SOUTH ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL TIES INTO WOMEN ECONOMIC FORUM

Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival When: Nov. 16-19

Where: Various venues

Tickets and info: visaff.ca

If you’re a film buff, love Indian food and want to experience some Bollywood glitz and glamour, the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival is everything you have been looking for.

You may even get a chance to walk down the red carpet with Bollywood actress Huma Qureshi, special guest at the festival this year.

VISAFF will showcase international as well as Canadian films and promises unforgettable entertainment. It also runs in conjunction with the Women Economic Forum in Surrey.

“The aim at WEF is to help women expand their business opportunities and increase their influence ... All of us have excellence within us. And WEF helps encourage, nurture and manifest it,” says WEF founder and global chairwoman Dr. Harbeen Arora.

Mannu Sandhu, VISAFF producer and co-ordinator for WEF, is proud to have been able to bring WEF to B.C. for the first time. She believes it will become a hub for empowerment and inclusion of women.

Film highlights include:

Actor in Law: Estranged from his attorney father, an aspiring actor poses as a lawyer and becomes a celebrity for taking on difficult cases.

Help Wanted: A Punjabi teenager gets involved in his local gang in order to support his fragmented family when his unemployed and abusive father fails to do so.

Maple: A documentary profiling the life and loss of Surrey student and aspiring actress and model Maple Batalia.

Bout Us: A real-life Romeo and Juliet story that highlights cultural stigmas in Canada.

The Snake Charmer: This documentary follows Bollywood actor Amir Khan on a journey from the sets of reality show Satyamev Jayate to the filming of his film Dangal, the biopic of a father who encourages his young daughters to take up wrestling and make their own choices in life.

Welcome to Surrey: When Suneet graduates medical school, she’s sent to work in the one place she’s trying to avoid — back home to the suburban town of Surrey.