Bird Bites: ‘Paro’ film – Raindance Film Festival; Cactus Pears, Factory Dad, Occupy Cannes…

Some of the latest news and a new interview Reel from us – all from the world of film…

🎥 Indian film Paro – The Untold Story of Bride Slavery’ screens on Thursday and Friday (June 26) at Raindance Film Festival  
– the last day of the festival

🎥 Sundance Film Festival 2025 Grand Jury prizewinner ‘Cactus Pears’ has UK release and tour in Pride Month – director Rohan Kanawade – speaks to acv (see Reel) 


🎥 Filmmaker Bhulla Beghal and producer Sima Gonsai, recipients of Netflix Documentary Talent Fund – ‘Factory Dad’ about Midlands’ textile industry, will premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest 2027

 🎥 Acv sees documentary ‘Occupy Cannes‘ at Raindance Film Festival (June17-26)

🎥 Our remaining and final Cannes 2026 content to drop ‘Report to Mother‘ interviews; Pan Nalin (‘Last Film Show’ ); Indira Dhar (‘Putul’) and market page to be completed and published soon – includes videos, Instagram and YouTube – do subscribe/ follow and don’t miss!

‘Paro: The Untold Story of Bride Slavery’ – Strong production gets UK premiere

NOW in its 34th year, the Raindance Film Festival in London is both a point of contact and a strong networking opportunity for independent filmmakers – and brings together those who just love films that may have fallen through the sieve of the festival circuit. 
The gathering’s tagline is ‘some films can’t wait’.  
The 12-day long festival comes to a close on Friday (June 26) and one of the films screening that day is the Indian film ‘Paro: The Untold Story of Bride Slavery’ – we got a sneak preview of the film in the Cannes market last year. It first showing is on the night before and there will be a Q&A.
It stars Netflix ‘Heeramandi’ standout newcomer Taha Shah Badussha and is made by activist Indian Mumbai-based filmmaker and actor Trupti Bhoir.  
She’s a twice Oscar listed producer for ‘Agadbam’ and ‘Touring Talkies’. The film is directed by Gajendra Ahire and includes the music of Satish Chakravarthy.  
A large number of girls and women from around the world are still sold off by unscrupulous family members and acquaintances. Both Bhoir and Badussha are travelling to London and are set to be present for the first screening on Thursday evening (June 23) – we believe tickets are still available – check the Raindance Festival website (see below).   
In addition, the film will be screened alongside  – ‘Got Cancer’ which is written directed and produced by US-based Ruhi (Rohini) Hak. It’s three-minute film about raising awareness about children affected by cancer and the resilience of young survivors and is being screened as part of A Voices Unheard Film platform – which helps to showcase films of social importance at film festivals and similar events. 

Raindance Film Festival: https://raindance.eventive.org/schedule

‘Paro’ screens Thursday, June 25 at 8.15pm and ‘Got Cancer’, Vue Piccadilly Screen 4, 19 Lower Street St James’s London SW14LR and again 10.15am on Friday – https://raindance.eventive.org/schedule/paro-the-untold-story-of-bride-slavery-got-cancer-survivors-journey-short-q-a-6a01e6717a4090b8763e2c70
  
Our 2025 Cannes interviews about the film

Cactus Pears film tour continues 

THIS independent feature film from India and made by debutant Rohan Kanawade was released last week in the UK and continues to tour the country in Pride Month. 
It’s a gentle, almost unassuming story about a young man from Mumbai having to return to his ancestral home village in the state of Maharashtra (and the dialogue is in the Marathi language), to fulfil the last rites for his father. While he is out to his immediate family (alluded to rather than explicit) – most people ignore his grief and virtually pester him about marriage. See our short Reel (pending) and our longer YouTube interview will drop later – in this, he covers a wide range of ground and talks about how he wanted to present a different side to the LGBT experience in India. It is also very powerfully about grief and the loss of an important anchor in anyone’s life. That he finds solace in the arms of an old childhood friend, also speaks to romance, resilience and rediscovery. It was the first ever film from India to be garlanded with a Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and continues to show around the world and is available to stream on Netflix India. 
See our Reel and you will find the longer version on on YouTube feed on the homepage, when it is out.

Tour dates and further information: https://www.cactuspearsfilm.com/ 

‘Occupy Cannes’ – Sweet, absurd, funny, Troma will get you!

 

 THIS is a quirky, fly on the wall documentary charting the experiences of independent US filmmaking company, Troma.  It is one of the oldest independent filmmaking outfits around – and goes back more than 50 years – with titles such as ‘The Toxic Avenger‘ (1984) gaining cult status.
Now, you have may or may not have come across their work – and it may be a generational thing – ‘Return to Nuke em’ High Volume 1’ (2013) may not be on your list of must watch films before I die… 
Very b or even c-grade – these absurd comedy action horror dramas have their place and there’s a likeable and zany bunch behind Troma, who feature in this documentary which charts the company’s years at the Cannes Film Festival from 2014-17.  
Several of the people in this documentary have gone onto bigger and well… better things and are now very much part of the mainstream film business. Troma is not, never has been and never will be… Led with great energy and enthusiasm by veteran Lloyd Kaufmann (a ringer for Mel Brooks), it’s mainly his adult daughter Charlotte’s cinematography that populates this. It’s directed by Lily Hayes Kaufmann whom we don’t see in the film. (I believe).  
If you think filmmaking is for creative misfits, who don’t really know what to do with themselves – other than make spectacles of themselves and generate laughter and mirth in the process – both Troma and this documentary is absolutely for you!  
There’s a certain nostalgia and this is in the days before Instagram or YouTube have substantially re-energised (?) and somewhat, arguably, democratised filmmaking – again. 
We don’t know what the authorities – as in Festival De Cannes itself would make of it – but the police at that time certainly let their views be known and despite the ‘Occupy’ tag and something of a movement back at that time – this isn’t preachy or stuffy or particularly political – and still makes the point that filmmaking is narrowing and fewer and fewer folks are willing to take risks on screening films.  
For the Cannes veterans, there’s a lot to relate to and even for those who haven’t been but would like to go –  guerilla and v budget style – there are some useful insights – especially, if you still need to make a splash and be heard down there.  There are two quite minor points of interest for the ardent asianculturevulture in this film – one, there is a clip of Mercury prize-winning tabla maestro Talvin Singh playing at Cannes (2014) – think we were at that actual show party…and secondly, there is a lovely scene with Rajendra Roy, chief film curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York, introducing a Troma film there… need we say more?  
ACV rating: *** (out of five) 

‘Factory Dad’ – £30K award for filmmakers Bhulla Beghal and Sima Gonsai

EMERGING filmmakers Beghal and Gonsai are one of four other filmmakers to be backed by Netflix and awarded £30,000 from its Documentary Talent Fund. This competition strand has been running for four years and the films are also set to be showcased on the streamers’ YouTube channel, as well as at Sheffield Doc Fest next year. ‘Factory Dad’ is about the textile industry and covers family and community. We hope to chart the film’s progress and will keep abreast of Beghal’s progress towards Sheffield in June 2027. The announcement of the awards was made on June 10.  
 
Finally, we still have some remaining Cannes Film Festival 2026 content – we are hoping to publish it all by the first week of July – see the story posts, below from our home page…and make sure you are connected to us on Instagram and YouTube to get the full acv experience…links on the home page!