Filmi 23!
Filmi Toronto’s South Asian Film Festival – 23 Years!
December 6th – 7th, 2025
Stay tuned for some great films!
21st Filmi: Toronto’s South Asian film festival
Harbourfront Centre
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“The Longest Dawn” follows four friends as they try to negotiate their emotions in the aftermath of one of the most distressing nights of their young lives.
Synopsis
Four young friends walk the still-empty streets of a city. The sun is rising, as are tensions between them. There are unspoken conflicts unravelling as they each try to make sense of the dire circumstances of their previous night. Whatever brought them to that moment is something that will resonate with them forever. But as the dawn clears, they must find a way to forge on and face a new day together.
Director’s bio
Luca Maria Piccolo was born in Puglia, Italy in 1989. He is a writer and director currently based in Toronto and Rome. He has worked extensively in both Italy and Canada as a director of commercials and fashion films. He is known for the short films “113″, “A Bed Day” and “The Longest Dawn”, which have screened at multiple international film festivals.
Title: 150 Days
Duration: 1:37
Director’s Message:
This short captures the 150th day of a 1000-day ongoing protest by the Mothers of the Disappeared in Kilinochochi, Sri Lanka 2017. There children have been taken away by the government and have not returned. All of these disappearances began after the end of the war in 2009. The Mothers gave me access to their camp and wanted me to make their story known to the world.
Director: Cyrus Sundar Singh
MY SOUL IS FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE
Film synopsis:
With the intersection of land and sea as a symbolic visual backdrop, a filmmaker shares his thoughts on the sense of detachment from his own existence.
Bio:
Daim Khalid is a Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker and photographer using visuals in combination with personal introspection to share his perspective on self-exploration, identity, culture, and social issues.
No English
Synopsis:
Drawing its title from a phrase familiar enough to the common immigrant, No English aims to showcase inspiration from the city of Brampton, the landscape, and the immigrant diaspora. It is through its juxtaposition of images and music where No English is able to normalize key aspects of the immigrant experience that others may not identify directly with, while showcasing the positive values that connect us all.
Biography:
With 7 years of professional industry film making experience, Japinder has created documentaries for Ontario College of Teachers, Federal NDP, and more. Japinder’s passion for culture, art, and discovery serve as a driving force for his passion to tell stories through different mediums.
Slenderman (2019)
Based on the Internet Legend- A drifter gets lost in the woods and becomes the Slenderman‘s next victim! Apart of the Clubhouse of Terror series.
A young drag queen must find a way to reconcile with his estranged father after the death of his mother.
Georgia Hunter is a film director with a strong background in acting, producing and writing film. Since moving to Toronto in 2017 she has written and directed 3 short films, two of which encompass powerful Queer stories and one shining light on the Womens Liberation Movement in 1970. Queen of the Night- a Film written by Yahya Bajwa was Georgia’s Directorial debut, this film is about a young muslim drag queen and his relationship with his father after the death of his mother. This script touched Georgia’s heart and really sparked the love for Directing.
“I have a passion for creating films that depict the queer and other underrepresented communities with the honesty and beauty we deserve.”
Her current project ‘Elephant Sheets’ that is in post-production delves into the life of Leni, a queer women who moves to Toronto in 1990. “I always knew that I was made to direct. In most aspects of life I find myself easily slipping into a position of leadership. I also have a very visual and emotive way of thinking… two qualities I think come hand in hand when directing film.”
Website: www.georgiahunter.ca
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8622095/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t133
Instagram: @georgehunta
SYNOPSIS OF FILM:
A young muslim Drag Queen must find a way to reconcile with his estranged father after the death of his mother.
Two detectives try (and fail) to figure out how a man was rendered unconscious with his pants around his ankles.
Satraj Bajaj is an Indian-born Canadian writer/director living in Toronto, Canada. Satraj started his filmmaking career in middle school, making LEGO stop-motion films with his friends. He continued on to make several live-action films throughout middle school and high school, and attended George Brown College for Video Design and Production. He is most notable for his fondness of time-travel stories and raunchy slapstick comedies, his obsessive attention to audio clarity and video stability, and his repeated use of Neel Soman and Luca Garib as actors in his films.
Featuring the famous Duckman! hold onto your seat (and don’t let anyone plant anything on it) and prepare for a musical (and stinky) adventure! Filmed in the heart of Toronto at Yonge/Dundas Square.
Satraj Bajaj is an Indian-born Canadian writer/director living in Toronto, Canada. Satraj started his filmmaking career in middle school, making LEGO stop-motion films with his friends. He continued on to make several live-action films throughout middle school and high school, and attended George Brown College for Video Design and Production. He is most notable for his fondness of time-travel stories and raunchy slapstick comedies, in addition to his obsessive attention to audio clarity and video stability.
if you rearrange “edit” it becomes “diet” which is funny because I forget to eat when I’m editing.
NO EXIT
Tony is trying to leave his old ways of life but certain circumstances won’t let him.
Director – Lewis Baumander
14.02
In the digital age, a Popular Toronto Comedian is starved of an intimate healing human touch. He meets somebody on Valentine’s Day but that person cannot reciprocate the same way, because of his work commitments.
Director – Raj Jain
I love telling empowering stories on relevant matters. My short
films ‘14.02’ was my first attempt at writing and directing scripted content in Toronto, powered by a brilliant crew. These films are my trailers of entertaining queer stories in a non-clichéd fashion. I started my career in 2007 as a Graphic Designer. I also worked in the advertising & non-profit space, and co-founded a social startup to raise awareness on pressing issues.
John is on a tough road trip back to his home town by himself. It is an emotional journey, one which he carries various life decisions in the back of his head while trying to find hope during tough times with those around him.
Anand Pavamani is a Director, Music Composer and Writer born in Vancouver, grew up in Markham Ontario and Montreal and now resides back in Markham. Anand is a member of the York Region Arts Council and Screen Composer’s Guild of Canada. He has been composing, producing and playing music for 30 years and has completed 3 short films in the past. He is also currently working on producing 4 other films he wrote: Akna, Uncolonize, Roxy and MY Life.
https://www.facebook.com/paixtriot
https://www.instagram.com/Paixtriot
Director Statement
Creating emotional content that moves people is my goal while tackling subjects of social change and injustice.
HOPE is dedicated to those that have lost someone and it also represents my struggle as an artist to embark upon film making while going through a tough time in life.
Oneself
Runtime: 2:38
Director: Raneethan Muthiah
A man writes on his journal about taking place in a murder.
A modern-day animated fairy-tale, in which a woman overcomes the disappearance of her lover through her passion for baking.
SURI PARMAR is a Toronto-based writer, filmmaker, designer, and self-described “creative carpet bomber” whose work has screened at film festivals around the world. In 2011, she was one of five writers from across Canada selected for the Canadian Film Centre’s prestigious screenwriting residency program. She is also an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre’s Short Dramatic Film Program and the Writers Guild of Canada’s Diverse Screenwriters Program for television writing, and a recent graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing.
Although Suri writes in a variety of genres, she prefers fantasy, and includes Kelly Link, Angela Carter, and the Wachowskis among her influences. She aspires to evoke the same awe and wonder she herself experienced the first time she watched the film Akira.
The Bakebook is based on a short prose piece that I wrote while attending Humber College’s School for Writers, that was published in Black Heart Magazine in 2012. My older sister loved it and begged me to adapt it into a film. I guess you could say that The Bakebook is my gift to her.
Because of the story’s fanciful elements and delicate tone, I felt it could only be an animated film. Puppets were hand-drawn and shaded in watercolour to channel Golden Age colour plates. As with fairy-tale books of the era, it espouses universal themes. Love, grief, loss. Specifically, how different people deal—or don’t deal—with tragedy.
Ginny, the protagonist, is a new take on fairy story heroines. She’s an accountant in her thirties rather than a princess, and is spirited, stubborn, and eccentric. She’s also a woman of colour; when I was growing up, I loved fairy-tales, but felt they embodied a world in which non-Orientalised visible minorities like me didn’t belong. Ginny is a response to this paucity.
A gamer and his friend build the perfect virtual city but can’t escape their less-than-perfect relationships.
SURI PARMAR is a Toronto-based filmmaker whose work has screened at film festivals around the world. In 2011, she was one of five writers from across Canada selected for the Canadian Film Centre’s prestigious screenwriting residency program. She is also an alumna of the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing and Reykjavík International Film Festival’s Transatlantic Talent Lab.
NEVIN DOUGLAS is a Toronto-based musician, recording artist, video editor, and producer. Through the creation of his animated web series, Playtime, he became a specialist in the world of “machinima”: the creation of original animated content filmed with video games. He has produced four seasons of Playtime, released seven studio albums, and filmed and edited music videos for himself and singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Kruchak. He has also played hundreds of concerts in and around the Toronto area as the guitarist of rock bands Debaser, The Withouts, and Habitat. Currently, he is working on a new solo album and raising his young daughter.
Two families, similar identities. Fleeing violence, they sought refuge in Canada and began a new life. This is the experience of thousands of people in North America and yet these stories go mostly untold. Arrival Archives is an artful exploration of newcomer arrival stories, told through a multi-generational viewpoint. The stories intertwine as one, illustrating that Canada’s cultural landscape is a communal experience shared by many different faces.
Arrival Archives is a commission of the Home Made Visible Project which seeks to bring a personal lens to Indigenous and visible minority archives.
Maya Bastian is a Tamil-Canadian filmmaker and multi-media artist from Toronto,Canada. As a writer/director she has won awards and exhibited her short films internationally, which run the gamut from narrative to documentary, to experimental animation. Her short film ‘Fear Itself’ won Best Cinematography and Best Horror/Thriller at the San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival and her short documentary ‘After the War’ received Best Documentary at the Eyelens Film Festival in Vancouver, BC. From there, she spent several years traveling the world as an investigative video journalist, documenting areas of conflict and post-conflict. .
She has since won awards and received extensive press in Canada for her short documentaries which explore conflict and justice as they relate to community and culture.
She is the recipient of the 2017 Al Magee Diverse Screenwriter Mentorship, a 2017 Reelworld Emerging 20 fellow, has received filmmaking grants from Regent Park Film Festival and Art With Impact. She is currently in pre-production on her Ontario Arts Council funded short drama entitled ‘Tigress’, which examines militant rebellions and the ways in which we choose to rebel.
How do our memories shape our identity? What if they aren’t our own? My ancestors’ memories are saturated with the bloody civil war that ravaged my homeland for 30 years. As a first generation Canadian female and a member of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, some of my earliest memories are of stories being told in hushed whispers, of people escaping terror and of those who could not get
out. Through my work in conflict and post-conflict journalism, I have come to understand that most children are aware of their parents’ refugee experiences, no matter how traumatic. These stories take up residence in our psyche and create a visceral cognizance, a deeply empathic understanding of what our closest family members have endured.
Arrival Archives is a short, conceptual documentary created to
highlight the stories of those who are contributing to our changing cultural landscape in a way that may serve their identity and memories. It is a multi-generational love story to the stories of our ancestors.
Maya Bastian’s short films and documentaries have screened at festivals around the world. Primarily focusing on social justice issues, her work ranges from narrative to documentary to experimental. She spent several years traveling the world as an investigative video journalist, documenting areas of conflict and post-conflict culminating in her latest narrative short film ‘Air Show’, about the effect of the Toronto Air Show on newcomer refugees.
She is the recipient of the 2017 Magee TV Diverse Screenwriting Mentorship Award was selected as one of Reelworld Film Festival’s Emerging 20, and has been recently chosen as one of Regent Park Film Festival’s Home Made Visible artists. She is currently in pre-production on a short narrative ‘Tigress’, which examines militant rebellions and the ways in which we chose to rebel.
Amongst cheers of glee and exhilaration from it’s viewers, the Canadian National Air Show has been tormenting Parkdale citizens for nearly 50 years. The Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale is a diverse area which owes it’s vibrancy to the scores of immigrants and refugees that influence it’s streets. Nearly 20,000 displaced persons call Parkdale home, many of whom have experienced war and aerial bombing first-hand. What happens when they arrive traumatized by conflict, only to have an extravagant show of Canadian military strength in their front yard? Do the fighter jets above their heads, the deafening noises and the windows rattling elicit a distinct response?
‘Air Show’ aims to explore the intersection of Canadian culture and tradition with our ever-evolving climate of diversity. The result is an intimate look at the trauma of conflict, the remnants of which are oft carried over into daily life.
In an experimental fashion, the film was shot during the Canadian National Air Show using former refugees as actors. The lead actors in this film have all experienced aerial bombardment.
This short film is about the life of musician Jatinder Parkash. Throughout his career, he has played the flute for films such as “Cooking with Stella” and “Life of Pi” and this short documentary catalogs the ups and downs of his life, his relationships with family and friends and his career as a musician.
Jaskaran Singh holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the University of Toronto in Political Science and is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Advanced Television and Film program. He held the positions of Head Writer and Creative Director while at UofT for its campus wide media channel. While at Sheridan, Jaskaran continued to write and produce short works, most notably “ReArranged,” which boldly addressed arranged marriages and took part in two festivals in 2018 (IIFSA Toronto and NSI Online); and “S.A.M.,” a technically and logistically demanding sci-fi production that has received festival acclaim globally. Jaskaran recently produced another sci-fi short, “Autopsy,” and in founding Paradox Lost, he hopes to use his unique voice to write/direct/produce stories not given a platform to be told. His latest, “A Turban & A Beard” is the first such attempt.
In the middle of September 2001, a Sikh man was murdered outside of his gas station in one of the first post-9/11 hate crimes against that religious group. When asked, his family said that all the killer saw was a turban and a beard. As part of their faith, Sikhs are required to keep their hair uncut and wear a turban. These articles of faith have ignorantly become synonymous with acts of terrorism, giving free reign for those with hate in their heart to attack based solely on appearance. Almost twenty years later, while much progress has been made, a new brand of nationalism has risen targeting with extreme prejudice. What once felt like underground or receding racism has boldly bubbled to the surface again. A way in which that warped narrative can be challenged is with more widespread representation in media. Sikh representation remains confined to a world of taxi drivers, mistaken terrorists, and convenience store clerks. My hope is that this short allows for layered and complex roles for Sikh actors, while providing an audience with a window inside that cultural, religious, and social upbringing.
Click here to play
A gamer gets scammed in the world of his online game.
Shubhi is a 23-year-old Indo-Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. She recently wrote and directed her first short film as a 2019 Unsung Voices Fellow through the support of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Shubhi earned her Honours Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto where she double-majored in English and Book & Media Studies.
Click Here To Play is inspired by a true story. At the beginning of 2019, my partner was scammed in a game he had been playing for five years and lost all of his online belongings. I didn’t understand what the loss meant to him at the time. However, he spent the next month talking about it and after one particularly emphatic speech, it hit me that there was a story to tell. I made this film because as a visible minority, I know what it means to have your experience misunderstood. Through making the film, I gained insight into the gaming community and the larger impact of his loss.
23rd Filmi: Toronto's South Asian Film Festival Dec 6-7 2025 