SALTAF 2008 | South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival
Saturday’s success proved once again why SALTAF has become one of the most anticipated, highlight fall events here at the Smithsonian! And in spite of the endless and unpredictable traffic glitches caused by rain and the G20 summit road closures, SALTAF 2008 proved to be another overwhelming achievement! Thanks to all of you who braved the elements—man-made and otherwise!—to join us!
Saturday’s success proved once again why SALTAF has become one of the most anticipated, highlight fall events here at the Smithsonian!
Time:
Saturday, November 15, 2008
10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Location:
Baird Auditorium
National Museum of Natural History
10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Metro:
Smithsonian or Federal Triangle
And in spite of the endless and unpredictable traffic glitches caused by rain and the G20 summit road closures, SALTAF 2008 proved to be another overwhelming achievement! Thanks to all of you who braved the elements—man-made and otherwise!—to join us!
SALTAF 2008 marked the fifth year that the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program joined forces with the Washington, DC, chapter of the Network of South Asian Professionals (NetSAP-DC) to bring you another memorable event.
Richie Meha
We knew we must have programmed something right, because by the time the day’s events commenced with the screening of Richie Mehta‘s award-winning film, AMAL, we had plenty of crowds. We realize first thing on a weekend morning is tough, but you really came out in droves.
Based on a story written by Richie’s brother, Shaun Mehta, AMAL proved to be worth the morning effort. With a star-studded cast that includes Naseeruddin Shah, Rupinder Nagra, and Seema Biswas, AMAL tells the poignant story of an auto-rickshaw driver who meets an eccentric billionaire searching for one last morsel of humanity in the streets of crowded, anonymous Delhi. Their fateful meeting will change both lives forever.
Tahmima Anam
Manil Suri
After the lunch break, Tahmima Anam and Manil Suri read from their respective works and spoke about the role of history in their writing, moderated by Professor Supriya Goswami of George Washington University. Tahmima’s luminous debut, A Golden Age, about one woman’s remarkable experiences in the 1971 Bangladesh War, won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Overall Best First Book. Manil’s highly anticipated follow-up, The Age of Shiva, to his critically acclaimed award-winning debut, The Death of Vishnu, appeared earlier this year to much praise.
[For those of you who missed it before, check out Manil’s hidden Bollywood talent: click here for a sneak peek!]
V.V. Ganeshananthan
Naeem Murr
The second panel of the day featured literature of the diaspora with V.V. Ganeshananthan and Naeem Murr in a discussion moderated by Professor Tamara Bhalla of the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country. V.V. (a.k.a. ‘Sugi’) is another fiction newbie with a critically acclaimed debut, Love Marriage, about a globe-scattered Sri Lankan family. Naeem’s latest novel, The Perfect Man, is a near-perfect coming-of-age story about an Indian-born, London-raised young man, dropped into the American Midwest virtually without support, and was last year’s Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Europe and South Asia for Best Book, as well as a 2006 Booker long-lister.
Sooni Taraporevala
By the late afternoon—with a near full house (that’s over 500 groupies!)—we welcomed the inimitable Sooni Taraporevala to screen her debut feature film, Little Zizou. Already world-renowned for her scripts for Mira Nair’s Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, and more, Sooni’s directorial debut features two Bombay families who both love and hate each other in this rambunctious family drama.
Not only was this second-ever-screening-in-the-whole-wide-world a major crowd pleaser, but audiences were treated with an entertaining talkback that not only offered access to Sooni, but featured her vivacious producer, Dinaz Stafford, and Little Zizou‘s highly regarded star Boman Irani (Veer-Zaara, Eklavya, Logo Raho Munna Bhai, Love Story 2050) on stage, as well! Talk about the glitterati!
What a way to spend a Saturday! Plan now for next year! Keep checking back for SALTAF 2009 announcements…
Click here to download the day’s schedule.
Click here to take a look at the pre-event article in The Washington Post, too.
[…] Anam was a guest at SALTAF 2008 (South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival), a much-anticipated, highly-attended annual […]
[…] the literary stardom to come, Anam was the earliest invitee to the Smithsonian Institution’s 2008 South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival [SALTAF], an annual public program of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program (my then-day […]