Mustard Seed Film Festival

Mustard Seed Film Festival, the first and only South Asian film festival in Philadelphia, is returning August 18th-20th for three days of screenings and events. Featuring contemporary, socially engaged films by South Asian directors highlighting marginalized voices, the second annual festival will focus on themes salient to the South Asian citizen, immigrant, and diasporic experience.

Mustard Seed seeks to increase access to South Asian films, but also offer alternative visions of South Asia and South Asian cinema, bringing together communities of various origins and identities, and promoting cross­-cultural dialogue and exchange.

This year’s festival will include over 20 short and feature length films by filmmakers who trace their roots to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad, and other diasporic communities globally. Among the highlights will be an opening night celebration featuring Leena Manimekalai’s documentary film Is It Too Much to Ask?, which chronicles the experiences of two single transgender women looking for an apartment in Chennai, and a Saturday screening of My Bicycle, the first indigenous feature film shot in Bangladesh in the Chakma language.

Mustard Seed is the only South Asian film festival that intentionally spotlights women and LGBTQ filmmakers.