Regent Park Film Festival: Under Construction
When Regent Park Film Festival reached out and asked us if we’d like to be a Community Partner for one of their films at the 2019 film festival, we didn’t even hesitate. In a city full of a bajillion (it feels like it at least) film festivals, RPFF stands out as something special. The festival, in its 17th year, is Toronto’s longest running free community film festival. Yep, you read that right: free. They focus on inviting folks from from low income and public housing communities and you really love to see it.
The film we are partnered with is called Under Construction and it was written and directed by Rubaiyat Hossain. Her latest film, Made in Bangladesh, premiered at TIFF 2019.
Struggling to find herself in the sprawl of urban Bangladesh, Muslim theater actress Roya suffers from her husband’s wish for children and traditional life. Not interested in motherhood, she decides to reconstruct a famous and politically minded play for modern times, reclaiming her identity, her freedom and her sexuality in the process.
Under Construction screens on Saturday November 23 at 5:30PM. Afterward there will be a Talkback featuring some pretty rad individuals, even more reason to go to this screening!
Talkback Moderator
Rosina Kazi is the lead singer of the protest electronic duo LAL. They are a queer/gender fluid, culturally a Bengali and Muslim identified artist who helps run the alternative arts space Unit 2.
Talkback Guests
Nazneen Islam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1967. She obtained her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Dhaka University. She likes to create art using a variety of subject matter including figurative work, design, memories and storytelling. She had three solo art exhibitions in Toronto and more than twenty group exhibitions in Bangladesh and Canada.
Nadia Alam is the Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator at Momofuku Toronto. She’s also a multimedia artist, focusing on content creation and is currently she is working on a podcast called Show Me Your Ugly.
And, of course, the rest of RPFF 2019 is not to be missed either. There are screenings of Lulu Wang’s The Farewell and Mati Diop’s Atlantics! And on November 21 you can see local talent Alicia K Harris’s short film PICK. Last year she graced our blog with a powerful essay about the film and we’re so excited Toronto gets to see it now!
