SAJAforum

CONV: Photos of the 2008 Convention by Preston Merchant

All pictures by Preston Merchant. For more click here.

The luminous Tannishtha Chatterjee talks about her role in "Brick Lane," the film adaptation of Monica Ali's novel about a Bangladeshi family in Britain. Chatterjee spoke after a special screening of the film one day before its US release.

Manu Narayan (center), who co-stars with Mike Meyers in "The Love Guru," shares a meal with Diana Rohini LaVigne, Sree Sreenivasan, and Sugi Ganeshananthan.

Nikhil Deogun, international editor of the Wall Street Journal, speaks at the opening plenary session.

Amitava Kumar leads his popular seminar on long-form narrative writing.

Photographers Dipti Vaidya of The Tennessean and Adam Huggins of The New York Times, with Annalisa Merelli, at the reception at the new New York Times building.

CONV: "Brick Lane" brings Bangladeshi slice of life to the scree

Tannishtha Chatterjee and Sarah Gavron are interviewed by SAJA's Aseem Chhabra after the screening.

Monica Ali's novel, "Brick Lane," the story of a Bangladeshi family in London's East End, has been made into a movie and it exposes audiences to an immigrant community rarely seen on screen.

The new experience isn't limited to the audience, though - neither director Sarah Gavron or lead actress Tannishtha Chatterjee are Bangladeshi. So it was a learning curve for them, too, they told the audience at a screening for the South Asian Journalists Association convention.

The screening on Thursday night at Columbia University marked the beginning of the 2008 SAJA Convention. The screening, courtesy of Sony Picture Classics, played to a nearly full house, and featured a special Q&A session hosted by Aseem Chhabra with Gavron and Chatterjee.

The movie is adapted from a book of the same name by Monica Ali. It weaves through the life of Nazneen, as she grows up, marries at 17, moves to London and raises a family.

 
This is British director Gavron’s first feature-length film, and she said she picked Brick Lane because of its wide appeal across cultures.

“At its heart, it’s a human story,” Gavron said.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Praise for Preston Merchant's Diaspora Pix

Writer and SAJAer Amitava Kumar blogs about someone whose photos you have been seeing on SAJAforum and elsewhere for some time now: Preston Merchant.

With a name like Preston Merchant, and with the sort of work he does, documenting the farflung Indian diaspora, you’d have expected him to be a good Parsi boy. No, he says, he isn’t. (He’s good, but he isn’t Parsi.) In which case, his interest and diligence is all the more remarkable.
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What is it that unites these photographs? For the most part, you’d think it is the color of the skin of the folks portrayed in them. But that’s not all. It is more the colors that Preston finds to put into his frames that tell a unique story of the movement of peoples.

Preston's working on a book about the diaspora and you can see highlights of his photos from several countries - he calls it "India World" - here. His full archive is at archive.prestonmerchant.com and his 200+ photos from the 2007 SAJA Convention are here.

Take a look at his work and post your comments below. [Photo below of Preston at work by Manish Vij]

CONV: Speaker Manish Vij of Ultrabrown.com Takes Some Pix

ARUN VENUGOPAL HOLDS COURT OUTSIDE THE TRINI-PAK HALAL CART. Photo: Manish Vij

Manish Vij of ultrabrown was a speaker at the bloggers panel at the SAJA Convention this year. He took some fun photos of some of the bloggers and others (including Arun Venugopal, this blog's editor, seen on the left here) at the convention. Take a look here. And see Preston Merchant's 200+ photos here.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum.org: BLOGS: Favorite Desi Blogs

TV NEWS: Three SAJAers in TV Land

THREE SAJAers IN TV LAND: (July 14 at the 2007 SAJA Convention) From left, Fred de Sam Lazaro, correspondent, PBS Lehrer NewsHour; Aditi Roy, anchor/reporter, WCAU, Philadelphia's NBC station; Hari Sreenivasan, correspondent, CBS News Dallas bureau. Three journalists continuing to make their mark in different parts of the American TV news business. Twenty-five years ago, there were no South Asians in equivalent positions. Nowadays, these three just happen to be among some of the more successful desi journalists in front of - and behind - the camera. The last time these three happened to be together was also a moment captured by a camera (except back then it was on film), in Seattle in July 8, 1999. To see how they have changed in these eight years, see below.

CONV: Sree Sreenivasan, Man in Perpetual Motion

 

Illustration courtesy of Arindam Mukherjee.

CONV: A Slideshow of Convention Photos

Photos by Preston Merchant, photojournalist (also working on a book of photos of South Asians around the world).

CONV: TV People Do Get Off the Air Sometimes

Yes, TV anchors do, on occasion, get off the air. Here Kevin Negandhi, the first South Asian anchor on ESPN, stops by the SAJA opening reception CUNY. See his answers to Five Questions for Kevin Negandhi (photo by Preston Merchant).

CONV: Old Cyber Friends Meet For the First Time

In addition to all the terrific panels and workshops, one of the best parts of the SAJA Convention is meeting people from all over the world. In this photo, Salil Tripathi (left), a prolific freelance journalist based in London - SalilTripathi.com - and Dr. Ramesh N. Rao, a prolific writer and professor and department chair at Longwood University in Virginia - RameshNRao.com - meet for the first time.

They have known each other for more than eight years on the SAJA Discussion List - a mailing list where 550 members in more than 25 countries discuss South Asia and the diaspora (if you'd like to learn more about the list - one of the best ways to learn about those two topics - see #2 here).

CONV: 2007 Convention Pictures, The Preston Merchant Collection

Here are some pictures from SAJA's 2007 Convention and Job Fair.  Click here for more, which will updated regularly. Photos by Preston Merchant.

Renuka Rayasam of US News & World Report participates in the Broadcast Bootcamp.

Prof. Sandeep Junnarkar of the CUNY journalism grad school teaches a multimedia workshop.

Two deans, Nicholas Lemann of Columbia and Steve Shepherd of CUNY, discuss journalism and education issues

Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, picks up his SAJA Journalism Leader Award--and his SAJA cap (see here with Sree Sreenivasan, SAJA co-founder).

Some of the best-known bloggers participate in a panel about the blogging scene.

See more photos here.

CONV: From the Photo Superworkshop

From the SAJA photography superworkshop, taught by Seshu Badrinath of ESPN. A shot of attendee Eddie Vega, out on Times Square. PHOTO: Arindam Mukherjee. Asked to comment on the workshop, Seshu told SAJAforum: "We couldn't have asked for a better day in NYC to walk around and explore. The enthusiasm of the participants helped them capture some great moments." Watch for a slideshow coming here soon.

CONV: And So It Begins...

The 2007 SAJA Convention has begun with more than 60 people doing day-long "superworkshops." The sessions today are the beautiful new CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in Times Square. See the rest of the program at SAJAconvention.org.