The fifth year is an exciting and celebratory year for ISAFF. As a grassroots, community-based organization, every year we wonder if we will have adequate resources to produce another ISAFF. We also wonder what sort of event will take shape with inspiration from the diverse and passionate members of the ISAFF team. This year we've triumphed in our efforts to bring you an extraordinary festival with more programs than ever before. We have several films, which will be premiering in Seattle such as the humorous feature films Donkey in Lahore and Kissing Cousins, along with re-screenings of striking films such as the international film festival favorites Before the Rains by Santosh Sivan and A Jihad for Love by Parvez Sharma. But ISAFF is not just about screening of films! It is about creating a safe, courageous and outspoken space for all types of people to come together and talk about the personal and the political. In addition to post-film discussions, we also have programs specifically designed for dialogue, such as the critical panel on gender and sexuality with independent filmmakers, and the famed presentation Queering Bollywood, which looks at alternative sexualities in popular Indian cinema.

All of us in Tasveer hope to grow our family by having more and more people join us in this quest: this journey of enriching experiences, exploration and discovery through the South Asian independent narrative and inclusive dialogue.