Powerful and Essential Films at the 2025 Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles (Iffla)

This month RabbleRouse News attended the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) screening of Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar’s fourth collaboration together A Fly on the Wall, a moving, intimate and unexpectedly joyful film about Chika Kapadia’s courageous end of life journey; and the premiere of Aranya Sahay’s masterpiece Humans in the Loop. 

Sahay’s film was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature with the jury stating; “Aranya Sahay has crafted a film that is timely, imaginative, beautifully written and directed, and emotionally affecting. Its cultural specificity and interrogation of the ethics of AI, and the cheap, often female labor involved, should be a required viewing.” We agree.

Aranya Sahay’s HUMANS IN THE LOOP

Returning to her ancestral Oraon village with her children after her divorce, Sonal Madhushankar’s character Nehma, an Adivasi woman, finds work as a ‘data labeller,’ training AI models to recognize objects in images and videos in the film Humans in the Loop. Madhushankar gives a beautiful and nuanced performance within Sahay’s luscious yet subtle storytelling and we are still thinking about it and will for quite some time.

Panel on The Human Loop: Storytelling and Responsibility in the Age of AI

A panel discussion followed the screening around the responsible use of AI technology in storytelling. The panel was moderated by Senain Kheshgi (IFFLA Senior Programmer) and included filmmaker Aranya Sahay, lead actress Sonal Madhushankar, Manjula Nadkarni, and Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan (USC Vice President for Presidential Initiatives and University Professor). 

We entered the theatre knowing that AI is touching every aspect of filmmaking, we left understanding that AI is a baby and it is vital for diverse voices to play a role in teaching artificial intelligence. Informed storytelling can raise awareness to the dangers of technological colonization and hopefully mitigate humans vulnerability to each other’s (and their own) biases. 

Their fascinating post film discussion touched on issues around ethics and the invisible labour behind artificial intelligence… Humans in the Loop asks us to remember what it means to be human and to be aware of the frightening implications of AI’s use in the context of war and policing. We must be hyper cognizant of who’s parenting AI. Technology is the enabler, not the point. 

One of the most thought provoking statements (among many) was when Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan said that there are AI models being built using The Stanislavski Method. If the key components of parenting AI are Emotional Memory whose memories will it embody? One wonders if AI has an inner monologue whose script is it pulling from and what is its objective? 

A FLY ON THE WALL

A portrait of Chika Kapadia, who when diagnosed with cancer and given four months to live, Chika makes the radical yet deeply personal decision to seek physician-assisted death at Dignitas in Switzerland. Instead of a story of grief, Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar made an intimate film brimming with joy and humor.

Festival Winners

IFFLA 2025 festival award winners included Grand Jury Prizes to “Humans in the Loop” and “Holy Curse” with Honorable Mentions to “Cactus Pears,” “Village Rockstars 2,” “The Feast,” Extinction Story Origin Story,” and “An Orphanage of Memories” Audience Choice Awards Went to “Cactus Pears” and “Sleep Training”  

The winner of IFFLA Industry Days Launchpad: Pitch Competition, Kiana Rawji, was Awarded a $10,000 grant for “Adult Children” This year’s festival marked IFFLA’s 23rd year of showcasing some of the most innovative films coming out of South Asia and its diasporas. 

*Special thanks to IFFLA and MPRM Communications for production images, information and a terrific festival.