$75 for reception and film (and photo shoot)
Doors Open for reception at 5:30 PM, then at 7:30 PM prior to screening at Film Center - buy at center or online
On Opening Night of the Festival, we will be holding a tented reception, from 5:30-7:30 PM, on the beautiful water-front lawn adjacent to Ferryboat Pond, just off Beach Road at the Tisbury Marketplace. We’ll be serving wines, beer ( festival sponsorStella Artois) and appetizers (provided by ) while Jeremy Berlin, Eric Johnson, and Sheleigh Hackett play live jazz and pop tunes under the tent. After the reception, guests will be invited to make their way to the Film Center for a special OPENING NIGHT screening.
A ticket for this film is good for admission to both the OPENING NIGHT reception and the OPENING NIGHT FILM itself. There will be no tickets sold for the film separately.
OPENING NIGHT FILM — MEET THE PATELS
MEET THE PATELS is a laugh-out-loud real life romantic comedy about Ravi Patel, an almost-30-year-old Indian-American who enters a love triangle between the woman of his dreams … and his parents. Filmed by Ravi’s sister in what started as a family vacation video, this hilarious and heartbreaking film reveals how love is a family affair.
Fresh out of a breakup with his secret white girlfriend, who his parents knew nothing about, and freaked out that he’s almost 30 and single, Ravi goes on a family vacation to India with his head and heart spinning.
Ravi is willing to do whatever it takes to find love—but there’s one tricky detail to consider: In his family, everyone has the last name Patel. Patels marry other Patels. It’s not incest, it means they are from the same 50-square mile radius in India. Struck with how overwhelmingly happy the marriages are of his Patel family and friends, Ravi enters a fool-proof Patel matchmaking system and embarks on a worldwide search for another American Patel just like him.
MEET THE PATELS also uses humor to address a timely social issue: In early 2009, directors, sister and brother team, Geeta and Ravi Patel began to explore and document the societal pressures of marriage in their first-generation Indian American family. Through research in India and America, they discovered that their “Indian Issue” was more of an “American Issue”: the majority of Americans with strong cultural and religious roots shared a serious psychological conflict when it came to dating (and marrying) outside of their skin color, culture, religion, and ethnicity.
“You know that girl in Eat, Pray, Love? She goes through a break up, goes on the
existential journey to India to get over depression, find out what she really wanted in life?
I was that girl. Except, my family was with me the entire time.” — Ravi
