Jim Greenhalf previews Bite the Mango, Bradford's fourth Asian and African Film Festival, which runs from Friday, September 11 to Saturday, September 19, at Pictureville and the Priestley Centre for the Arts

AN ANNUAL film festival has become a popular way of promoting a city but Bradford is unusual in that it has three, if the festival for animated films is included.

The Annual Film Festival, which usually starts in March, is pretty well known. Bite the Mango, which specialises in movies from the Indian Sub-Continent, the Middle East, Africa, and provides a showcase for films written or directed by British Afro-Caribbeans and Asians, is slowly getting known.

Evidence for this is that this year's Mango, the fourth, is pulling in some of the biggest names in cinema on the Indian Sub-Continent: Samina Peerzada, Zeba Bakhtiar, and Pamela Rooks.

On the opening night (a week tonight), top Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt will be at Pictureville, where his latest movie Duplicate, starring Shah Rukh Khan, will be screened.

More than 40 movies will be shown during the nine-day Festival, including the world premiere of Inteha (Extremes) by Pakistan's pioneering actress and director Samina Peerzada. She will be attending the screening of her film at Pictureville on September 12.

Hanif Kureshi, who wrote My Beautiful Launderette, has scripted My Son the Fanatic, which is set and partly filmed in Bradford. It follows the trials of a Pakistani taxi-driver as he befriends one of the prostitutes he ferries around town, while his son starts to hold prayer meetings at home.

Bill Lawrence, head of cinema at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, told the T&A: "The distribution of films like these is getting harder and harder. The danger is, if these films don't get a fair showing, the market will remain dominated by blockbusters from Hollywood which, in terms of output, only reflect about 15 per cent of world cinema.

"A lot of these films don't get a strong media profile even though they are not Art House movies. Train to Pakistan by Pamela Rooks, for example, is a thriller. For some, this will be their only screening in Britain, which is a shame."

The festival closes on September 19 with rising Lollywood (Lahore) star Zeba Bakhtiar talking about her role in Henna, which will be screened at Pictureville that night.

Other events will be taking place at Mercury House - yards away from Pictureville in Manchester Road - on September 15 and 16. They include the Channel 4 Screenwriters' Forum for would-be screenwriters, a film and TV market for programme and movie buyers, and a chance for ethnic minority film-makers to win three prizes of £500 by suggesting ideas for short films to an expert panel.

Bill Lawrence estimated that this year's Mango is costing about £40,000, but compared that with the £1.25m cost of the London Film Festival.

"Over the past three years we have had excellent support from the Asian community for the popular Bollywood films, and audiences of about 40 to 50 for the Art House movies. Our aim is to build on that. Bite the Mango has got a high profile in India and Pakistan, which is why some of the directors and stars are coming here," he added.

Further details of films and events are in the Bite the Mango programme. Bookings and other information may be obtained on Bradford 732277, from 10am to 8pm.

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