San Francisco International Film Festival

Topi will be part of the Get with the Program block that screens on Apr 23, Apr 27 and May 5. I'm hoping to attend at least one of the screenings in person.

Having been around since 1957, SFIFF is the "longest-running film festival in the Americas."

Art Gallery of Ontario

The Art Gallery of Ontario is going to feature my short films 'Topi', 'Abridged' and 'Arjuna' as part of their March Break family week that is themed "Maharaja". It's great to see the films screened in an institutional setting.

Annecy!

Well, sort of. Topi didn't make it into Annecy last year, but when it won Best Student Film at Animation Block Party in 2009, I was invited to create an environmentally-themed public service announcement for ABP 2010. This resulted in 'Switch Today', a stop-motion short that makes the case for using recycled toilet paper, and I was thrilled to learn that this 1-minute piece has just been selected by Annecy 2011 in the Educational, Scientific or Industrial Films category.



'Switch Today' was my first real attempt at stop-motion and was created entirely in my apartment, where I came face-to-face with the many challenges of dealing with gravity, glue and green screen.

Some behind-the-scenes images:

Pics from Great Wall of Oakland

I just got these images of Topi being projected onto the 100 ft x 100 ft Great Wall of Oakland in November as part of a group Pixar screening. The wall is a public venue located in downtown Oakland.






















They also screened my previous film, 'Abridged':

Shamiana Shorts

Shamiana Shorts has been exhibiting Topi as part of a traveling film festival that was recently in my hometown, Pune. The venue was down the street from my home so my parents were able to make it, which was great.

Topi has 100,000 hits on YouTube

I spent a long debating whether to put Topi online, but I'm glad I did. Despite a slow start, this week the film crossed 100,000 views, largely due to a viral response in India during September 2010. I'd never imagined that so many people would watch the film, and it's tremendously gratifying to have access to viewers' reactions, something that's not always possible at film festivals. One of my favorite comments was posted by mrvirenjn:

"This reminds me of what my grandfather once told me, when he had to migrate to India after partition.He actually missed the train he was supposed to be on.And people on that train were slaughtered before it could reach Amritsar.I could never have been born,and this video really made me feel for that boy when he lost his mother.Partition was terrible.This video just reminds us of the innate goodness in human beings.Of how it was and how it should have been."

In the stress of trying to finish the film and get it out there, it's easy to get lost in the intricacies of composition, animation, sound, festivals, etc and forget about the bigger picture. But hearing viewer responses such as the one above reminds me of why I chose to do this project, and why films that are actually about something are so vital.

Critics' Award at Jaipur International Film Festival

Just heard about the award - Topi was also selected to screen on opening night!