For those who endured the trauma, it was on a horrendous scale.

Where is the movie showing in Canada.

And the "trauma" continues except now the boot is on the feet of the Indo elites kicking black butt.......except that we arent allowed to say anything about it, while under Burnham you saw nothing wrong with Indo complaints of Afro elite racism.

You have to admire Shundell for her talent and moxie to make film. She's an NYU film grad, but her historical content in Twice Removed was highly exaggerated. If an Indian from Mackenzie/Wismar (now Linden) said the same things then it could be understandable.

I think u missed the point. I have not seen the film. Your comment is wrong. Perhaps, she included the events of Wismar/Mackenzie in blending the story. 

Kidmost,

If u r reading. What is ur opinion?

Here's a review of the movie from the examiner.com site.

Here's a noteworthy excerpt by the writer Marvin Miranda.

What makes the film are those little, fleeting moments of everyday life that remind us that not all entertainment needs to be about losing ourselves in the make believe, or those things foreign to our lives and our experiences. What also makes the film is the excitement of watching a fresh, new director with a distinct voice and a lot of potential ahead of her. And that’s worth writing about.

Shundell has had a good post-graduate grounding and her films do explore the condition of Indians in the diaspora in all its facets. Her first documentary film  Once More Removed was about Shundell's journey to her roots in India. You guys here would remember the initial surge in interest in an Indentureship database project.

It's a tough world for a young film graduate as my daughter is about to experience. But we have to encourage those among us whose trajectory in this pursuit can only make us a people proud of our heritage. Shundell has done us proud and she deserves our recognition.

Seignet, I didn't miss the point about that movie. When I saw "Once More Removed" the racial division was portrayed in context but a non-Guyanese would have gotten the impression that we were close to a Hutu-Tutsi scenario. The girl did a commendable job.

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There's an all-around amateurish charm to this little independent flick, Festival of Lights, that recalls the rawness of something like Spike Lee's first feature film or Carl Franklin's One False Move or perhaps even most of indie cinema circa 1992: So the performances can sometimes be a little on the wooden side, the dialogue at times clunky and the melodrama can range from “burnt to a crisp to bloody as hell,” to misquote indie royalty. But there's a definite energy to that rawness and first time feature director Shundell Prasad does have an eye (and an ear!) for composition. It helps that she is working with a culture of extreme contrasts: at times she's filming scenes of grand, colorful opulence, while at others she's providing stark glimpses into a country in need, all with the same commendably objective eye for detail.

The country is the little filmed Guyana (that’s right, as in the Guyana of Jim Jones infamy) and the years are 1978 and, fittingly, 1992, the latter being a tricky period to capture with its transitional fashions and music and transitional post-Reagan political atmosphere. But in Prasad’s hands it is a year and an age that is immediately recognizable to this reviewer. The clothes and the hair are spot-on and it’s nice to see that the producers were able to shell out what may have been a pretty nickel or two on music that the kids were actually listening to.

All this attention to detail helps with constructing a reality that should also be readily identifiable to a whole generation of urban immigrants that came of age during the early nineties. Within the confines of an almost peripheral plot (in 1978 girl is separated from her father who remains in Guyana and as a teenager in 1992 New York sets out on a pilgrimage to see him) there are moments captured that reveal an absolute truth and beauty about the immigrant experience: the awkwardness of helping out the newer immigrant who’s also new at the job; at the urban high school, your coolness trumps your cultural roots and that coolness is the only determinant of your position in the school's social caste; cultural traditions are not forgotten once you marry outside of your culture; etc. It’s moments like these that provide a rich texture to the film and hark back to a period not too long ago in independent cinema where a greater emphasis was put on telling small, personal stories about what it is to be an American, whether born in this country or not.

I suppose I could mention that the movie co-stars Aidan Quinn and Jimi Mistry as the stepfather and birth father, respectively, of our young, lost heroine. And as fine as you might expect the performances of two seasoned pros to be--props to Quinn for continuing to be a big supporter of up and coming female directors, by the way—they’re not what make the film. What makes the film are those little, fleeting moments of everyday life that remind us that not all entertainment needs to be about losing ourselves in the make believe, or those things foreign to our lives and our experiences. What also makes the film is the excitement of watching a fresh, new director with a distinct voice and a lot of potential ahead of her. And that’s worth writing about.

Festival of Lights opens in LA this Friday, November 9, at the Laemmle's NoHo 7 in North Hollywood. Cast and crew in person: filmmaker Shundell Prasad and other members of cast and crew will speak to audiences on Fri, Nov 9, & Sat, Nov 10, at 7:00pm shows.

It will be shown this weekend in Manhatan. Shundell deserves lots of kudos.

Due to Hurricane Sandy, the NYC theatrical run of Festival of Lights has been pushed to November 9th, where it will play at AMC Village 7 until November

15th. 66 3rd Ave.New York, NY 10003

• 10:20a
• 1:15p
• 4:00p
• 7:00p
• 9:55p

This is from the New York Times

Nov 1, 2012

Keep me posted if u hear of it being sreened in Ontario.