Focus on Sri Lanka at San Francisco South Asian Film Fest

Dates have been announced for the ninth annual San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival: Bollywood and Beyond (SFISAFF) which will especially focus on Sri Lanka and the films of Dr. Lester James Peries.

According to organisers, the Roxie Theatre will be home to the SFISAFF from November 9 to November 11 and again on November 13.

The Castro will be the venue for the event on November 12.

SFISAFF is the oldest South Asian film festival in the US, and is the premier showcase for South Asian cinema in the Bay Area.

The 2011 festival will present 16 programs featuring films from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tibet and USA.

This year's festival presents a 'Focus on Sri Lanka', which has recently seen a surge in independent film-making through French co-productions.

The highlights from this focus are Peries' groundbreaking film Gam Peraliya (1964), which launched a new cinematic language in Sri Lankan films.

The film was recently restored by UCLA Film Archives.

The film explores class conflict through a simple and nuanced love story between a teacher and an aristocrat's daughter, and has been compared to Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy.

On the contemporary end, SFISAFF will screen Asoka Handagama's Letter of Fire (2005).

The film is now making its US premiere at SFISAFF. Handagama will be attending the festival with his film, and will also address the audience, on historical and contemporary trends in Sri Lankan film-making.

Also part of the focus is first-time helmer Sanjeewa Pushpakumara's festival favourite Flying Fish (Igillena Maluwo), which is reminiscent of the films of Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Forsaken Land) and points to a new aesthetic in Sri Lankan cinema.

San Francisco-based film-maker Shireen Pasha's What Is Time?, shot in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami in 2004 will round out the Focus on Sri Lanka.