Catch the festival cinemas in London, Birmingham, and Manchester, or on your own sofa at home, via their digital site www.LoveLIFFatHome.com, that is accessible anywhere in the United Kingdom. Talks and certain events are also accessible worldwide. ( Main image Flight)
Highlights of this year’s festival included an inspiring opening night Gala WOMB about one woman gender activist who incredibly walks the entire length of India to explore the experiences of other women in its billion plus population. See it at BFI Southbank and Ciné Lumière.
Themed strands include online and cinema-based movie premieres and events. They start with the Young Rebel strand (which literally challenges all the stereotypes!) with UK premieres of a host of talented emerging filmmakers, showing young people’s real-life challenges and experiences.
A special strand this year is on Great British Asian filmmakers, and which honour film people such as Asif Kapadia ( The Warrior, Amy, Senna), and writer Hanif Kureishi ( My Beautiful Laundrette, The Buddha of Suburbia). At the Barbican, they co-host a special retrospective of the films of activist filmmaker Pratibha Parmar. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of feel-good hit Bend It Like Beckham, with an intro by director Gurinder Chadha, at Roof East Stratford. UK director Sarah Gavron (Rocks), will talk about her film Brick Lane. Alongside this will be a whole host of rarely seen classic British Asian movies and talks including the rarely seen British Asian all-star film Flight – expect special guests for that one! Also the festival will be showcasing new British Asian talent in some amazing shorts packages. So it’s your chance to find out more about the ‘Asian’ rich story and contribution to the UK
Dive deep into our Extra-Ordinary Lives strand with amazing dramas and documentaries from across South Asia. Including the must-see Ahimsa: Gandhi, The Power of The Powerless, a documentary on the incredible global impact of Gandhi’s non-violence ideas; Abhijaan, an inspiring biopic exploring the life of the late and great Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee; Black comedy Ashes On a Road Trip; and Tiger Award winner at Rotterdam Pebbles. Look out for selected online premieres too.
New strand dedicated to ecology-related films, called Save The Planet, with some stirring features about lives affected by deforestation and rising sea levels, and how people are meeting the challenge.
A host of special guests are expected as usual and do check out the brilliant online ‘In Conversations’ with Indian talent in June – to include #Bollywood director Karan Johar, and rapidly rising talented actors Shriuti Hassan and Jhanvi Kapoor, as well as featuring some very informative online Q&As on all films.
To support the ongoing Covid pandemic in India and other South Asian countries, the festival are asking audiences to kindly visit their donations page at LoveLIFFatHome.com and kindly help out if you can. It’s never too late to support people in genuine need.
For cinemas, you can buy tickets via booking links on the website, or directly at partner cinemas. For online viewings, please follow the booking guidance on www.LoveLIFFatHome.com
Please remember that Covid safety regulations are strictly administered by all venue partners and you will be required to wear a mask throughout all cinema screenings.
