NEXT SCREENING IN NAIROBI

Subira set location- Lamu, Kenya

CELEBRATIONS AT KAAYA FILMS AS SUBIRA WINS 5TH AWARD

It is all celebrations at Kaaya films as Subira Short Film, by written and directed by Ravneet Chadha, has won its fifth award, The Bronze Mboni award for Best Children’s film, in the just concluded Lola Kenya Screen Film Festival whose jury comprised of children from the East and Central Africa.

SUBIRA SCREENINGS AT KIBERA, KENYA

Subira will among several films to be screened at several video shows in Kibera slum's areas of Katwekera and Bombolulu daily as part of the Lola Kenya Screen Film Festival.

All the entries will be FREE as it is part of involving children in film production and improving their status in the society.

SUBIRA KENYA SCREENING (LOLA KENYA SCREENS FESTIVAL)

You are invited to watch Subira at the Alliance Francaise Monday, 11th August 2008 at at 2:00 p.m.



Entry is FREE

Please note that the time has been changed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

SUBIRA AT KENYA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Subira will be screening at Alliance Francaise in October as part of Kenya International Film Festival due to high demand. Ravneet Chadha, the director will be giving a master class, look out for details.

SUBIRA'S KENYAN SCREENING

Subira will be screening at the Lola Kenya Screen Festival, Watch this space for the time and venue of the screening.

SUBIRA LATEST SCREENING - "A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD"

Subira Latest screening will be at the Palm Springs Short Film Festivalin L.A. California, USA on August 26 at 11:30 am at the Camelot Theater.

LAMU LOCATION PICTURES

WATCH OUT FOR THE FEATURE FILM SOON...

SUBIRA DOES IT AGAIN

Subira, the short Kenyan film written and directed by Ravneet Chadha, won its third and fourth awards; SIGNIS AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM and THE BEST EAST AFRICAN TALENT AWARDS in the region in the just concluded Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) on sat 19th July. The international jury mentioned that the film told the story using images and with minimal dialogue to depict an authentic culture.

Earlier, Subira screened at the launch of the festival at the movenpick Royal Palm Hotel, then screened at the festival, with a large audience in attendance.

Above: Writer/ director of Subira, Ravneet 'Sippy' Chadha. Right: Official 11th annual ZIFF poster

SHOTS AT LAMU

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON SUBIRA

Q1. What inspired you to shoot in Lamu?

Ans. To me, Lamu with its narrow and untouched streets represented the human mind in fear that keeps us small and narrow and fears expansion and growth. The town sits at the edge of the ever-expansive Indian Ocean, that to me was symbolic of the freedom and expansion that we are born to.

Q2. What made you write the story? Where you raised Muslim?

Ans. The story is a personal one that I experienced myself. No I was not raised as a Muslim. To me, the Bui Bui is again symbolic of the cage of conformity that we find ourselves in. I grew up in a British boarding school where i was sent at the age of 5 yrs in India. On coming home for the holidays, I could see things from an outsiders perspective and noticed how important the role of the society was, in keeping people to conform to one narrow way of life and if anyone wanted to be different, eyebrows were raised to keep that person in line.

I feel we are born with different abilities and potentials, those should be encouraged to flower and hence we celebrate our uniqueness

SUBIRA AT ZIFF

Subira screened at the launch of the festival at the movenpick Royal Palm Hotel, then screened at the festival, with a large audience in attendance where the Writer/ Director Ravneet “Sippy” Chadha, presented it.

It had a wonderful audience from both the local and international audiences most of who said it was of a very high quality.

Above The Writer/Director Ms. Ravneet Chadha presenting Subira Short film in Zanzibar International film Festival

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR OF SUBIRA ON BBC

Listen to a live interview with Ravneet Chadha, Writer/ Director of Subira live on BBC Radio World Service after a recent international screening in Belgian capital, Brussels on the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/2008/04/080429_arts_subira.shtml

SUBIRA AT ZIFF LAUNCH

Subira Short Film was the chosen as the only film to be screened at the Zanzibar International Film Festival's (ZIFF) launch in Dar salaam Tanzania at the Movenpick Hotel.

SUBIRA'S PRESS ARTICLES

CURRENT SCREENINGS

Subira Short Film upcoming screenings:

-   13th July 2008,  8PM

     Zanzibar International Film Festival, Tanzania 

 -  15th July 2008 

Osian Film Festival , New Delhi, India

   

        Director will be present at both screenings

SUBIRA SCREENINGS

Subira , the award winning Short Film is screening in various prestigious film festivals around the world, some of which are listed below:

1. Kenya International Film Festival in Nairobi, Kenya
2. Amakula International Film Festival in Kampala, Uganda
3. Brooklyn Arts Film Festival in Brooklyn, USA
   
4. Cannes Short Film Corner, France
   
5. Zanzibar International Film Festival, Zanzibar, Tanzania  
6. Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival, Turkey 
7. Cypress Film Festival, Cypress
8. Obenhausen International Film Festival
9. Osian's Cinefan in New Delhi, India
10. Palm Springs International Film festival, Palm Springs, California USA
11. Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival
12. Lola Kenya Screens in Nairobi, Kenya
13. Chicago International Film Festival in Chicago, USA
14. Tehran International Short Film Festival in Tehran, Iran 
15. Africa in the Picture in Amsterdam, Netherlands 

AFRICALIA CONTRACT

Ravneet Chadha at the AFRICALIA offices in Brussels, in May. She signed a distribution contract for the award winning short film SUBIRA.

With her (L TO R) Pauline Pigeon, Charlotte Morantin and Doreen.

The film was also screened in three commercial cinemas where the audience saw other films by East African directors like Daddy Ruharoza of Rwanda, Yerga of Ethiopia,Willie Owusu of Kenya, Martin Mhando of Tanzania and Irene of Uganda.

It was recognized that not a lot of international quality film some from East Africa and we need to create audiences for our cinema.

With her are some of the directors while at Brussels.

BEHIND THE SCENES...SCENARIO

We shot Subira in two parts, the first shoot was in April 2007. When i reached Lamu i had no idea of who the cast was going to be. There were no real actors there and the community didn't want to act, so i only got 4 people for the auditions and had to do with those.

We had to improvise constantly to get the shots that we wanted as the actors had no idea what to do and would freeze once i said "action". We shot for a total of 9 days and had to go along with what we could get best out of the actors there.

The second time i went down in August 2007 with a larger crew to shoot act one as i had missed it out on that the first time around. We also shot some remaining scenes which we couldn't do the previous time and eventually, we got all our shots and returned to Nairobi for the edit.

It made it to the Kenya International Film Festival and won the BEST SHORT FILM AWARD, it also got a distribution contract with AFRICALIA . It has been very successful with audiences in Europe.

In May 2008 it won the Golden Impala Award for THE BEST AFRICAN SHORT FILM AWARD, at Amakula, Kampala and was selected to play a the CANNES FILM FESTIVAL.

Based on its ongoing success, we are now developing the script into a feature film and we intend to shot.

SUBIRA DOING GREAT

Subira short film has so far won two awards and has been nominated to show in several other film festival in which it is presented to.

SUBIRA FEATURE FILM

Subira is in the process of being produced into a feature film. According to the director/ writer, Ravneet 'Sippy' Chadha, who is currently working on the feature script, the film would be produced by the May of next year.

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL KENYAN FILM....

After watching Subira recently, Ogova Ondego, a Journalist and Director of Lola Screen Festival remarked 'in the history of Kenyan cinema, Subira has so far been the most successful Kenyan film', adding that 'it would best be produced as a feature film'.

DIRECTORS BIOGRAPHY

Ravneet Chadha, was born and raised in India, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She then went to Toronto, Canada to study business and lived there for eight years running an independent import and export garment company. She moved to Nairobi, Kenya in 1997 where she lives with her family.

Ravneet was in financial services until four years ago when she had a powerful urge to tell her stories through film. She formed a production company KAAYA FILMS in 2004. She is inspired to make a difference through her films. Since then has produced four films and has written and directed two films. Her latest film, SUBIRA, won 'The Best Short film’ award at its film festival debut at the Kenya International Film Festival in October 2007 and won ‘The Golden Impala Award’ for the Best East African Short Film at the Amakula Kampala International Film Festival, Uganda. It also screened at the CANNES Short Film Corner. It is currently being submitted to film festivals worldwide.

SUBIRA has also had tremendous success with audiences in Europe. It was screened in Brussels as part of an African film festival and was highly acclaimed as audiences could relate to the three aspects of women showed in the film.

Ravneet is inspired to make films that expand peoples’ consciousness and help transform the world we live in. Ravneet is currently the writing a feature film script for SUBIRA. She is a founder member of HOT SUN FOUNDATION which is the non-profit trust, that trains youth in the slums in the skills of video filming such as scripting, acting and camerawork. Her current focus is the SUBIRA feature film project, for which she is the writer and Director.

SUBIRA- A GREAT PRODUCTION

The Producer and Director of Your State of Emergency and work with Asha-media.com, Mark Ashmore was very impressed with the film 'Subria' in the UK and said "this is a wonderful production which makes on asks many questions like when does a child become a women? very good, well shot , great sound, great acting, i can see why it won the Kenyan film festival and i wish you every success in promoting it around the world".

DIRECTORS FILMOGRAPHY

• SUBIRA (2007) an award-winning short narrative film about the four phases of a woman, the innocent child, the traditional mother, the wise and compassionate granny and the rebellious young girl. It is currently being submitted to film festivals worldwide. Director, Writer, Co-Producer.

• TICK TOCK (2006) short narrative film contrasting modern and traditional life in Kenya, showcased in film festivals throughout East Africa. Director, Writer, Producer.

• KIBERA KID (2005-6) the seven-award winning short pilot narrative film. The pilot film is about a young street boy who must choose between gang life and redemption. Shot on 16mm and finished on 35mm. Production Manager.


• CHARCOAL TRAFFIC (2007-8) a short narrative film about the devastating environmental effects of the charcoal trade in Somalia. It’s the first narrative film shot in Northern Somalia in over fifteen years due to civil war. Co-Producer.

SUBIRA IN BRUSSELS

Subira has been a big success in Brussels, Belgium. Audiences thought it was the best film from east Africa. Subira screened in the Brussels Vendrome Cinema on April 19 and in Luvern a small city near Brussels Congrats to Sippy Chadha and all who made Subira!

SUBIRA - KENYAN FILM AT CANNES

The multi award wining short film Subira has been chosen to screen at the prestigious Cannes film festival, France which starts on 14th – 24th May this year.

Subira has won the Best short film in Kenya International Festivals and the Golden Impala award for the Best East African film in the just concluded Amakula Festival in Uganda. It is to show the prestigious French festival, Cannes next week and later this year in the Public Broadcasting System TV in the USA.

According to the film’s director, Ravneet “Sippy” Chadha, “The audience response to the film has overwhelmed me. This was a small project for me to learn the craft. I feel when an idea’s time has come to be expressed, it is unstoppable. We now look forward to making this into a feature film.”