About: Kanwal

Leesa Gazi has dedicated her career to telling stories from women’s perspectives. She is a writer, theater practitioner, and award-winning filmmaker who co-founded the Komola Collective. Gazi directed the multi-award-winning documentary Rising Silence, about the survivors of sexual violence of the Bangladesh Liberation War, and has created several counter-violent extremism shorts for a United Kingdom think tank. In 2023, Amazon Crossing published the English translation of her critically acclaimed Bengali novel Rourob (Good Girls). Gazi’s first feature, A House Named Shahana, won awards at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and BFI London Independent Film Festival 2023. She is also a founding member of the Global Survivors’ Network, SEMA.

Shuchi Talati is a filmmaker from India whose work challenges dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, and South Asian identity. Her feature film, Girls Will Be Girls, world premiered in competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Her short film, A Period Piece, about an afternoon of period sex, was selected for SXSW Film & TV Festival. Shuchi is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, and her work has been recognized by the New York State Council for the Arts and Région Île-de-France. She is a graduate of the American Film Institute. She lives in New York City and is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, the Bitchitra Collective, and the Freelance Solidarity Project.

Shaun Seneviratne is a writer and director of emo movies. His first feature, Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts, was shot on location in Sri Lanka and world premiered last March at SXSW Film & TV Festival. Seneviratne’s previous shorts have screened at Nantucket, Montclair, CAAMFest, San Diego Asian, and Bushwick. Based in New York City, he teaches at the Brooklyn STEAM Center, co-hosts the podcast Rohmercast, and runs Redacted Screenings.

Christo Tomy is a two-time National Award-winning filmmaker and an alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata. He is the director of Netflix’s true crime show Curry and Cyanide, which earned a Global Top #2 viewership and was among the top ten most viewed titles in over 30 countries. Tomy’s feature film script for Undercurrent (Ullozhukku) won the Cinestaan India’s Storytellers Script Contest, India’s largest feature film script contest. It was also part of Film Independent’s Global Media Makers Los Angeles residency, the NFDC Film Bazaar Co-Production Market, and the NFDC Screenwriters Lab.

Join in for these wonderful conversations, this Saturday & Sunday, 29th and 30th June, on our Show, Saat Samundar Paar at – 9:00AM,1:00 PM,5:00 PM and 9:00 PM – EST MeraSangeet Gold and at 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM, and 8 :00 PM – EST MeraSangeet USA/East.

IFFLA brings to Los Angeles audiences the most exciting and groundbreaking independent cinema from South Asia and its diasporas.

The festival offers emerging and underrepresented storytellers numerous industry-facing mentorship, educational and networking opportunities. A highly curated program along with a direct access to the professional film industry in Hollywood make IFFLA a unique platform for South Asian filmmakers.

Save the date: June 27 – 30! IFFLA is at Landmark Theaters Sunset, bringing you the best in South Asian cinema and its diasporas.

Brace yourself for world premieres, star studded galas, an Industry Day forum with a pitch competition, mentorship and much more!

Passes and tickets are on sale at www.indianfilmfestival.org

Romila Sadasivan is the Domestic Violence Program Manager at Saheli. With her 15 years of experience in social work from India and the UK, Romila manages the domestic violence team, which includes South Asian and Arabic-speaking domestic violence advocates, to provide culturally sensitive and trauma-informed case management to domestic violence survivors. Her experience working with various high-needs populations, especially women and children, guides her as she works to manage and strengthen Saheli’s Domestic Violence Advocacy Program has been the core of Saheli’s work.

Priya Murali serves as the Executive Director at Saheli. With a profound commitment to advocating for immigrant women, Priya has dedicated the past five years to working in the immigrant-serving nonprofit sector, where she has passionately developed and implemented programs to empower underserved communities. As an immigrant herself, originally from India, Priya brings firsthand experience and empathy to her work, having resided in the United States for 14 years. She holds a Master’s degree in Communication & Cultural Studies from Northeastern University, which has equipped her with valuable insights and skills to address the needs of diverse communities effectively.

We have a detailed conversation with Romila and with Priya about Saheli, about their services, about how they could be contacted and much more – Tune – in for sure, today, 11th June, on our Show, Saat Samundar Paar, on MeraSangeet Gold – at 9:00 AM,1:00 PM,5:00 PM, and 9:00 PM – EST. You can also catch the interview on MeraSangeet East at 11:00 AM EST.

RELEASE: Trump on State GOP Abortion Bans: “A Beautiful Thing to Watch”

Last night, Trump applauded the surge of dangerous Republican abortion bans that have ravaged reproductive health care and denied women emergency reproductive health care in the wake of the Dobbs decision, saying it is “a beautiful thing to watch.”

Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee National Press Secretary Sam Paisley issued the following statement:

“There’s nothing ‘beautiful’ about the extreme abortion bans that Republicans in state legislatures have pursued and enacted. Since the fall of Roe, women have faced an assault on their bodily autonomy – with potentially fatal consequences. Trump’s terrifying vision for rolling back reproductive rights is already a reality because of his army of Republican allies in states that have passed the harshest abortion bans possible.

“Since Dobbs, building Democratic power in state legislatures has been the only defense against the GOP’s crusade on live-saving reproductive health care. As Republican extremism only intensifies, electing Democrats in the states has never been more important. The stakes of the 2024 elections are clear: To protect reproductive rights and combat Republicans’ dangerous agenda, we must elect Democrats up and down the ballot.”

The DNC hosted a press call with Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Co-Chair of the Biden-Harris Campaign, and Lauren Miller – a mother who was forced to leave the state of Texas to receive life-saving abortion care .

“Let’s be clear: Texas Republicans did this and it shows their true cruelty. And they could only do it because of one man: Donald Trump,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Co-Chair of the Biden-Harris Campaign. “Donald Trump has repeatedly bragged that he is ‘proudly’ responsible for overturning Roe and ripping away women’s reproductive freedoms. Trump now says that state bans are ‘working the way they are supposed to.’ When women are suffering, when women can’t make their own decisions, when women’s lives are on the line he claims that this is the way it’s supposed to work. I ask every Texan, every American, but especially women like Lauren, Kate Cox, Amanda Zurawski and countless others who have fought for life-saving care – How dare he say that this is working?”

“I’ll never forget when one specialist tore off his gloves in frustration and threw them in the trash. ‘I can’t help you anymore,’ he said. ‘You need to leave the state…’ I was at risk of organ damage to my kidneys and brain, but I wasn’t dead enough for an abortion in Texas,” said Lauren Miller, Dallas mother who was forced to leave Texas to receive critical care because of the state’s abortion ban and joined a lawsuit filed by Texas women denied health care despite serious pregnancy complications. “This is untenable for the millions of women who call Texas home, and if we allow Trump to reach the White House this November, he will make this nightmare a reality nationwide.”

“Texas Republicans have repeatedly shown who they are. They are a group of MAGA extremists hellbent on stripping away women’s rights and all of their talk of being the party of freedom is hogwash,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, Chair of Texas Democratic State Party. “Our message to voters is this: Texas Democrats are the party of freedom. Joe Biden is the candidate who will protect fundamental freedoms in the states. We want people in our state to have the freedom to choose what health care is best for them without the threat of capital punishment. The fact that we are even discussing this is further proof of the depravity of Texas Republicans. This weekend in El Paso, Democrats from across the state of Texas will gather and vote on a platform that protects women from these violent threats and we will specifically protect families’ access to IVF treatment as one of our pillars.”