net ) against the genocide in Darfur. He is a co-founder of Poets for Humanity.
sarwat rumi is a bilingual Bengali American Muslim who works toward social justice as a vigilante poet, teaching artist, and performance activist. With Mango Tribe, an APIA women's theater collective, sarwat has co-written and performed in both the Chicago and NYC runs of the full length production, Sisters in the Smoke (2002, 2003). She is the recipient of a Fresh Ink recognition for new music by Serpent Feline, granted by The Chicago Composer's Forum (2005). sarwat's solo features include the Asian American Jazz Festival (2004), Women OutLoud (2003, 2004), Voices of Resistance (2001-2005), and the Guild Complex (2003). sarwat's poetry can be found in the anthology Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith, and Sexuality (Seal Press, 2006), and her two chapbooks: the inverted sun, and WAR (2005). more information at www.sarwatrumi.com and www.mangotribe.com
Born and raised in India, Mukta Sambrani taught English and worked as a journ alist before moving to San Francisco. Her first book of poems, The woman i n this poem isn't lonely was published by Writer's Workshop, Calcutta. Ex cerpts from Broomrider's book the dead, have appeared in Vers e, Em Literary, Cipactli, Fourteen Hills, Hyphen Magazine, The Scribbler, Laundr y Pen, Fulcrum and are forthcoming in Sahitya Akademi's anthology of wome n writers. Mukta is the recipient of the 2003 Audre Lorde Creative Writing Award . She lives in Berkeley and teaches English at a high school in neighboring Oakl and, California.
Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo Sri Lanka. Funny Boy his first novel was published to acclaim in 1994 and won the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and The Lambda Literary Award in the U.S. He is the author of Cinnamon Gardens and Swimming in the Monsoon Sea and the editor of an anthology, Story-wallah! A Celebration of South Asian Fiction. His books have been published in the U.S, U.K and India, and published in translation in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey and Israel.
Prema Srinivasan's poetry has appeared in the Worcester Telegram and Ga zette, Shards Volume XV, and the Apricot Hill Literary Magazine. Her debu t novel Merging Waters focuses on the Indian-American experience an d is a tale of two seemingly opposite worlds merging through surprising twists o f fate, redefining the meaning of family, happiness, and love. For more info, vi sit http://www.premasri.info< /a>.
Visi Tilak is an award-winning writer and has been writing for over 15 years. She is the author of several pieces of creative non-fiction and also writes fea tures, profiles, and commentaries. She is published in several national and inte rnational publications such as the Boston Globe, Beliefnet.com, The Harvar d Business School Alumni Magazine, India Today and Indian Express among o thers. She holds a Master of Arts in English from India and a Masters degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Iowa State University in Ames, IA. Her e ssays have won awards from the prestigious Writers Digest magazine. Visi Tilak lives in the greater Boston metro area with her husband and toddler son.
Deepak Unnikrishnan's undergraduate thesis was a collection of short stories performed as a one-man-one-act play. He published his first set of shorts in 200 4 (Vijitha Yapa, Sri Lanka): Coffee Stains in a Camel's Teacup. He currently works with a non-profit independent television station in New York cit y.
Alamelu Vairavan has co-authored two books on South Indian cooking: Art of South Indian Cooking (1997) and Healthy South Indian Cooking; she has also contributed several recipes to the American Dietetic Association coo kbook, Cooking Healthy Across America. As a culinary instructor, Alamelu offers classes teaching the public easy ways to prepare and enjoy foods using le gumes, spices and herbs. Alamelu has appeared on many national and regional TV a nd radio programs. Her cookbooks have been featured in many national newspapers including USA Today, LA Times and Milwaukee Journal. For more infor mation about her cookbooks, book reviews and culinary activities, visit www.curryonwheels.com.
Born and raised in Montreal, Rachna Vohra first started writing poetry and sh ort stories in elementary school. Her first book of poetry, The Distance W ithin, gained her much acclaim as a "Master of Tragedy", and her first fable, The Acorn and the Caterpillar, was well-received in Canada and abroad. Rachna's poetry was featured in Beyond Memories, a breast cancer fundraiser book released this past summer in New York City. Find out more about Rachna from www.rachnavohra.com.
Naazish YarKhan is a creative writing teacher, writer, publicist and an edito r both for print and the internet. She has over fifteen years of experience with by-lines in over 26 publications including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Computer Guide, Chicag o Parent and Oxygen.com. Her commentaries have aired on National Public R adio and Chicago Public Radio. Chapters of her novel are currently under consideration at three publishi ng houses. For more info, visit www.naazishyarkhan.blogspot.com.
Short Film Screenings
In Ligy Pullapally's Sancharram ("The Journey"), Kiran is mortified by her growing lesbian desire for the effervescent Delilah, in an idyllic Indian village where arranged marriage is the only acceptable form of coupling. Winner of the Chicago Award for Best Film (40th Chicago International Film Festival). Malayalam with English subtitltes, 107 minutes.
Presented in Partnership with 3rd I Chicago
Lucky
UK 2005 | 20 mins
Director: Avie Luthra
A 10-year old South African AIDS orphan named "Lucky" learns about life through an unlikely bond with an eccentric, prejudiced Indian woman.
Time and the Hour Run
USA 2005 | 15 mins
Director: Samir Patel
An evocative film about an established Indian motel owner in rural
America haunted by visions of his late wife. He must realize the
purpose of his life's journey or else succumb to his maddening grief.
In Whose Name?
USA 2004 | 11 mins
Director: Nandini Sikand
Inspired by India's changing political landscape, this meditative,
experimental and personal filmic essay explores the co-opting of
Hindu icons for right wing national agendas. This challenging and
experimental short film is told through personal narrative, Super
8mm home movies, and Hollywood film and comic book art, creating an
evocative pastiche of symbols and imagery.
Grinding Machine
India 2005 | 22 mins
Director: Umesh Kulkarni
A working-class family in India hopes for a better future with
their small business, built around their own grinding machine. But
the family struggles to maintain their humanity in the face of
financial pressures and other demands of the "machine". This is a
beautifully shot film with Tarkovskian cinematic influences.
Viva Liberty!
UK 2005 | 20 mins
Director: Dishad Husain
Dishad Husain, filmmaker of last year's HOLLY BOLLY, returns with a
playful and comic film about a British Muslim, Woody Ali, whose
holiday in America takes an unfortunate detour when he unwittingly
winds up in a notorious detention facility called "Camp Liberty."
Will the deranged Major Winchester force him to admit to a crime he
didn't commit?
6 ft. in 7 min.
USA 2005 | 15 mins
Director: Rafael Del Toro
A wonderfully dark and entertaining comedy about Rajeev Reddi, an
East Indian adolescent who has been surrounded by death all his
life. On his 18th birthday he finally comes to understand why.
More Festival Info
If you live in Chicago, we can definitely use your help in planning and runni ng the festival! We need both folks who can come to monthly planning meetings i n the next few months, and people who are available to help out at the festival weekend itself. No experience needed! Volunteers will receive complimentary re gistration -- our planning meetings are also a lot of fun. :-) We usually meet at my home in Bucktown (near North Ave. and Damen, convenient both to the Blue line and 90/94), and figure things out over a yummy meal. And even if you can't make every meeting, we welcome your input on our planning mailing list!
If interested in helping us out, please join our planning list here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/de silit-kriti/.
And if you're just interested in attending and want to get occasional festiva l updates as planning progresses, be sure you're on our general DesiLit mailing list -- stop by our website and enter your e-mail address in the box provided: http://www.desilit.org/.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to write me. Thanks!
- Mary Anne
NOTE: Kriti is co-sponsored by Roosevelt University and the University of Il linois at Chicago, and will be held at their two campuses, in the Loop and West Loop, Chicago.
Sponsors and Staff
Major Sponsors:Asian American Resource and Cultural Center at UIC
Roosevelt University MFA Program in Creative Writing
Also thanks for support from:
3rd I Chicago (www.thirdi.org/~chicago/)
Columbia College MFA Program in Creative Writing
Northwestern University English Department
Rasaka Theatre Company (www.rasakatheatre.org)
Roosevelt University Women's and Gender Studies Program
SAPAC (South Asian Progressive Action Collective) (www.sapac.org)
FESTIVAL STAFF
Festival Chair: Mary Anne Mohanraj
Assistant Chair: Sophia Sheikh
PR/Marketing: Karin McKie, Ramona Gupta, Uma Dabhade, Devi Bhaduri
Design: Satya Gummuluri
General Staff: Shilpa Chaddha, Anu Sharma, Ritu Arora, Nikhil Trivedi
