‘Leila’s Brothers,‘ ’Tug of War‘ to Bookend London’s Inaugural Muslim Themed Qisah Film Festival – Global Bulletin

Naman Ramachandran

October 26, 2022 at 8:35 a.m.·2 min read

FESTIVAL

Saeed Roustayi’s Cannes winner “Leila’s Brothers” and Amil Shivji’s Toronto selection and Tanzanian Oscar submission “Tug of War” will open and close the inaugural Qisah International Film Festival in London. The festival seeks to provide a platform for films from across the Muslim world enabling filmmakers, both Muslim and non-Muslim, who are producing films exploring social changes in Muslim life. Qisah means stories in Arabic.

The first edition of the festival will feature 14 films that explore themes of family, resilience, patriarchy, secularism and religion, empowerment, anti-colonial politics, love across Muslim cultures as well as questions of aesthetics, politics and censorship. It is curated by academic Asad Ali and Phillippe Jalladeau who, for over 25 years, ran the Festival du Trois Continent in Nantes. Filmmaker Ahmed Jamal serves as festival director.

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The festival will take place Nov. 9-12 at Kiln Cinema, Lyric Hammersmith and Rio Cinema and is supported by the BFI.

FUND

The Tasveer Film Festival’s annual Tasveer Film Fund will disburse a total of $50,000. During the festival, a live pitch event will determine the award winners in each category, including Narrative Short ($10,000), LGBTQIA+ Narrative Short ($10,000), Documentary ($15,000) and Narrative Feature ($15,000). Judges for the live pitch event include Apoorva Bakshi, Bedatri A. Choudhury, Nina Chaudry, Bianca Harlow, Sheila Houlahan, Jasmine Jaisinghani, David Magdael, Devashish Makhija, Raj Raghavvan, Ameet Shukla and Soumya Sundaresh.

The festival, which runs in Seattle Nov. 3-20, opens with Tribeca title “Four Samosas” and features Busan title “Goldfish” as a centerpiece gala. The fund winners will be revealed at the closing event after the premieres of 2021 film fund winners “Bepar,” “Dos Bros Force” and “Zindagi Dobara.”

CALL TO ACTION

As the fifth anniversary of the on-set death of British cinematographer Mark Milsome approaches on Nov. 18, the Mark Milsome Foundation, the charitable foundation set up in his name, has called for overdue cultural change to protect crews working in the British film and television industry.

The foundation is asking for the industry establishment, including Bectu, Pact, PGGB, and all industry guilds, to unite to create lasting change. In 2020, it commissioned a detailed survey to gauge opinion on their working conditions and then created a Health and Safety Passport course in 2021. Whilst individual crew have responded positively to the course, as far as the established industry goes, nothing has changed, the foundation says.

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FESTIVAL

FUND

CALL TO ACTION

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