Opening Reception & Art Show
Chitra Ganesh
Unity House

Movie Series: Bawandar
Discussion facilitated by Prof. Sunil Bhatia and Dr. Mab Segrest
Blaustein 210

Bawander is based on a true story, a shocking gang rape of a young married woman in Rajastan in the early 1980s. It deals with the culture that still exists in a chauvinistic, feudal, caste system in modern India. This powerful story adapted by Jagmohan and his team of writers, is set in rural Rajasthan where, in spite of being illegal, the archaic tradition of child marriages still prevail.

Movie Series: Go
Discussion facilitated by Prof. Alexis Dudden
Blaustein 210

Sugihara (aka Lee) a rebel of Korean ancestry growing up in Japan has been having a hard time at his North Korean junior high school, but decides to face even harder challenges by moving on to a Japanese senior high. He is "trained" by his father, an ex-boxer who struggles between Marx and a trip to Hawaii. "A foreigner" in his own country, Sugihara hides his ethnicity as he falls in love with a beautiful Japanese girl who dares not reveal her first name.

Speaker: Ayaz Ahmed
Ernst Common Room

Ayaz Ahmed was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. He did his undergrad in African Literature and Political Studies at Uni. of the Witwatersand in Johannesburg, South Africa and did Honors in African Literature. He currently works in HIV/Aids prevention in New York. He is also on the steering committee of South Asian Lesbian and Gay

Association (SALGA) as their COSJ (Communtiy Organising and Social Justice) representitive. He has written for LGBT publications like Trikone and Out. His work will also be appearing in an upcoming anthology on South Asian LGBT experience around the world. His interests i nclude, but are not limited to, understanding of abus e of power through race, caste, class, gender and sexua l orientation in South Asia and in Africa.

Gabriela Network
Olin 014

The Gabriela Network, a Philippine-US women's solidarity organization, will present the video documentary "Say I do," about Filipina internet/mail-order brides, a form of sex trafficking. Members from the Gabriela Network will facilitate a discussion on mail-order brides and also the "International Marriage Broker Regulation Act," a bill currently in Congress.

Movie Series: Kal Ho Na Ho
Discussion facilitated by Prof. Ganti
Blaustein 210

Kal Ho Naa Ho takes place in Manhattan, New York, and is the story of three friends, Aman, Rohit (Saif Ali Khan), and Naina (Preity Zinta), who travel on a journey that teaches them the true meaning of friendship, finding courage to live through times of happiness and sorrow.

With the constant arguments and bickering in her semi-Punjabi/semi-Christian family, Naina, 23, is completely distraught by the conditions which surround her. In addition to this, she is bombarded with the responsibilities of taking care of her younger brother and sister, as well as helping her mother handle the family's economical complications. Between all these burdens Naina never has time for herself. Then comes Aman. He moves into Naina's small Indian neighborhood, and with him he brings his joyfulness and charming personality. He helps solve everyone's problems and helps them face the obstacles and challenges that life usually has in store.

Kal Ho Naa Ho is about love and revolves around four people. It's an urban film about friends, mother-son relationships, and about three people whose lives are intertwined by the powerful force of love and friendship.

CCASA Dinner
Cro's Nest

The Spice Route

Keynote Speaker: Sandip Roy
Ernst Common Room

Sandip Roy will speak on the emerging identity of male and female sexuality in Asian nations and its representations in the West. Roy is the editor of Trikone magazine, which deals with South Asian LGBT issues. He also hosts a radio show that airs the voices and stories of ethnic communities.

Thursday, April 29

Movie Series: Season Five
Discussion facilitated by Patrice Brodeur
Blaustein 210

A likeable and light-hearted movie that's closer to a Western-style romantic comedy than anything I've seen by the most acclaimed Iranian filmmakers, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

In a small village, a wedding that has been arranged to reconcile two clans that have been in conflict for generations is abruptly called off by the groom. Karamat (Ali Sarkhani), of the Kamalvandi family, has decided that this gesture of peacemaking is pointless. His bride-to-be, Mehrbanou (Roya Nonahali), of the Jamalvandis, seems to agree -- as she tells Karamat, "I only agreed with this so I could make your life hell!"

Of course, they do have feelings for each other, and it's uncertain as to how much of their ensuing battle of wills really has to do with any clan rivalry. As for the stuff about the buses, Karamat and Mehrbanou's sheepish brother Jan Ali (Ghorban Nadjafi) end up running competing routes to the big city, occasionally stopping to brawl along the way.