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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Category: Uncategorized
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 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 Fatima
FATIMA
Toronto Premiere
RUnning time 12:24
Synopsis
Fatima is the story of a young visually impaired girl, plagued by the unkindness of society yet anchored by the strength of her mother’s love, who does not let her dream of being a Judo Olympian concede defeat – not even to the limits of sight.
Director: Akreta Saim
Akreta is an Indo-Canadian critically acclaimed independent film producer and director. She is a York University film graduate and has made several short films, documentaries, corporate films and music videos. Akreta’s film ‘Elpis’ has screened at festivals like Festival de Cannes and Toronto International Film Festival, just to name a few. She is an active member of the international film festival circuit and has also been on the jury for various film festivals, including the Images Festival, Canada. She loves to explore new cultures and has traversed the globe to bring lost stories to light.
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0 Punishment for the crime NOT COMMITTED
Punishment for the crime NOT COMMITTED
This documentary is about the inhuman act of Swara or Wanni which is practiced to this day in many parts of the country. Swara or Wanni is a social evil followed in our society in which girls (even minor) are given as compensation to the enemy families to settle the disputes ranging from murder to honor related issues. In this documentary the story of a victim girl from Swat who was given in Swara at the age of 11 has been narrated. She tells her own tragic story which made her life a real hell as she was treated as an animal by her in-laws. She tells the harrowing details of her ordeal as she gave birth to a baby girl at the age of 14 under very abject conditions.
This documentary shows different aspects of the issue including the historical background of the issue, media role in reporting this issue, the role of police while investigating the cases of Swara or Wanni and the legal aspects. That certain laws which protect the women rights, are still not extended to PATA (Provincial Administrative Tribal Areas) speak volumes about the official apathy towards the people living there.
Mostly in Swara or Wanni the girl is under age of 18 and all basic rights of a girl are violated. Our religion does not approve of such inhumane customs and accords a higher status to women. All the national and international laws also give complete rights to women and decisions cannot be imposed on them. This practice is the violation of the manifesto of UNO and likewise it violates article 16 of CEDAW of which Pakistan is a signatory.
Director: OHAIL ASGHAR
Won best documentary Award at International Film and Entertainment Festival Australia 2016.
Won Best Documentary award at LUMS International film festival Pakistan 2017
Assistant Director and production manager at Black Box sounds islamabad. http://www.blackboxsounds.com
Concept writer for Pakistan’s biggest campaign on education; Radio campaign Zara Shochiye (Think about it). Concept and Scriptwriter for TVCs and Radio Campaign on International Women’s Day for Aurat Foundation’s GEP Program supported by USAID.
Production Manager for 18 Documentaries for Save The Children, two minutes each. Among which 8 were animations and 10 were short stories.Production Manager for 16-episode TV Drama in Pashto on Countering Violence and Extremism.
Production Manager for documentary produced on Malala Yousafzai.Production Manager for KP-FATA Health program, which includes 6 PSMs and 4 real life stories, for the Government and Save the Children’s interventions in KP.Production Manager on documentary produced on Abdul Sattar Edhi.Assistant Director for Teacher’s Resource Centre’s 8 min documentary on innovation in education.Assistant director for Aurat Foundation’s success stories on women empowerment for USAID.Assistant Director on a documentary on Bonded Labour in Sindh, which was produced for Mehergarh.Assistant Director on documentary produced on interfaith harmony for UNDP, which featured activist Mona Prakash, an N-Peace Awards winner.Assistant Director of Documentary and two TVCs on awareness raising of Family Laws in Pakistan for the south of Punjab for European Union.Assistant Director on Women Empowerment series of 10 documentaries featuring strong inspiring women from across Pakistan for US Embassy Islamabad.
Assistant Director on four TVCs produced on awareness raising against child sexual abuse, early and early marriage, and puberty for Women Empowerment Group.
Assistant Director of song produced on standing in solidarity with Acid Survivors for the Acid Survivors Foundation.
Trainee Reporter
Geo news Islamabad http://www.geo.tv
Research Internee
ATV News Islamabad http://www.atv.com.pk
Involved in sub editing, news monitoring and also a experience in reporting in field.
Work as researcher with the renowned journalists.
Broadcaster and co-producer
Swat FM radio
Involved in presenting and producing programmes on different social and political issues.
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0 Ruby’s Tuesday
Ruby’s Tuesday
Canadian Premiere
Running TIme: 11:37
It’s Tuesday. It’s also Ruby’s Birthday… And even though she’s the only one who remembered, she’s determined to make it a day she never forgets.
Director:
Supinder Wraich is an award winning actor for her role in ‘Guidestones’. This is her third short that she has directed.
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0 The Worst Part
Synopsis:
The Worst Part is a short film about a guy going to get his stuff after a breakup. I put this one together one weekend with some very talented friends and family. We all wanted to practice the craft of going from script to screen so thank you to everyone involved in this production!
Directors: Reza Dahya
Reza Dahya is known for his work as a host and producer of OTA Live on FLOW 93.5FM in Toronto. He transitioned into filmmaking with his first short film, ESHA (2011), and the crowd-funded FIVE DOLLARS (2013), which premiered at the TIFF Kids International Film Festival, screened internationally and aired on CBC’s “Canadian Reflections”. A 2014 alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre’s Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Directors’ Lab, Dahya completed his CFC Short Film, CHAMELEON (2015), as well as the indie short THE WORST PART (2016) and is developing a slate of feature films.
http://www.afilmbyrez.com
Instagram: @afilmbyrez on
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0 Global Party Starters – Bout Us (f. Elise Estrada and J. Young)
Synopsis
Global Party Starters – Bout Us (f. Elise Estrada and J. Young)
The video is based on the true story of GPS co-founder SatsB and his wife Michelle. The video deals with the taboo in South Asian culture of dating and marrying outside of your culture and religion. Big thank you to Telus StoryHive and the BC Music Fund for letting us tell this story.
Directed by Elena Sarasom and Hussein DJ A-SLAM Alidina
Story by Sathish SatsB Bala
Produced by Shameer Punjani
A-SLAM Bio
With the help of the BC Music Fund, DJ A-SLAM has launched a new group called the “Global Party Starters”. In their short time as a group, GPS has already been nominated for two Canadian Songwriting Awards, and were semi-finalists in the Unsigned Only Music Competition. This project has also allowed DJ A-SLAM to take the directors seat. His first video, titled Follow Me, brought together international artists sharing their personal mantras. A-SLAM’s second treatment led to a Telus StoryHive music video grant. This video, titled “Bout Us”, has just released and will be screened at Toronto’s Filmy Festival as well and the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival.
23rd Filmi: Toronto's South Asian Film Festival Dec 6-7 2025 
