South Asian Women Behind and In Front of the Camera
Wednesday, July 6, 2011, 7pm
@ Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street, Suite 600
New York, NY
Outsourced and Slumdog Millionaire have recently drawn South Asian faces into the mainstream. But while the New York Times uses these pieces as evidence that South Asians have finally “made it” in Western pop culture, breaking into the world of the screen still presents unique challenges for South Asians in film and television, particularly women, who remain a minority in the field.
Rehana Mirza (artistic director of Desipina and writer/director of the feature film Hiding Divya) moderates an informative discussion with South Asian women who work in film and television. Panelists include filmmaker Afia Nathaniel and actress Kavi Ladnier (Heroes and CSI).
Panelist bios:
Rehana Mirza is an award-winning filmmaker and playwright. Her first feature film, Hiding Divya, stars Madhur Jaffrey and Pooja Kumar, and had a limited theatrical release in late 2010. She is currently touring Hiding Divya at colleges and cowriting scripts for both TV and film with her husband, Michael Lew.
Afia Nathaniel is an a multi award-winning filmmaker from Pakistan. Through her independent film production company, Zambeel Films, she produces quality fiction feature films. She will soon be filming her road trip thriller Neither the Veil nor the Four Walls in Pakistan.
Kavi Ladnier is an actress best known for her role as Mira Shenoy (Mohinder’s girlfriend) on NBC’s Heroes. Soon to hit the festivals is her short film, The Blue Rose by Joslyn Rose Lyons. She has also starred in Sarba Das’ indie feature Karma Calling, Kevin Shahinian’s jewelry heist short drama Flawless, and has numerous other film/television/theatre credits. A New Yorker, she holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and was featured in two seasons of Desipina’s Seven 11 series. Her greatest role to date is mother to her daughter Leela.