Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival

The Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival is a week-long film festival founded in 2006 by filmmaker and artist Harish Saluja and held every May during Asian American Heritage Month in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to show mostly recent films and music by artists with Asian ethnic origins, such as from Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines. It also includes films whose topical matter is about Asians or Asian Americans.

The festival shows feature length films, sixty minutes long and over and the formats accepted are 35mm, 16mm, Betacam SP video (NTSC only) and DVD (NTSC, Region 1 only).

Introduction

In 2005 Harish Saluja founded Silk Screen Asian Arts & Culture Organization which celebrates diversity & multiculturalism. Silk Screen brings together the region’s diverse ethnic communities. Through the media of film, music, dance, and theater, these communities are able to learn and experience each other’s cultures and come to recognize our shared human experience. The main event of Silk Screen is a 10-day Asian-American Film Festival.[1] Each spring, Silk Screen brings 20 + feature length current Asian Films to Pittsburgh. Films range from drama to comedy to human interest to animation. Audience appeal is from 8 years to senior citizens. Internationally acclaimed filmmakers are invited to attend screenings and for Question and Answer sessions with the audiences. Silk Screen is the only organization in Western Pennsylvania to provide programming of this type.

2014 Film Festival

The 9th annual Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival is underway, beginning Fri., April 25, with a gala party, and running for 10 days. The festival will showcase 25 feature films and two short films during 47 screening events taking place at Regent Square Theater, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The Andy Warhol Museum and Waterworks Cinemas. Films and filmmakers for 2014 hail from India, Japan, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Iran and more.

2015 Film Festival

The 2015 Festival took place July 10–19, 2015.[2] It was the most successful to date, boasting record attendance numbers. Theeb, a collaborative effort from the UAE, Jordan and Qatar, opened the festival. The Centerpiece Presentation was Dukhtar, an affecting drama about a mother's love, which pulled in record single-screening audience record for the festival. Closing out the Festival was the crowd-pleasing Miss India America, directed by Ravi Kapoor, who flew in from Los Angeles to speak with the audience following the film.[3]

The 2016 Film Festival is scheduled for September 16–25 in Pittsburgh.

Silk Sound

Silk Screen's reach extends as well to the music industry. The non-profit produced an Asian fusion jazz ensemble called Silk Sound in 2014. The band's distinct sound combines traditional Asian classical music with modern American jazz to create gorgeous, unique harmonies. The group's debut album, Sun Gate, was released in January 2015.[4] Among other live performances, Silk Sound was the featured musical act at Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto's inauguration celebration.[5]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Van Natten, Jessica. "Meet Silk Screen".
  2. ↑ Comcast Creative. "Silk Screen Asian Arts Film Festival".
  3. ↑ Vancheri, Barbara. "Silk Screen Film Festival movies cover a lot of territory, in miles and subject matter". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  4. ↑ "Announcing Silk Sound".
  5. ↑ Van Natten, Jessica. "Silk Sound at Peduto Celebration".

External links

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