South Asian film festival celebrates 15-year milestone in Canada

We're coming to you from the opening gala of the International Film Festival of South Asia, which is celebrating 15 years here in the Peel region. We want to bring the films to them. We want them to experience their community event right here around them. You know it's great, Toronto does some great things, but But Mississauga and Brampton is very close to our heart. It's a hotbed for talent, you know, a very strong talent pipeline here. So from both audience perspective and talent perspective, it's a no-brainer to host it here. Mohit, you've been in the movie industry here in Canada for decades. What does an event like IFSA mean to the community here in the Peel region? To be honest with you, I'm extremely surprised and pleasantly about a turnout like this. Whenever we thought of trying to show any movies of this sort, it always became a niche thing, a small thing. And now you look around this room and you realize these are filmmakers of the future. And it's happening right here in Canada. So we have a short called Unwedding. It's a comedy for all generations. That's one from in IFSA. So I want people to come out with their grandma, with their nephews and nieces. It's a family film. It's about Alia. She's a bride who gets anxious right before her nikah, which is a wedding in Urdu, and her mom and grandmom come to the room to convince her to go, and then we have chaos unfolds. Sounds wonderful. And the fact that this event is celebrating 15 years and it's happening here in Brampton, it goes to Mississauga, what does an event like IFSA or a festival like IFSA mean to you? You know what? It really means a lot. It's so good to be seen, to have our stories celebrated at this scale and also have the community come out, you know. Festivals that bring the audiences are always, you know, it's exciting to be at festivals that bring the audiences out. Rashi, you're very much involved in the local scene. What does an event like IFSA mean to you? I really appreciate IFSA because I love the fact that they highlight even the crew like us as costume designers I feel that in other festivals were so overlooked and for IFSA to be like no like you guys are part of all of this And to like bring us out. I think it's amazing. So I'm very grateful to IFSA for that