The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) announced numerous CAAMFest 2025 South Asian films that explore the multifaceted stories of this community. Highlights include centerpiece documentaries Love, Chaos, Kin, and Your Touch Makes Others Invisible.
CAAMFest 2025 will take place May 8-11, 2025, encompassing programs that celebrate Asian and Asian American stories. Programming with South Asian films and filmmakers is listed below.
Features
CENTERPIECE DOCUMENTARY: Love, Chaos, Kin
Directed by Chithra Jeyaram
Sunday, May 11, 2:00pm | AMC Kabuki 1
When Lakshmi, an Indian immigrant and adoptive mother, unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she takes her White-passing adopted twin daughters, Anjali and Meghna, on a journey of self-discovery. This leads them to reconnect with their struggling birth mother and find their estranged Navajo father, forcing them to confront their past, embrace their multiracial identity, and redefine what it means to be a family. This is a CAAM-funded film.
Director Chithra Jeyaram identifies as Tamil.
CENTERPIECE DOCUMENTARY: Your Touch Makes Others Invisible
Directed by Rajee Samarasinghe
Saturday, May 10, 12:30pm | SFMOMA
The surreal tale of a spellbound Tamil factory worker who loses her son to a supernatural entity. Collaboratively enacted by impacted locals, Your Touch Makes Others Invisible is a lyrical exploration of disappearances in a small post-war community in northern Sri Lanka where memories of interactions between the Tamils and the Sinhalese linger.
Director/Writer/Editor/Producer/VFX Rajee Samarasinghe was born and raised amidst the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka.
Fucktoys, directed by Annapurna Sriram
Saturday, May 10, 9:00pm | Roxie
A lush 16mm fever dream that reimagines The Fool’s Journey of the Tarot through the story of AP—a sanguine young woman seeking salvation from a curse. AP is promised by not one but multiple psychics that for a cool $1000 and the sacrifice of a baby lamb, it can be lifted. So, she makes money the only way she knows how, scootering her way deeper into the night, into the uncouth underbelly of Trashtown. Dark, irreverent, and sexy, AP stumbles upon new characters and absurd situations, each more unhinged than the last, as she winds her way towards the inevitable. Fucktoys is a campy romp that explores the intersection of intimacy, exploitation, and class in a pre-millenium alternate universe.
Writer/Director/EP/Actress Annapurna Sriram identifies as South Asian / South Indian / Indian-American.
Shorts
Bengal Memory, directed by Fahim Hamid
Part of the Shorts Program: Against Amnesia
Sunday, May 11, 3:00 p.m. | AMC Kabuki 3
A Bangladeshi American explores his father’s memories of a forgotten genocide in their
native country and uncovers the controversial role the U.S. played in it.
The documentary follows a Bangladeshi American.
Director Fahim Hamid was born in Bangladesh and immigrated to the U.S. as a child.
Chaturanga, directed by Sidartha Murjani
Part of the Shorts Program: Through Children’s Eyes
Saturday, May 10, 3:00 PM | AMC Kabuki 4
In a near-future world, a grieving young woman must defeat a humanoid AI in a game of chess to unlock her late father’s final message, forcing her to confront the balance between logic and instinct.
The story is based on the ancient Indian game Chaturanga.
Director Sidartha wrote, directed, and starred in The Interview (2019).
The film won Best Short Film, Best Actor, and Best Writing at the International South Asian Film Festival.
Kumar Kumar, directed by Kiran Koshy
Part of the Shorts Program: Centerpiece Shorts
Sunday, May 11, 12:00pm | Roxie
Kumar Kumar is all alone on his birthday. His social media feed is dead. Maybe he should be, too? But then, the computer dings.
Director Kiran Koshy and Actor Parvesh Cheena are Indian American.
The story centers around an Indian immigrant.
Legends, directed by Suhashini Krishnan
Part of the Shorts Program: Coming of Ages
Saturday, May 10, 5:00 PM | AMC Kabuki 4
Mahira Choudhry’s full-ride scholarship is jeopardized when her university’s Admissions Office discovers they gave her a dance grant by mistake.
The story centers around South Asian women.
Protagonist joins her collegiate Bollywood dance troupe.
Mango Chile Pie, directed by Karan Sunil
Part of Shorts Program: Let It Out
Friday, May 9, 9:00 PM | AMC Kabuki 4
On the anniversary of their mother’s death, three estranged sisters get stuck in their family fire station, and their decades-long resentments come spilling out.
Director Karan Sunil is an Indian-American.
Paramita, directed by Kirthi Nath
Part of the Shorts Program: Inheritances
Saturday, May 10, 7:30 PM | AMC Kabuki 4
Part poetry, part memoir-style reflection and part prayer, Paramita bears witness to Prajna Choudhury’s 25-year coming out process with her traditional Bangladeshi mother. Told with intimacy, tenderness and a quiet power, Paramita invites us into a meditative spiritual experience as Prajna connects with Buddhist practices and nature as gateways for intergenerational healing. This is a CAAM-funded film.
The film bears witness to Prajna Choudhury’s 25-year coming-out process with her traditional Bangladeshi mother.
Director Kirthi Nath is a South Asian lesbian filmmaker.
Zari, directed by Shruti Parekh
Part of the Shorts Program: Coming of Ages
Saturday, May 10, 5:00 PM | AMC Kabuki 4
American teen Neelu feels like a sh out of water amidst preparations for her sister’s wedding in Delhi until she forges a brief and unexpected connection with Zeyb, a quiet sari store clerk who moonlights as an internet drag queen.
The film follows an American teen at her sister’s wedding in Delhi.
Writer/Director/Producer Shruti Parekh is an Indian American filmmaker
About CAAMFest
Celebrating its 43rd year in 2025, CAAMFest is the nation’s leading showcase for films from Asian America and beyond. CAAMFest takes place May 8-11, 2025. Check CAAMFest.co for more programming and ticketing details.
About CAAM
For 45 years, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) has been dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. As a nonprofit organization, CAAM funds, produces, distributes, and exhibits works in film, television, and digital media. For more information, please visit CAAMedia.org.
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