Indian Films to Conflict at Tribeca Film Festival

 

A critically acclaimed dramatic feature film, “The Kite” (Patang); and “Marathon Boy,” a documentary about one of India’ s most fascinating personalities, nine-year-old Budhia, the famed Orissa-born marathon runner, will both screen in competition at the 10th Tribeca Film Festival, to be held in New York City April 20-May 1.

“The Kite” makes its North American premiere after a well-received screening in Berlin in February. Directed and written by Chicago-based filmmaker Prashant Bhargava, the film is a family saga set against the colorful spectacle of the Uttarayan, India’s largest kite festival.

British documentarian Gemma Atwal spent years shooting “Marathon Boy,” which follows the exploits of Budhia, a four-year-old boy plucked from the slums and trained as a marathon prodigy by Biranchi Das, a larger-than-life judo coach who runs an orphanage in Orissa. “But over the next five years and dozens of marathons, Budhia’s roller-coaster journey turns from an uplifting story of promise and opportunity to one of greed, corruption, and broken dreams,” said a spokesperson.

This year, 12 narrative and 12 documentary features all making their North American, international, or world premieres will compete for combined unrestricted cash prizes amounting to $150,000.

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival will present a total of 88 feature-length and 61 short films from 32 countries. The 2011 film slate was chosen from a total of 5,624 submissions, a record number for the festival. “We believe the competition this year is one of our most diverse yet — it includes countries and genres never before represented and highlights the spectrum of world cinema out there today,” said David Kwok, director of programming.

As part of the festival’s new interactive initiative, several films from festivals past will screen for free online at www.tribecafilm.com, including “Clear Cut, Simple,” Vineet Dewan’s 2007 award-winning narrative short about an American soldier in Iraq torn between his duty to the military and his friendship with his Iraqi interpreter, based on a true story.