Friends and Colleagues,
Our film Zero Bridge has been nominated for a 2009 Gotham Award, and will screen **twice** later this month for its New York premiere at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). We would love to see you there for the screening/Q&A’s. View the trailer here. Tickets available for:
Friday, November 20, 2009, 6:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
Sunday, November 22, 2009, 12:30 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
"Zero Bridge"
2008. USA. Written and directed by Tariq Tapa. With Mohamad Imran Tapa, Taniya Khan, Ali Mohammad Dar. A discovery of the 2009 Venice and Karlovy Vary Film Festivals, Zero Bridge was filmed entirely in the war-torn city of Srinagar, Kashmir, with an astonishing cast of first-time actors and a crew of one—Tapa himself. The filmmaker’s debut feature, which bears the neorealist traces of Roberto Rossellini and Ermanno Olmi, is a beautifully observed portrait of daily life in Kashmir—its quotidian pleasures and dangers—as well as a gripping drama of a teenage pickpocket who longs to reunite with his adoptive mother in Delhi, but who finds himself morally and emotionally attached to a young woman whose passport he has stolen. Tapa, who was born in New York City to a Kashmiri Muslim father and an American Jewish mother, notes that “I thought that a film introducing the lives of a few Kashmiri citizens and their common hopes and fears would show their humanity more intimately than the usual Western documentaries on the Kashmir Situation or the Bollywood products that treat it purely as an exotic backdrop.” In Kashmiri, Urdu; English subtitles. 96 min. DIRECTOR INTRO/Q&A.
Critical Praise for ZERO BRIDGE:
“Gritty... sustains a powerful ending... Taniya Khan is a real find.” -- Variety
“Packs a punch, powerful...” -- Reuters
“Packs an impressive emotional wallop.” -- L.A. Weekly
“A totally engrossing journey.” -- L.A. Examiner
“★★★★ A Bull’s Eye! A surprise from start to finish that will move those with hearts of stone...” -- ARTÉ, France
About the Gotham Awards:
For the fourth year running, MoMA’s Department of Film, in association with IFP and its quarterly publication Filmmaker, screens the five nominees for the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You award. The nominees were selected by senior members of the Filmmaker editorial staff and by Joshua Siegel, associate curator in MoMA’s Department of Film. The five nominees represent this year’s best American independent films on the festival circuit that have yet to be picked up for theatrical distribution. The award will be presented to the winner on November 30 at IFP’s Nineteenth Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards. Filmmakers take part in a Q&A following selected screenings.
Organized by Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art; Michelle Byrd, Executive Director, IFP; Scott Macaulay, Editor, Filmmaker magazine; and Milton Tabbot, Senior Director, Programming, IFP.
