Who are we?

Lalit Mohan Joshi
Director/Editor
SACF

South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF) is a not-for- profit film organisation open to people of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. SACF was set up by Indian Film Historian, critic and former BBC Broadcast Journalist Lalit Mohan Joshi and Social Historian, Researcher and Community Worker Kusum Pant Joshi in January 2000 with support from Indian film archivist P.K. Nair and British film critic Derek Malcolm. It has an active group of committed volunteers and works in collaboration and with the support of the Indian High Commission, British Film Institute (BFI), various London Universities and a network of film lovers and students and teachers of cinema.

What are our aims?

SACF has been playing a unique role by:

• Projecting and highlighting meaningful cinema from the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka & Nepal).
• Developing a positive film culture among diverse audiences.
• Linking cinema with society, politics and local communities in creative ways.
• Providing a discussion forum for filmmakers/film audiences.
• Researching/ documenting South Asian film history/ heritage especially in UK.
• Developing web resources to reach out to a wider audience.
• Building South Asian film resources and archival material.

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​What are our activities?

To achieve our aims, SACF:

• Holds an annual thematic Film Festival to bring together film audiences from various backgrounds and communities to view and discuss significant films linked to a specific theme. This has helped develop a positive film culture and capacity for film appreciation.
• Organises special events to honour and pay tribute to Indian filmmakers to enable audiences to see their films, interrelate with them and realise the power of the film medium.
• Publishes a thematic journal South Asian Cinema (SAC) where leading film critics and film academics critically analyse and comment on the works of filmmakers, scriptwriters, lyricists, actors and music composers. Subscribers of SAC include film lovers, media students and universities from all over the world.
• Organises Film Workshops and discussions on South Asian and mainly Indian cinema, film education and film appreciation in educational, community and cultural centres.
• Holds Dada Saheb Phalke Memorial lecture on cinemas.

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Film Events & Festivals

• 2010-2011- SACF managed a new Indo-British Film Heritage (1909-1929) titled: Lifting the Curtain: Niranjan Pal and Indo-British Collaboration in Cinema. This year- long project (May 2010- August 2011) to highlight and showcase the work of Indian film legend Niranjan Pal (1889-1959), was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. SACF also published a new book: 'Niranjan Pal: A Forgotten Legend & Such is Life - An Autobiography by Niranjan Pal', produced a new film on Niranjan Pal and organised two exhibitions in London on the Life and Works of Niranjan Pal.
  
• 2010 – Filmmaker, Screen writer and Urdu Lyricist, Gulzar honoured with an Excellence in Cinema Award presented to him on behalf of SACF by the Indian High Commissioner, Shri Nalin Surie at the Nehru Centre...
• 2010 – Festival of Gulzar Films.
• 2010 – Screening of SACF documentary Jai Ho Gulzar!
• 2010 – British Filmmaker and Broadcaster Yavar Abbas honoured with the Life Time Achievement Award.
• 2009 – Filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli honoured with an Excellence in Cinema Award presented to him on behalf of SACF by the Indian High Commissioner at the Nehru Centre.
• 2009 – Festival of Girish Kasaravalli Films.
• 2009 – Indian Filmmaker Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi Honoured with the Cultural Catalyst Award.
• 2008 – Filmmaker Saeed Akhtar Mirza honoured with an Excellence in Cinema Award presented to him on behalf of SACF by the Indian High Commissioner at the Nehru Centre.
• 2008 – Festival of Saeed Akhtar Mirza Films.
• 2008 - Release of Special issue of South Asian Cinema Leftist Thought in Indian Cinema.
• 2007 – Cinema of Independence Festival to mark India’s 60th anniversary of India’s freedom from British rule.
• 2007 – Festival of Hindi Films with Psychological Themes.
• 2006 – Screenings of SACF documentary Beyond Partition (2006).
• 2006 – Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan honoured with an Excellence in Cinema Award presented to him on behalf of SACF by the Indian High Commissioner at the Nehru Centre.
• 2006 – Launch of our new book on Adoor and a Retrospective of Adoor films.
• 2006 – Festival of Adoor Gopalakrishnan Films.
• 2005 – Partition Films Festival in which films on the Partition of India from India, Pakistan & Bangladesh were screened.
• 2004 – Filmmaker M.S. Sathyu honoured with an Excellence in Cinema Award presented to him on behalf of SACF by the Indian High Commissioner at the Nehru Centre.
• 2003 – Release of A.R Rahman issue of South Asian Cinema (2003).
• 2002 – Exhibition to commemorate the Birth centenary of film pioneer V. Shantaram & a Festival of V. Shantaram Films.
• 2001 – Tribute to Cinema Legend Gulzar (2001).
• 2000 – Launch of SACF and release of the first issue of South Asian Cinema journal in London and Bombay.

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Publications

• 5 issues of SACF’s thematic journal South Asian Cinema (Shyam Benegal, A.R. Rahman, V. Shantaram, Partition Films and Leftist Thought in Indian Cinema)
• A Door to ADOOR (2006), the first book in English to profile internationally acclaimed filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

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Filmmaking

• Beyond Partition (2006), a documentary by Lalit Mohan Joshi that presents South Asian filmmakers’ take on the trauma and conflict of Partition and the post- Independence Hindu-Muslim and India-Pakistan divide.
  Quotes on the documentary
  “[Beyond Partition gives] a dispassionate view – important, if we have to shed the burden of bitterness that people in both nations [India and Pakistan] have carried since independence.” – Shyam Benegal
  ”A very insightful and provocative film on the partition” – Shekhar Kapur

• Jai Ho! Gulzar (2010): Looks at the Life and Works of Gulzar

• Work in progress on the new SACF documentary Light of Asia - Niranjan Pal

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Film Resources

SACF is building a South Asian Film and Sound Archive. We have a library of over 300 films (including several film classics) from South Asia, recordings of rare interviews with significant filmmakers and a collection of film books, journals, articles, research papers, screenplays, film stills, original posters and booklets.

Partnership working

SACF partners have included: The Nehru Centre, British Film Institute, Watermans, School of Oriental Studies & African Studies (SOAS), Westminster University, HMP Feltham Young Offenders’ Institute, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Confederation of Indian Organisations, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, ASRA Housing Association, Bite the Mango Festival, Bradford, Glasgow Film Theatre, Merlin Theatre, Sheffield, Netaji Subhas Foundation (NSF), Asian Foundation for Philanthropy (AFP), Tagore Centre, Tagoreans.