SIFF Cinema -- Sunday, October 9th -- Noon

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1. Boxing Ladies

Director: Anusha Nandakumar
India - Kolkata / 2011 / 26 min

The Boxing Ladies is the story of three teenage sisters, Zainab, Bushra, and Sughra, staying in the confines of a small slum in Kolkata, India. They are all national level boxers. The film looks at the lives of these three spirited girls and their dreams to break the mould of the stereotypes of Muslim women and rise above their living conditions.

• filmichashma.com, "National Awards go to Filmi Chashma Film Festival participants"
• galaxylollywood.com, film wins "Silver Comma Award", Feb 2011
• livemint.com "A National Award-winning documentary looks at three boxer sisters from Kolkata", June 2011

2. I Am Happy (Ma Kushi Chu)

Director: Abinash Bikram Shah
Nepal - Kathmandu / 2011 / 28 min

Vashna and Aakash bind together by the medium of Radio and share their incompleteness. Vashna passionately write letters about her life and experiences as she wants Aakash to feel her life more intimately, and Aakash as a Radio Jockey reads those letters wholeheartedly as he finds some kind of attachment and solace in those letters. And they find comfort in their growing relationship and discover their new meaning of happiness... LOVE?? Though they have never met.

3. The Flower Bud (Kusum)

Director: Shumona Banerjee
India - Kolkata / 2010 / 11min

Can hope be found in the most unusual places amongst the most unlikelycharacters? A young transvestite prostitute, Kusum, gears up for a regular night like any other, but just then enters Purab, an out-of-job, obsessive, suicidal English literature teacher without a clue of the local language hoping to spend his last night with a girl! Needless to say, all hell breaks loose as the two struggle to negotiate the night in each other’s presence… will these two unlikely companions ever manage a connection?

Winner – Riyad Wadia award for Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker at KASHISH 2011

4. But I am a Woman Too (Naanum Oru Penn)

Director: V. Ramanathan
India - Chennai / 2009 / 10min

Selvi is a software professional. Her immediate superior and colleagues are not forthcoming to her as they maintain that their company appointed her under their ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ program as she is a transgender. Selvi decides to take everything in her stride and struggle against prejudices at her office.

5. Televisnu

Director: Prithi Gowda
India - Bengaluru / 2010 / 15min

A surreal tale of a young Indian woman who works at a call center. Her computer breaks down and in an attempt to fix it, she falls into a magical, mythical web of electronic wires where memories, secrets, and hidden desires reveal themselves.