Mira Nair In Conversation with Marian Masone
New York Women in Film and Theater
"The challenge for all of us is to have the heart of a poet and skin of an elephant."
So says director/writer/producer Mira Nair whose Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay! brought film multiculturalism into the mainstream. Marian Masone, from the Film Society of Lincoln Center, will interview the dynamic, innovative filmmaker about her remarkable career and her work with Mirabai Films, the filmmaker's laboratory she founded to support visionary screenwriters and directors in East Africa and South Asia.
After several years of making documentaries, Mira Nair made her first feature, Salaam Bombay!, in 1988. The film received more than 25 international awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, a BAFTA Award and the Camera D'Or (for best first feature) and Prix du Publique (for most popular entry) at the Cannes Film Festival. In the following decade, she directed four features: Mississippi Masala, The Perez Family, Kama Sutra: A Tale Of Love and My Own Country. In 2001, Nair's Monsoon Wedding won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and became one of the highest grossing foreign films of all time. Additional credits include Hysterical Blindness for HBO (which gave the channel its highest original film ratings ever), Vanity Fair and The Namesake. After the release of Amelia this past year, Nair began work on a spectacular Broadway musical based on her film Monsoon Wedding. Equally committed to the short film, Nair has directed six shorts, all of which are included on the Criterion Collection's forthcoming compilation of her work.
A long time activist, Nair divides her energies between filmmaking and her two non-profit organizations: the Salaam Baalak Trust, which has direct impact on government policy on street children in India; and Maisha, a filmmakers' training program based in East Africa, which has trained hundreds of students from Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania in screenwriting, directing, producing, acting, sound design, editing and cinematography.
Marian Masone is Director, Festivals and Associate Director, Programming for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, producer of the New York Film Festival. A member of the selection committee for New Directors/New Films, which is presented with The Museum of Modern Art in New York, she is also on the programming committee of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. She organizes new and retrospective series as well as the ongoing programs, Independents Night, Green Screens and Image Innovators, at the Film Society's Walter Reade Theater, and also moderates lectures and panel discussions there. Masone has served on advisory boards for numerous film festivals as well as on juries and panels at institutions around the world.
There will also be a reception for all guests, sponsored by The Writers Guild East.
Event Location:
New York Film Academy
100 East 17th Street
NY, NY
Please note: You must RSVP by no later than Wednesday, February 3rd. Please bring the confirmation receipt of your reservation with you to this event. Thank you for your cooperation.
