'River Admiration Award' at Silent River Film Festival

I was happy to hear that Topi received the 'River Admiration Award' at the Silent River Film Festival, which ran from Sept 9-16 in Irvine, California. This prize is 'given to an outstanding Film, outstanding Actor and outstanding Actress', and Topi was honored in the Student Short Animation category.

(Topi was also nominated for Best Film and Best Director).

Indian Film Festival of Hope

This was a small festival that was held on August 13th and 14th in San Francisco. One of the organizers recorded the Q&A for Topi on a cellphone, and I've managed to upload a few short segments.

Style of the film:

Story/Background:

POW! WHIZ! BAM!

Visual Communications (the organization behind the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival) is featuring Topi in 'Pow! Whiz! Bam!', its upcoming animation mini-film festival on August 6 in LA's Little Tokyo.

Paris-Delhi-Bombay pics

I just received these pics of the space in which Topi is being exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The entrance to the space is through giant 'eyes', and the interior contains a salon in which visitors can experience Indian music, websites, and video.

Photos by: shang

I love the image of the curious little boy watching Topi.

Centre Pompidou, Paris

'Topi' is being featured in an exhibition on contemporary Indian art called 'Paris Delhi Bombay' at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from May 24 to September 5.

The official flyer

This modern art museum is my favorite in Paris, and I'm still in shock that my film is playing there. I found a video about the exhibition, and also dug up a few of the pictures I took at the museum during my 2008 trip to France.

The last post-it

Found while cleaning today

A Morning at James Lick Middle School

This morning, I spent a very engaging first period presenting 'Topi' to a group of sixth graders at James Lick Middle School in San Francisco. The screening was timely since the children have been learning about India in the context of studying water and related issues, and have also been corresponding with pen pals from an international school in India. This was a much bigger group than the one at Good Samaritan, and questions flew at me from all directions. Some favorites: 'Why are the people in the film wearing two different colors of clothing?' 'Do you have a pen pal?' 'If you could change anything about the film, would you?' I was impressed with their understanding of film and cinema, and was especially happy to hear that they were learning about India in class.

(Another fantastic visit organized by Rocio from SFIFF, and thanks also to Averel Wilson and all the other teachers at James Lick for hosting us).