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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0 Stall
Title: Stall
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 2
Synopsis: An office worker is surprised by an unwelcome visitor at the worst time.
Director: Elvis Deane makes things. He has directed the feature films Separation Anxiety (2014) and The Ex (2018). His short films include Blindfold (2017), Automate (2017), and Deadline Dawn (2015).
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0 Heart
Title: Heart
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 8
On a day filled with great news a couple waits for the perfect moment to celebrate.
SYNOPSIS- Monica and Kevin are a happily married couple dreaming of building a family together. But Kevin has been out of work and their finances are strained. Monica finds out that she’s pregnant with their first child. She day dreams about what their family might look like but she doesn’t know how they’ll manage if Kevin is out of work.
Director: Julie Brar
Julie Brar was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Julie went to theatre school in Los Angeles. She has split her time between L.A, Toronto and Vancouver. Julie is a Toronto based actor, writer and producer who works in film, television and theatre.
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0 Trust issues
Title: Trust Issues
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 4
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0 Priya
Title: Priya
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 8
Priya, a timid high school graduate, struggles to find balance between appeasing her conservative Indian mother and preventing her secret relationship with Ashley from falling apart.
Director(s):
Daniela Pinto
Kyle Smith
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0 Raising the Bar
Title: Raising the Bar
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 8
Uh oh! Neil Daffodil doesn’t know how to flirt, so he goes on an epic quest to learn the sacred art. Shot on iPhone SE with Filmic Pro, edited in Final Cut Pro X. Audio recorded on a Zoom H5. Special thanks to STACK and Capo Salerno in Toronto.
Director:
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 during lunch break. He continued on to make several live-action films throughout middle school and high school, and attends George Brown College for Video Design and Production. He is most notable for his fondness of time-travel stories, his obsessive attention to audio clarity and video stability, and his repeated (and ongoing) use of Neel Soman as an actor in his films.
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0 To No Man’s Land
Title: To No Man’s Land
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 12
When a catastrophic attack puts a peaceful galactic nation on the brink of war, a lowly Scout is sent to an isolated planet to obtain the whereabouts of the one man who may know who committed the attack. But he quickly finds out, that there are other players in the game, trying to incite a war between the peaceful factions in the universe.
Director Biography – Khizer Khani
Khizer is a Pakistani director, screenwriter, and editor based in Toronto, Canada. He studied as an Engineer before making the switching to Digital Media. In the midst his switch in programs he started to get into storytelling. From writing short stories to novellas, we loved to write. He eventually fell into writing screenplays and eventually started to direct the stories he would write.
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0 Dark Nun
Title: Dark Nun
Premiere: Theatrical Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 5
Synopsis: A Priest receives a letter from a Dark Nun with the words “Help Me” written in Blood!
Director Bio:
Sarvan Singh is a Writer, Producer, and Director. He is operating Dalewood Productions since 2010. Sarvan Singh has always enjoyed film-making. In fact, by the time he was 4 years old, he had already been acting in student films . Soon afterwards Sarvan Singh began writing, filming and directing his own films. After graduating in 2008 from the Toronto Film School; Sarvan went on to direct, edit and shoot projects from around the world. Some big names include Netflix, HBO, Worldstar Hiphop, Weedmaps, just to name a few..
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0 ClownLove
Title: Clown Love
Premiere: Theatrical Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 11
Synopsis: Its the night of the big dance and Randy is ready to ask the girl of his dreams Jane Wilkson to be his date. Unfortunately for Randy Jane doesn’t feel the same way and after a bitter rejection and being called a clown the dark demons of Randy consume his innocence.
Director Bio:
Sarvan Singh is a Writer, Producer, and Director. He is operating Dalewood Productions since 2010. Sarvan Singh has always enjoyed film-making. In fact, by the time he was 4 years old, he had already been acting in student films . Soon afterwards Sarvan Singh began writing, filming and directing his own films. After graduating in 2008 from the Toronto Film School; Sarvan went on to direct, edit and shoot projects from around the world. Some big names include Netflix, HBO, Worldstar Hiphop, Weedmaps, just to name a few..
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0 A Birthday Surprise
Title: A Birthday Surprise
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 12
A Birthday Surprise
An Indian boy Rahul is waiting for his birthday surprise from his girlfriend Melissa. Melissa has promised to Rahul that she will travel from Paris, France to give him a birthday surprise. Rahul receives a package for his Birthday. Package contains a GPS that is pre-programmed so that he can navigate to the surprise. He finds more and more clues on his way which eventually turns into something disturbing. End of the day, did he meet Melissa? was it a real surprise?
Director – Praveen Raj Ganesan
Praveen is a Director, actor, editor and producer living in Pickering, Canada. Born in Sri Lanka to Indian Parents, raised in India, Salem, Tamil Nadu. By the age of 18 he had travelled all over India and the Philippines to study Aviation. He holds a Commercial Pilot license from the Philippines.
Acting, directing was always a passion for him from his early childhood days and that lead to a lot of stage plays and a few TV shows. Stage plays that he directed and acted in his school days won alot of awards between the year 2003 and 2005. To support his family financially he studied IT computer Networking he moved to Canada in December 2010. After finishing his studies he started working as an IT Network Security Consultant. This did not make him stop chasing his dream. He started networking and built his own team to produce short films and commercials. He learned photography, cinematography and editing to support his films. He is 9 to 5 as an IT geek and the rest of the time he has worked, learned and made movies. After about 5 years of working full time he quit is job to start his own IT, media and Digital Marketing company Kural Inc. so that he has more time on hand to make films.
His first Short film in Canada was Ethiri The Enemy(2015), a tamil Short film. In 2016, 2017 he founded Thamziha foundation a nonprofit to help Indian farmers that he has featured in a lot of political awareness videos. Some of his videos has earned around 1 Million views in Facebook.
FB Link: https://www.facebook.com/nnthamizha/videos/278548585926803/
2017 he has worked in the following short films
Mr Moden (2017) – Director, Producer
Happy Birthday Rahul (2017) – Director, Actor, Producer, Editor
Lecture (2017) – Actor, Producer
My Favourite Dinner (2017) – Director, Producer
Dumped (2017) – Director, Producer
Ethiri (2015) – Director, Actor, Producer, Editor (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yPJ_tLC8mQ)
His first feature film is in the preproduction phase and expected to be released by late Summer 2018
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0 Doori
Title: Dhoori
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 8
In a strange, unfamiliar place, Gurjit tries to navigate life with ‘the man’. Homesick,
isolated, yet hopeful, Gurjit tries tackling a mundane existence, and at the same time tries to appease a companion she knows nothing of. What is greater, the distance between her new home and the life she previously lived, or the distance between her and ‘the man’?
Director: Sumit Judge
Talent and writer with the People of the Community YouTube channel. This includes producing and speaking on a weekly podcast, in addition to writing, acting and directing comedic sketches and live charity roasts. Wrote, directed and produced two short films. One of which won the Air Canada Award at the 2015 Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, leading to the film being screened on Air Canada flights in May 2016. Other gigs include script supervisor and assistant director on various short films. Also acted as the short-film coordinator for the Mosaic South Asian Film
Festival held in Mississauga, Ontario in 2017.
A member of the South Asian diaspora using film and comedy to bring light to untold stories within our community. Moreover, working towards completing a legal degree in the hopes of utilizing said degree to both fund my filmmaker aspirations and work towards securing justice for downtrodden members of society.
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0 Faceoff
Title: Faceoff
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 5
http://taalproductions.com/index.html
Faceoff starts by capturing the fine details of the instruments, the fibres and textures of the Tabla, Mridangam and Violin. One at a time we see hands playing and slowly moving to reveal the faces of the players. The beginning depicts a feeling of solitude, slightly dark and dramatic, musicians in their own space.
As the music starts to build up we see a few glimpses of a beautiful dancer, sitting almost like a statue clad in a bright crimson dress.
She slowly starts to move by making a few hand gestures, a ritual to prepare her dance.
Although we don’t see the players and dancers in the same space, there is a feeling they are aware of each other.
The dancer looks as if through a veil to see who is on the other side. The players are getting prepared for something.
As the music intensifies the dancer turns into their space where they begin to faceoff into a final crescendo.
The ending signifies the last final detail of the mudra (hand gesture) and brings back the close ups from the beginning of the film.
As in Indian classical music the ending also signifies the beginning of something new.
The look and surrounding of the film is kept minimalistic and stark, with the intention to bring out the beauty of the instruments and the art form itself.
Director Biography – Melissa Das-Arp
Melissa Das-Arp was born and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and watched her father create storyboards, direct, produce and edit documentaries.
When she moved to Canada she became involved in North Indian music (tabla) and started producing promotional videos.
Now Melissa works mainly on creating storyboards, directing and producing videos for music and dance.
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0 My Favorite Dinner
Title: My Favourite Dinner
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 3
A stoic couple are concerned about the health of the younger generation and how that will affect their meal quality.
Director Biography – Praveen Raj Ganesan
Praveen is a Director, actor, editor and producer living in Pickering, Canada. Born in Sri Lanka to Indian Parents, raised in India, Salem, Tamil Nadu. By the age of 18 he had travelled all over India and the Philippines to study Aviation. He holds a Commercial Pilot license from the Philippines.
Acting, directing was always a passion for him from his early childhood days and that lead to a lot of stage plays and a few TV shows. Stage plays that he directed and acted in his school days won alot of awards between the year 2003 and 2005. To support his family financially he studied IT computer Networking he moved to Canada in December 2010. After finishing his studies he started working as an IT Network Security Consultant. This did not make him stop chasing his dream. He started networking and built his own team to produce short films and commercials. He learned photography, cinematography and editing to support his films. He is 9 to 5 as an IT geek and the rest of the time he has worked, learned and made movies. After about 5 years of working full time he quit is job to start his own IT, media and Digital Marketing company Kural Inc. so that he has more time on hand to make films.
His first Short film in Canada was Ethiri The Enemy(2015), a tamil Short film. In 2016, 2017 he founded Thamziha foundation a nonprofit to help Indian farmers that he has featured in a lot of political awareness videos. Some of his videos has earned around 1 Million views in Facebook.
FB Link: https://www.facebook.com/nnthamizha/videos/278548585926803/
2017 he has worked in the following short films
Mr Moden (2017) – Director, Producer
Happy Birthday Rahul (2017) – Director, Actor, Producer, Editor
Lecture (2017) – Actor, Producer
My Favourite Dinner (2017) – Director, Producer
Dumped (2017) – Director, Producer
Ethiri (2015) – Director, Actor, Producer, Editor (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yPJ_tLC8mQ)
His first feature film is in the preproduction phase and expected to be released by late Summer 2018
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0 Nigel and Percy go to Niagara
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0 Stealing Vows
Title: Stealing Vows
Premiere: Theatrical Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 9
www.stealingvows.com
Four colleagues in the wedding business have all reached a crossroads in their respected careers. None of them intended to be locked into a life of wedding service monotony, but their career trajectories took a U-turn and led them into the humbling embrace of their home city, Brampton. The opportunity for one of them to elicit payback on a gold-digging ex-girlfriend emerges, kick-starting an unbelievably clever, yet morally wrong crime spree that could ultimately help a drug-abusing wedding emcee, a would-be master chef, a spineless decorator and a talented photographer financially escape their sad foreseeable futures.
In the spirit of The Italian Job and The Usual Suspects, this film – set in the suburbs of Toronto in the late 1990’s – follows the lives of four colleagues and friends who set out on dangerous path to risk all they have for a shot at a better life.
Director: Bobby S. Brown
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0 Simple Simon
Title: Simple Simon
Premiere: Toronto Premiere | Country: Canada | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 8
Synopsis:
The parents of a young girl are dismayed when she begins bullying her imaginary friend.
Director: Maninder Chana
An award-winning writer, director, producer and actor, Maninder Chana
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0 2018 Filmi Schedule
November 10, 2018
7:30PM
Simple Simon
Stealing Vows
Nigel and Percy go to Niagara
My Favorite Dinner
Faceoff
Trust issues
Dhoori
ClownLove
Black Birthday
Dark Nun
Heart
Stall
Priya
A Birthday Surprise
November 11, 2018
12:00PM
Panel Discussion:
Emerging Filmmakers
3:00PM
Working Lunch
Do we belong?
Lake Shore Drive
7:30PM
Candyland
No Man’s Land
Raising the Bar
Blindspot
Arithmetic
Maternal
Green
Loretta’s flowers
Bad Boys Video
Insulin and Cake
Dust to Dust
Becoming Leela
About The Sharma’s
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0 Call for Submission – filmi19
2018 Call for Submissions – 19th Filmi: Toronto’s South Asian film festival
Filmi19 is now accepting submissions of all genres: shorts, docs, animation, web series and features. We are looking for new, innovative thought-provoking films from any genre with a South Asian theme and films acted, written, directed by South Asians!
Filmi 19 will be held November 10th & 11th, 2018 at Harbourfront Centre Theatre.
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0 Tabdeeli
Premiere Status: Toronto Premiere
Title of the Film: Tabdeeli
Country of Origin: Canada
Year of Production: 2017
Running Time in minutes: 27
Synopsis:
Tabdeeli “Change” is about young East Indian males in the drug trade, and how their actions affect themselves and their families in the long run. This film has a great message to all young gang bangers, who want to live this lifestyle, but when the smoke settles and the hype is gone, the only people that are there for you is family. We don’t want to give away the rest of the story but this film is about change.
Director: Vimal Parmar
Vimal Parmar
I’ve only been shooting films for a few years now but my journey to this point, has lead me to be taken under the wing of many amazing creatives in this industry. I’m now trying to tell my own stories with all the knowledge I’ve gained and hope to keep learning as a filmmaker.
Story of a Sikh is the journey of discovery into what is a complex social dilemma. I was brought in to help tell this story through the eyes of Jag Dhaliwal, and together we put in over a 100% to try and tell the story of struggle and strife and overcoming obstacles that can be found in life. Told in a very real way, we used this perfect medium known as film to bring you with us along this dark journey.
I hope that our project resonates with the audience in the ways it was meant to and we certainly hope you enjoy this film.
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0 Where are you from?
Premiere Status: Canadian premiere
Title of the Film: Where are you From?
Country of Origin: Canada
Year of Production: 2017
Running Time in minutes: 2:27
About
A short personal Super8mm film produced for the Kodak Challenge.
Director: Sofian Khan
Sofian Khan (PRODUCER) is the founder of Capital K Pictures and a New York native. His shorts have appeared on Field of Vision, Al Jazeera, PBS, Fusion, The Atlantic and Huffington Post. He is a 2016 MacArthur Documentary Grant recipient for his filmTHE INTERPRETER, currently in post. Sofian’s first feature THE DICKUMENTARY (2014) — a definitive history of the penis from its evolution millions of years ago to today — was acquired by Breaking Glass Pictures in the US, and made its festival premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival. His second feature GAUCHO DEL NORTE (2015), was released shortly after, co-directed with producing partner Andrés Caballero. The film was a Jerome Foundation grant recipient, following South American shepherds who are recruited to work in the American west. It premiered at the 2015 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and aired on PBS’ America ReFramed series.
Website: http://capitalkpictures.com
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0 An Act of Worship
Synopsis:
Since the 2016 election, hate crimes against Muslims have reached their highest level since 9/11. The travel ban — initially blocked but now partially reinstated by order of the Supreme Court — has sent the message that Muslims are not welcome in the US. AN ACT OF WORSHIP is about the push back against these developments. The film follows established civil rights organizations like CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) as well as a new generation of Muslim youth who have been galvanized into action against the forces of Islamophobia.
Directed by Sofian Khan & Nausheen Dadabhoy.
Sofian Khan (PRODUCER) is the founder of Capital K Pictures and a New York native. His shorts have appeared on Field of Vision, Al Jazeera, PBS, Fusion, The Atlantic and Huffington Post. He is a 2016 MacArthur Documentary Grant recipient for his filmTHE INTERPRETER, currently in post. Sofian’s first feature THE DICKUMENTARY (2014) — a definitive history of the penis from its evolution millions of years ago to today — was acquired by Breaking Glass Pictures in the US, and made its festival premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival. His second feature GAUCHO DEL NORTE (2015), was released shortly after, co-directed with producing partner Andrés Caballero. The film was a Jerome Foundation grant recipient, following South American shepherds who are recruited to work in the American west. It premiered at the 2015 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and aired on PBS’ America ReFramed series.
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0 Girl Up
Premiere Status: World premiere
Title of the Film: Girl Up
Country of Origin: Canada
Year of Production: 2017
Running Time in minutes: 26
Synopsis :
Girl Up is a 25 min documentary about a girl who was a victim of domestic human trafficking in Toronto, Canada and her journey to find the courage to fight and get her life back. The documentary sheds light on domestic human trafficking that happens regularly in the first world countries, but no one wants to know or talk about it. This is Shreya Patel’s first film as a Director.
Director: Shreya Patel
Bio :
Model-turned-actress and filmmaker Shreya Patel has walked the runways of Asia, Middle East and North America and has been featured in numerous fashion spreads, covers, television spots and events. Her interest in storytelling and media led her to complete the postgrad documentary program at Seneca@York. She recently finished directing a documentary film named “Girl Up”, which raised questions about sex work, domestic violence and social injustices. Other directing credits include a fashion film called “One Left” for the Elle Canada Fashion Film Competition. Shreya has also acted in several commercials and short films and is currently looking forward to shooting her first feature in the new year.
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0 Room for Her
Room for HER
World Premiere
Running Time: 13:38
Synopsis
‘Some days are harder than others.’ Such is life for Shelley and Alice, two middle-aged women who struggle with living on the poverty line and must deal with a daily array of physical and mental health issues. But Shelley and Alice have discovered the power and joys of art. As residents of Parkdale, a culturally and socioeconomically diverse neighbourhood in Toronto’s West End, and active members of a community arts program called Making Room, based out of a local multifunctional drop-in and social housing organization, these two women have discovered and reflect upon the transformative power of creative expression
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
http://www.lifeguardproductions.ca
SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES
https://www.facebook.com/lifeguardproductions
http://www.twitter.com/lifeguardproductions
Director: Farah Merani
Farah Merani is a graduate of the Drama Centre London and has performed in Canada, the US, throughout Europe and in Russia. In addition to being an actor, she has been involved in producing over 14 films with her company, Lifeguard Productions. She is one of the co-founders of Women on Screen, a non-profit that encourages a more dynamic and inclusive representation in the entertainment industry, and also serves as the Actra Toronto Diversity Committee co-chair. Her work has screened on the international festival circuit, including TIFF, the Austin Film Festival, the Atlantic Film Festival, the Reel World Film Festival, Garden State International Film Festival, and the Cleveland International Film Festival. As an actor, her credits include: Nikita, Lost Girl, Covert Affairs, and The Listener. “Room for Her” is Farah’s directorial debut.
23rd Filmi: Toronto's South Asian Film Festival Dec 6-7 2025 
