At Austin’s Indie Meme Fest

Here are a few pictures* from the super-fun Indie Meme Film Festival, which showcases indie films from South Asia.

It was great to see a red carpet filled with female directors, and I love that the festival has Skype interviews with directors who can’t make it to the festival from overseas.

The festival’s mission statement gives a clue about why I enjoyed the festival.

A 501c(3) non-profit, Indie Meme.Org’s mission is to promote socially relevant independent cinema from South Asia, in an effort to influence social and cultural awareness and consciousness, and encourage and facilitate dialogue.

Of all the films I managed to see, I’m most in love with Ask The Sexpert about a 93 year-old sex advice columnist in Mumbai! Directed by Vaishali Sinha, the film manages to explain the reasons why the column is both popular and a hot spot of culture in the city.

According to the film’s distributor

ASK THE SEXPERT is a feature length documentary about a highly popular 93—year-old sex advice columnist, Dr. Watsa, who writes for a daily newspaper in Mumbai. Despite sex being a taboo topic in that country, the column’s brand of non—moralistic advice and humor has emboldened many to write in with their questions, the vast majority of whom seek basic information. The columnist gains popularity even while a ban on comprehensive sex education in schools is adopted by approximately one third of India’s states.

While I wasn’t familiar with the festival before, I’m now totally planning on going next year, even though it felt a lot like a community event for a community that I’m not part of. Sometimes it’s good to expand your world!

*The photo gallery may work better when not viewed on a mobile device.