SATYA THE TRUTH*

112 min | 2022 | India | Assamese | Narrative Feature | World Premiere

Satya, a smart, educated & cultured small-town young man falls in love with a reputed, matured businessman Amar, in the city of Guwahati in Assam. They try to keep their relationship a secret, but they fail. Assamese society being conservative, Satya’s family is against this relationship. Even Amar buckled under his own family’s pressure and deserts Satya, who is devastated. He can only find solace in his childhood friend Samir.

* Filmmaker in attendance. Film program will be followed by Q&A.

Rupjyoti Borthakur

Rupjyoti Borthakur, a Post Graduate Diploma holder in Journalism & Mass Communication, has directed independently plenty of Assamese T.V. serials, Teleplays & documentaries namely Balimahir Kotha, Putola Nach, Today For Tomorrow, Rudra Binar Taan, Aranyar Seuj Xon, Dodhisi, Maya Prantor. He has worked as Program Producer and Program Head in three Assamese satellite News Channel ‘Ishan News’, ‘News Time Assam’ and ‘Assam Talks’ respectively. He also worked as an Administrative Officer in an NGO named ‘ASCED’ which dealt with awareness and control of AIDS in Assam. Presently he is a freelance film activist and a social activist for various causes in society and stands firmly for the rights of LGBTQIA community in Assam. Satya The Truth is his directorial debut feature film.

110 min | 2022 | Japan |

Japanese | Narrative Feature |

Asian Premiere

A septuagenarian, picture book writer named Yamazaki, having been handsome as a young man, grown narcissistic of his beauty. But now, can’t bear his own aging. One night, Yamazaki meets a young and lonely sex worker, Leo and for the first time in his long tumultuous life, falls in love with another person. Through this love, he finally comes to terms with and begins to forge the relationships he failed to carve during his youth with his friends and family.

KASHISH alumnus Tsuyoshi Shoji returns to the festival with his debut feature film about this cross-generation love story highlighting the unfair circumstances that LGBT individuals face in Japan that go beyond issues such as marriage inequality.

* Filmmaker in attendance. Film program will be followed by Q&A.

Festivals & Honors:

• World Premiere–39th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, USA 2023

• 47th Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, USA  2023

Tsuyoshi Shoji started to make movies as video artist activities when he was a student of Musashino Art University, and he got the Special Jury Prize with Lost in the Garden in the Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival in 1995. He made Old Narcissus (2017) as an independent short film which was screened in more than 8 countries and got 10 awards in film festivals. For his next short film The Fish with One Sleeve (2021), he cast transgender actors in the lead, after carrying out open audition for transgender actors, which was the first time in Japan. The Fish with One Sleeve has won many awards including the Jury Special Mention and the Best Performance in a Lead Role for Yu Ishizuka at KASHISH 2022.