Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Looking for something to fill in the gap while you anxiosuly await for CIFF's up coming season? Look no further!

Fall is usually the season for Film Festivals. It is also the pre-Oscar rush at the theatres. Hence, everyone jostles for time and place at the venues. Hidden Gems has an additional factor that takes precedence over all else, i.e. Indian Festival season. It seems all the festivities are lined up one after the other. It starts with Navratri, Dassera, Durga puja, Kali puja & those early Diwali functions. Even a couple of screenings at the weekends seem to interfere with one festival or other.

But nothing much is happening in January or February except for those impending threats of an unexpected snowstorm.This year, Hidden Gems Film Festival will debut an Australian movie with an Indian theme, on Feb. 20th 2011 at 4pm, about a couple, who wrap everything up and leave for Kolkata to adopt a girl. This movie is in English-no subtitles !

2011 is going to be a stellar year for Hidden Gems. In May, we celebrate 150th Birthday of India's Noble laureate Sri Rabindranath Tagore. He was not only an imaginative poet, but also composed music for his poems, thereby starting a new genre in music called Robindra Sangeet. He was a prolific author of dramas, stories, novella etc. There are numerous movies based on his stories, we plan to show two, not yet released movies, based on his evergreen stories, on May 8, 2011. The third annual Hidden Gems Festival would follow, probably the two weekends of October 7-9, & 14-16.

To initiate this extended programme, we have a fabulous offer:

You can register as Hidden Gems Film Society Member for 2011 for $25, which entitles you to free tickets for the first 3 shows, value $36, on Feb. 20 & two shows on May 8 plus discount on the annual Festival Pass. The exact amount of discount to be determined when the line-up is finalized.

Hidden Gems Film Festival has a New Blog:


http://hiddengemsfilmfestival2011.blogspot.com/
Hidden Gems endeavours to bring challenging, cutting edge cinema of our times with emphasis on diversity and artistic integrity. We will promote, support, educate and advocate the cultural fabric of India and hopefully wi
ll act as a catalyst for inspiration, reflection and discourse.