film

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

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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!

For Flow featured on Blacklist.com's "Go Into the Story" Blog!

Almost five years ago to the day, we were on a corner in the Bronx filming For Flow, the short film I adapted from my stage play, that was directed by Jason Camp, and later, was selected as a finalist at the 2011 HBO American Black Film Festival. A lot's happened since then, but I'm always thrilled to see that the film still resonates with folks. This time, Scott Myers of the screenwriter's website BlackList, featured Flow on his blog, Go Into The Story, as a part of "Movies You Made Month" this March. Follow the link or click on the picture below, and check out the whole film for free! 

 

pictured from left: Devere Rogers as "Dee", Vladimi Versailles as "Kane, and Cherrye Davis as "Roxanne"

pictured from left: Devere Rogers as "Dee", Vladimi Versailles as "Kane, and Cherrye Davis as "Roxanne"

Love from Austin Film Festival, Project Greenlight (& other stuff)!

It's been a while since I posted any news on here and that's not because I haven't been busy! If you follow me on social media, you already know.  Since my last post in April, I acted in two staged readings directed by Saheem Ali (A Free Man of Color - Broadway).  The first reading was entitled Tsunami, by Tunisian playwright, Jalila Baccar, which went up as a part of the PEN: World Voices: International Play Festival and dealt with the events around the Arab Spring's origins in Tunisia.  I played a reformed rebel fighter who'd lost his brother in the Syrian war.  I got to work with some amazing talent including Kathryn Kates, who plays Larry Bloom's mother on Orange is the New Black.

Next, Saheem asked me to be a part of the first staged reading of a play entitled Bhuta Kala, a NYU MFA Thesis by Nathaniel Shapiro.  This play was super interesting and also dealt with some very heavy material concerning the genocide that swept over Bali during the Communist purge in Indonesia between 1965-66.  The playwright told the story in the tradition of Balinese theater steeped in Hindu myths, but used humor throughout the piece while the dark events unfolded before the audience.  I played a young Communist who gets executed by his one-time classmates who remain loyal to the old guard.

After those two readings, as I alluded to in my last post, I became consumed by revising Dear Brother.  I spent the next two months getting it in shape to submit to a number of competitions. 

The fruit of that labor...I got on a list! Dear Brother wound up in the top 15% of scripts that advanced to the Second Round of the Austin Film Festival Screenplay competition.  Unfortunately, that's where it topped out, but the sheer volume of submissions (close to 7,000) makes that feat somewhat noteworthy.  So I may join fellow screenwriters in Austin come October, we'll see!

Meanwhile, the director of Lily In The Grinder has apparently been busy trying to get on some lists of his own because the film is a PROJECT GREENLIGHT finalist! Right this very moment, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (or probably their interns) are curled up in their PJ's watching my mug on a big projection screen, how wild is that!? 

That's all for now my peoples.  In a few hours, I'll be cloud-hoppin' on my way to a vacation.  Curious as to where? Follow me on twitter and instagram! I need to recharge so I can put out the next hotness I have in store :P

Peace

K

 

New York premiere of Dear Brother short!

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Click through for tickets! 

Click through for tickets! 

If you've known me at all for the past four years or so, you have, at one point or another asked me what I'm working on and, if I held your attention long enough, I eventually got to the part where I described a screenplay that I've poured most of my non-acting free time into- mind, body and soul, titled Dear Brother.

For those that are unfamiliar, the logline: An English born Pakistani boxer, Saleem, fights for his freedom after being wrongfully convicted of planning terrorism.

The script tallied a couple wins at competitions/festivals,  but it needed some more work to really hit all the notes that a powerful story like this ought to.  Well, I've been plugging away at it and luckily, along the way, I met a seasoned and well accomplished screenwriter/Sundance-alum, who believes in the story and has graciously guided me through the most recent round of revisions.  Deep breaths...I am thrilled about this rewrite. 

SO, what better time than now to screen a 3 minute short film adapted from Dear Brother !? I shot this film in response to a competition that a London-based theatre company named Headlong Theatre organized in honor of the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001.  When I found out about the competition, I had exactly three weeks to put the film together. That meant writing it, pre-production (i.e. casting, location scouting, etc.), shooting, and post, condensed into a three-week span, squeezed in between work and other life necessities like food, air and water.  Favors were called in and graciously answered (notably, my brothers; Abhijeet for coming up from New Jersey in spite of the flu, to lend his editing expertise, and Samarjeet for remotely scoring the opening music).  

In the end, we ended up with this short that you can view on my website OR you can come watch it on the BIG(ger) screen on Saturday, April 19th, when it screens as a part of Katra's monthly film series alongside some stellar films including, one starring Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston....!? Yes, I'm not burnin BLUE ICE over here. That's the honest to Jah #TROOF.  So please come out and watch, support, mingle.  Tix available here. 

Hope to see you all there! If not, you will probably miss out taking pictures with me like this classic one with the cast of Lily In the Grinder which screened on April 1st.  I clearly thought I had to kneel like it was the JV baseball team photo. Go Cougars! (I was next to a flight of stairs OK!?)

Cast and Director photo - David Gregory, Dan Amboyer, moi, and Dir. Michael Morgenstern at the Anthology Film Archives, NYC.  April 1, 2014. Visit Lily In the Grinder's facebook page for more pics and updates on this film!