My short film "Closet Supes" to screen on 9/29 at Tasveer South Asian Film Festival in Seattle!

Closet Supes is a short film I made in response to a competition prompt that invited Asian-Americans to make a film examining our unique perspectives as children of Asian immigrants in today’s America. This was an opportunity for me to turn the lens inward on my personal life and tell an atypical immigrant tale of loss, forgiveness, and identity as it is influenced by family, both the kind we are born into and the families we choose. The story is loosely based on my relationship with my step-brother and our mutual love for comic books.

After months of post-production, I’m thrilled to announce that Closet Supes will be screening at the largest South Asian film festival in America, the Tasveer South Asian Film Festival in Seattle! Check the trailer below!

The best part about it is, my step-brother, Sam, and my new wife Camille are coming along for the ride :) Follow my social media to catch glimpses of our red-carpet arrival where we’ll be rubbing elbows with some of the elite names in South Asian film such as Shabana Azmi (Deepa Mehta’s Fire) and Suraj Sharma (Ang Lee’s Life of Pi).

And if you’re interested in learning about how I managed to pull off a hybrid live-action/animated short film on a budget with a skeleton crew, fear not! I’m also a panelist on the festival’s short-film workshop where we’ll be pulling the veil back on the grind behind the shine ;)

Thank you, as always, for your love and support, and for listening to my stories wherever they find an outlet.

Peace!

Live Presentation of my award-winning screenplay "Dear Brother" in NYC on June 11!

Last year, I was at the Cannes Film Festival shopping my script "Dear Brother" to producers at the Maison Des Scenaristes pitch competition. This year, I'm planning a live reading of the screenplay in NYC on 6/11, for a small audience, to be followed by a talk back moderated by religious scholar, and Barnard College faculty member, Hussein Rashid, Ph.D., a thought leader on Islam. Come out, support and engage! Tickets are FREE

Inspired by true events, Dear Brother is the fictional story of a Pakistani-American boxer who fights for his freedom after he's ensnared in an FBI counter-terrorism sting operation. Blending elements of the Denzel Washington classic, "The Hurricane" with Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" franchise, Dear Brother is the boxing epic reflective of our times.

The goal of the evening is to spark dialogue around the issues of how Islamophobia pervades the American law enforcement and criminal justice systems, and provide an opportunity for the writer to receive feedback for future development.

I just finished casting the reading with these amazing actors below:

Anish Roy

Hannah McGovern Gross

Rishi Mutalik

Alec Bandzes

Al Nazemian & Adeola Role

Erik LaPointe & Sunny Choi

Rahoul Roy & Ishani Das

Nitin Madan & Nikki Chawla

If you are interested in the background research that inspired the elements of the story, I’ve included links to articles and a Ted talk by journalist Will Potter below:

• The Sting: How the FBI Created a Terrorist, by Trevor Aaronson, The Intercept, March 16, 2015

• The United States Wants the World to Forget These Prisoners, by Molly Crabapple, Creative Time Reports, July 21, 2014

• Yassin at Ray Brook FCI, by Yassin Aref, Excerpts from a Letter from Yassin Aref, a prisoner at the Terre Haute Federal Prison’s CMU unit, to Carl Strock of the Schnectady Daily Gazette, September 10, 2007

• The Secret U.S. Prisons You’ve Never Heard Of, by Will Potter, TED Fellow Retreat 2015 - Stream the Video Below.

Investigative journalist Will Potter is the only reporter who has been inside a Communications Management Unit, or CMU, within a US prison. These units were opened secretly, and radically alter how prisoners are treated -- even preventing them from hugging their children.

CUFF's World Premiere will be @NYTVF 2018 on July 17 at 8 p.m.!

The long road that started over two years ago when I sat down to write a new TV series has led me to one steamy night this July when I'll see the pilot Cuff have its world premiere at the New York Television Festival. Just three weeks from now, on Tuesday, July 17th at 8 p.m., I'll be in attendance with some of the very special folks who helped me put this show together as well as the people I hold near and dear to my heart. Tickets are only $5 and are on sale now (click the picture below to zip over to the purchase page). Hope to see you at the Helen Mills Theater in Chelsea, NYC! :)

The teaser for CUFF is finally here!

This has been a few years in the making, and now, it's finally here...the teaser for my new episodic CUFF! This is basically what dreams in New York are made of. Artists meeting, vibing and collaborating to create original, exciting work. Thank you to everyone who's poured their hard work into this vision! We hope you enjoy and can't wait to take you deeper into this wild story :)