By Arun Kumar
Washington, Jan 30 (IANS): The first festival of South Asian independent cinema in North Texas will showcase 14 films focusing on issues affecting the Indian sub-continent and exploring the lives of the South Asian diaspora in the US.

The Dallas-Fort Worth South Asian Film Festival (DFW SAFF) will be held in partnership with the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) and the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) from Feb 27 to March 1 at the Angelika Film Centre in Plano.

"DFW is the fifth largest media market in the country,a¿ said film festival director Jitin Hingorani, who is also principal/CEO of show producer JINGO Media, a Dallas and New York-based PR and events management firm.

"Given that the South Asian population is growing and thriving in North Texas, it is about time these non-Bollywood, independent films receive a much-needed platform to engage, educate and inspire our savvy, world-cinema-loving audiences,a¿ he said.

The festival's opening night film is the Texas premiere of Mahesh Pailoor's poignant and uplifting feature "Brahmin Bullsa¿.

Based in Los Angeles, this father-son drama stars Mary Steenburgen, Justin Bartha, Sendhil Ramamurthy (of Heroes fame) and Indian veteran actor Roshan Seth.

Emma Thompson-produced and Academy Award-Winner Jeffrey D. Brown-directed, the Texas premiere of "Solda¿ is the festival's centrepiece film.

It's about a Nepali girl sex trafficked in India and rescued by a team of Americans journalists, played by Gillian Anderson and David Arquette.

The festival closes with the world premiere of "Rough Booka¿, a controversial look at India's current education system and how a renegade teacher rebels against rote classroom learning by encouraging her students to think outside the box.

The festival also boasts compelling shorts and documentaries, women's programming, LGBT programming and family programming, including an animated children's film and youth-focused movies.