Desi2 comes full circle at Masala! Mehndi! Masti!

The Masala! Mehndi! Masti! festival will screen I Want To Be A Desi 2 on Sunday, July 25 at 4:00 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on the CNE grounds. The film is part of a program of shorts programmed by the FILMI South Asian Film Festival.

After a festival run that began exactly a year ago at New York's Asian American International Film Festival that extended across North America including Washington, Vancouver, San Diego, and Portland, Desi 2 returns home with this screening. It's only fitting because a big portion was filmed at the 2008 Masala! Mehndi! Masti!

Admission is free, and the festival runs all weekend with a full schedule of dance, music, parties, food and of course films. Familes welcome. Events held indoors and out, so enjoy the sun.

And if you're in Kelowna that weekend, check out the Okanagan International Film Festival where Desi 2 will play on July 24. Click here for details.

The west coast loves Desi 2

Following screenings in Vancouver, Portland and San Diego, I Want To Be A Desi 2 will next play at the Okanagan International Film Festival on July 24 in beautiful Kelowna, BC. Director Allan Tong's earlier film, Grange Avenue, screened here two years ago.

Click here for tickets and full details.

I WANT TO BE A DESI completed

Production of the short film, I Want To Be A Desi, has ended and the completed film has been delivered to broadcaster, Bravo. The six-minute comedy will play the festival circuit for the next 12 months before Bravo broadcasts it across Canada.

In the film, a young man of multiracial origin, Roger (David Yee), doesn't know who he is, and so hires a suspicious Indo-Canadian (Jazz Mann, see below) to teach him to become a 'desi' in one day. That includes choosing a beautiful bride who can cook a perfectly circular roti. But is it that easy to step into someone else's skin?


The film was shot over two days in December in North York. DP Daniel Grant shot the film on the Red camera while Rose Legace acted as the Production Designer. Baun Mah edited the film, while Danijel Margetic completed the online edit in addition to his producer's duties. The film was made by Balkan Films and the executive producers are Michael McNamara and Judy Holm.

The film was a pleasure to shoot, according to director Allan Tong. "The film was a pleasure to shoot," he recalls today, extending his thanks to a hard-working and dedicated crew.


Bravo and the Toronto Arts Council invested in this six-minute production. Special thanks also go to ACTRA for its TIP program, and the CFTPA. (Click here for the cast and crew list.) Check back for regular updates as Desi during its festival run.

T R A I L E R

Desi2 to screen at Okanagan Film Festival in July

The West Coast loves DESI. The Okanagan International Film Festival has chosen the short documentary to play at its annual festival taking place July 21-25 in lovely Kelowna, B.C. Desi2 has already screened in San Diego, Vancouver and Portland.

Screening times will appear on the Okanagan site as soon as renovations are done, but sign up at the festival's Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36407298283&ref=ts&v=info

Desi2 plays DisOrient on April 24

I Want To Be A Desi 2 screens at the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon in Portland on Saturday, April 24 at noon as part of the Life As We Know It program. The screening marks yet another west coast screening for the six-minute documentary, following successful festival appearances in San Diego and Vancouver. Full festival details and ticket orders at:

I Want To Be A Desi 2 named top doc at U of T Film Fest

I Want To Be A Desi 2 was awarded the Best Documentary prize at last night's University of Toronto Film Festival. Director Allan Tong was on hand to accept the award and thank the Hart House Film Board which organized the jammed-pack one-day, multimedia event, and his collaborators including cinematographer, David Eng, who picked up an award for one of his films.Two DV cameras from the Hart House Film Board, a battered, old Canon XL-1 and a 24P Panasonic, were used in filming Desi 2. One scene was later shot in Hart House, which sits on the grounds on the downtown UofT campus.

For those who missed the screening yesterday, I Want To Be A Desi 2, can be viewed for a little longer at the National Screen Institute's Online Film Festival.

Desi 2 plays at 2010 University of Toronto Film Festival

IWTAB2 plays on Saturday, March 13 at the University of Toronto Film Festival. It appears in a one-hour program devoted to non-student shorts at 5:45 pm. All screenings at this fest are free and take place at Hart House just west of Queen's Park. Go to the second floor Music Room. Full schedule at: http://uoftfilmfest.ca/wp/