Beneath Us @ Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival

Very excited to announce that my short film Beneath Us will be having its world premiere in competition at the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival in Chicago. The boutique festival seeks out “character-driven independent film programming constructed by bold and innovative storytellers for the purposes of education, entertainment, and thought-provoking discussion.” I hoped Beneath Us could be a film that would be used to spark conversations on labour, immigration, and law enforcement, so I’m thrilled that Blue Whiskey is giving us this venue.

Beneath Us is also a very personal film to me. I’ve spent a great deal of time in the labour rights world while making my documentary feature My Cultural Divide and other shorts about the subject, and many of my fiction films are about immigration and belonging, so in a way this is a meeting of those two themes. I’m also very proud of the collaboration between myself and Mexican producer Marla Arreola, and the mostly local cast and crew that ensured we told a story that was an authentic (fictional) take on the dangers of building walls instead of bridges.

Beneath Us will be screening at Chicago Filmmakers, 1326 W Hollywood Avenue, in Chicago, Illinois Thursday, on July 21 in the 7:00 PM block of the festival.

Beneath Us is a cautionary tale of what can happen when migrants looking for a better life are vilified and forced to live in an “underground” economy. People need to feel what it’s like working in a factory, lost in a life of debt and poverty, making the things we touch and wear everyday. This is the disconnect I’ve been trying to bridge with my films, first by being the second generation immigrant bringing viewers to back to my mother’s home country as I did in My Cultural Divide (2006), and now bringing the factory literally into our backyard. Do we choose to treat factory workers differently because they live a world away? Or is it that we don’t care where things come from at all, as long as they are cheap and plentiful?

I want to bring this dystopian but all too real world to screen, and fill it with believable characters with relatable human dreams and faults. Sometimes a fiction film is capable of allowing an audience to experience the reality of something better than a documentary, and this is what I hope to do with Beneath Us. The factory in the short may not exist within the borders of the United States or Canada, but the result is the same – workers are exploited and then ignored by the people who gladly buy the things they make.

OAC is only supplying some of the funding so our team will be reaching out to the community to try to finance the rest of the budget. Contact us through this website, and we’ll definitely keep you up to date when we start our crowdfunding campaign.

The Jungle Book

My short film Mr. Crab is playing with The Jungle Book outdoors in Regent Park! When I was in college a Russian man on a bus once pointed at me excited and said “Mowgli! Mowgli!” When I realized what he was saying I was offended at the possible racism but then took it as a compliment. Because apparently Russians love the Jungle Book and I may have been the first Indian boy he had ever seen. I guess? Anyhow my friends then often referred to me as Mowgli ironically after this. Having my film with a young Indian Caribbean boy and an animated crab play with the new adaptation of The Jungle Book might be the best thing ever.

Free Screening August 3rd 7pm. Regent Park Boulevard, outside Daniels Spectrum.

Thanks to Caribbean Tales and The Regent Park Film Festival.

From the Facebook event page:

Did you miss The Jungle Book in theatres this year? Or love it so much that you can’t wait to see it again? Come out to the Big Park for a free screening of the 2016 hit The Jungle Book!

Watch the trailer here: http://regentparkfilmfestival.com/events/event/under-the-stars-the-jungle-book/

Make sure to come out at 7pm for the pre-show for lots of family friendly acivities! The movie will start at 9pm!

The Movie and pre-show activities are FREE!

Co-presented with CaribbeanTales International Film Festival. CTFF will be presenting the short film Mr Crab, directed by Faisal Lutchmedial, prior to the feature film. We know you’ll be moved by the story of a young boy who uses his vivid imagination to escape the realities of family life.

Music and dance workshops provided by UforChange!
Enjoy delicious food for sale at Taste of Regent Park from 5-8:30!

ArtHeart will be doing face paint – so come ready with your favourite animal!

Keeping with the Jungle Book theme The Children’s Book Bank Canada will attendance with books for kids. We will a donations bin set up so if you would like to donate bring out any lightly used children’s books that you may have.

Daniels Spectrum Summer Series is produced by Artscape in collaboration with our 2016 program partners and is made possible thanks to the generous support of two anonymous donors.

I was recently asked to speak on a panel about Asian representation in film and television during the Asian Heritage Month Film Festival, in Toronto. I was joined by fellow filmmakers Amanda Joy, Jag Parmar, and Kieth Lock, and the panel was moderated by Bobby Del Rio.

It was a lively conversation, and it was great to hear how fellow diverse / asian filmmakers had moved forward in their careers – and what kind of barriers they faced along the way.

Apparently there is a video they are going to post, so I’ll link that here when I get it.

From left to right: Bobby Del Rio, Keith Lock, Jag Parmar, Amanda Joy, Faisal Lutchmedial

James Hoffman’s short film has been accepted into the NSI Online Short Film Festival, and you can watch it right here too.

The story: Avery wishes he were the kind of man to make friends, go back to school, find a girlfriend. Unfortunately he’s haunted by self-doubt, the ceaseless swirl of thoughts running through his head, and the ghost of the man he witnessed being murdered in the park. The ghost, Vik, wants the answer to one question: ‘Why didn’t you help me?’

The link to the festival, where you can watch the film in its entirety, is here: http://www.nsi-canada.ca/2013/02/things-worse/

Jaisalmer is one of the beautiful locations Path of Light will be filmed in.

The launch of the Path of Light Facebook page has been a fantastic success, with now over 3000 members who will get regular updates on our film, and get to see some interesting posts on Indian architecture, travel, and history.

The feature film, to be directed by Faisal Lutchmedial and produced by Catbird Productions (producer Katarina Soukup) and Green Dragon Productions, will be shot in India and Canada. The reason why we’re focusing on Indian tourism is because the two main characters are both foreigners – one has an Indian heritage, and the other is an outsider drawn in by the country’s history. We’re especially interested in discussing how tourism has changed the landscape of the country, and spread Indian philosophy worldwide. As we get closer to production we’ll be sharing behind the scenes videos, cast interviews, and featurettes on the tourist sites we’ll see in the movie.

Please join our community by clicking the like button below, and share the page with your friends.

CBC anthology program Canadian Reflections will be broadcasting the award winning (Writers Guild of Canada English script prize Festival du Nouveau Cinema) short drama Useless Things written, directed and starring Faisal Lutchmedial Sunday July 24th, 2011 at midnight. This will be the short film’s broadcast premiere, and it will be playing with a short comedy called King Chicken directed by Nicholas Bolduc.

Useless Things follows the thoughts of Shashin (played by writer / director Faisal Lutchmedial), a second generation immigrant struggling to find his identity following the loss of his parents (Ranjana Jha and Anshu Pathak) . His girlfriend Agnis (Erica Smith) pushes him and asks the hard questions while we follow his thoughts about his chosen path, memories of his family, and dreams of Hindu mythology.   As he goes through boxes Shashin begins to find meaning in the seemingly insignificant odds and ends that fill the cold house that once was his home.  Taking us backward and forward in time to follow his memories, Useless Things is a dreamily crafted journey of forgiveness, enlightenment, and self-discovery.

Useless Things was produced by Peripheria Productions, and supported by SODEC and the NFB FAP program.

Erica Smith and Faisal Lutchmedial in Useless Things

The short was also accepted into the NSI Online Short Film Competition, and will be playing in that series sometime in the next few months. More information on that soon. For now, enjoy the trailer for the film here.

Emmanuelle Francoeur in Dog Sitter

“Dog Sitter” (13 min, 2011) will be playing at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal on August 6th, at 9:30 pm at the Hall Cinema at Concordia University. The short was directed by Adam Reider and produced by Faisal Lutchmedial through Rail City Media. Look here for the details on the Fantasia site.

Synopsis: Kelly is a beautiful teenage girl trying to keep up appearances. When she gets a part time job babysitting the neighbor’s dogs, Kelly decides to help them become better dogs. After working on a World War II project for school, Kelly decides to take influence from her project to train the dogs to be more popular and make more friends.

Montreal Mirror called the film “disturbingly funny” which I think hits the nail right on the head. Director Adam Reider to attend screening. Details found at the official website: http://www.mascara-popcorn.com/

Making the Band, the second feature film by Ugandan-Canadian couple Phad Mutumba (director) and Xena Zandrah Bantarizah (producer) has won multiple awards at the prestigious Zanzibar International Film Festival. The film won the Chairman’s Award from chairman Martin Mhando who said of the film, “This is a Knock Out! Emotionally charged and that’s what Zanzibari / African audiences will resonate with… Absolutely a charm.”  This is the second year in a row Phaz Motion Pictures has picked up this award, the 2010 one going to the feature “My Policy”.

Making the Band also won the award for Best Score, awarded jointly to director Phad Mutumba and composer Jawad Chaaban. In addition to being an up and coming filmmaker, Mr. Mutumba is also a singer songwriter, and contributes many songs to the soundtrack, and worked with Chabaan to re-record some African classics with the rest of the cast.

The lighthearted drama follows four young woman trying to make it big in the music world with their Afro-pop band based in the most unlikely of places: chilly Montreal, Canada. When the girls unsuccessfully try to balance their day jobs, love lives, and band responsibilities, tensions flare and threaten to break up not just the band, but their close friendships as well.

Producer Bantarizah and lead actress Whitsa Jean were in Zanzibar to accept the awards. The Haitian-Canadian Jean, who has sung back up to Empire Isis, Catburglaz, and Mitsou to name just a few, also contributed to the soundtrack along with the other leads Kim Nelson and Linda C. Lerato.

Making the Band was produced by Simpli Phaz Entertainment, and produced in association with Green Dragon Productions, and Rail City Media.