India Film Festival returns to Cold Lake

Edmonton Movie Club (EMC), Gujarat Tourism and Lakeland Multicultural Association (LMA) bring the 4th annual India Film Festival of Alberta (IFFA) to Cold Lake, on September 15th. Edmonton Movie Club (EMC) is a non-for-profit society that was formed in 2012 with a motto of “Bridging Cultures through Cinema.” EMC has accordingly provided a platform for regional Indian movies in addition to Bollywood hits.

The 4th annual IFFA has travelled to seven Canadian cities this year. Cold Lake is the last and final stop and it promises to be an exciting one. Going beyond Bollywood, a wide range of films is represented at this year’s festival from various regions of India including Assam and Gujarat. This year EMC has partnered with Lakeland Multicultural Association (LMA) to bring this unique event to Cold Lake. LMA is a new non-profit in Cold Lake with the motto of “Building Culturally Diverse Communities’. This is LMA’s first event but will be followed by other multicultural events in the future. This one day event will feature two movies- Village Rockstars and Hichki. It also will have interactive events, a henna booth, a reading nook, photo booths and delicious authentic Indian food catered from Edmonton.

The two featured films this year deal with issues and themes that are both global and yet are rooted in Indian culture. We are featuring Hichki and Village Rockstars this year. Hichki is a Hindi movie based on the real life experiences of a teacher with Tourette’s syndrome. It highlights the difficulties faced by adults with disabilities. Village Rockstars is an Assamese movie featured at the Toronto International Film Festival. This movie highlights how children in their simplistic ways and dreams rise above limited living means- it is optimistic, light hearted and real. Director Rima Das has exceptionally played all the production roles in this movie from direction to editing and sound- a one woman show.

Just like last year, this event will be held at the 4 Wing Base Theatre. Doors open at 1 PM, followed by festival inauguration (Red Carpet event) at 2 PM. For our special guest this year, we invited Melissa C Water to share her story. She is an accomplished writer and Tourette’s syndrome activist who has first-hand experience with living and working with Tourette’s syndrome. In addition to Melissa Water we’ll also have Hon. David Yurdiga;
M.P of FortMcmurray/Cold Lake, Mr. Craig Copeland; Mayor of Cold Lake & Col. Paul Doyle; 4 Wing Commander as special guests at the event. The Hindi movie (Hichki) starts at 2:30 PM. A delectable spread of Indian food will be served between 5 – 6:30 PM followed by the second movie- Village Rockstars at 7pm. Both movies will have English subtitles.

Tickets for this event are available online at http://indiafilmfestival.ca/Coldlake.htm or at Beantrees Cafe in Cold Lake. This event aims to be accessible to all and ticket costs are $35 for a Festival Pass; $25 for 1 movie & dinner and $12 for 1 movie.