Indian-American Feature Script Selected for 2006 Gloria Film Festival Screenplay Competition

New York writer Rachel Astarte Piccione’s feature script, "Little India," has been selected for the 2006 Gloria Film Festival Screenplay Competition.

New York, NY (PRWEB) May 13, 2006 -– New York writer Rachel Astarte Piccione’s feature script, "Little India," has been selected for the 2006 Gloria Film Festival Screenplay Competition.

"Little India" tells the story of a struggling Jewish-American actress in New York who isolates herself in the fantasy world of Indian musicals. She meets a dynamic Muslim-Indian film star, and as they fall in love they are forced to redefine their lives, both professionally and spiritually.

“Films about South Asians living in America and Europe have become more and more popular since 2001 or so,” Piccione says. “Indian cinema in particular is no longer just about ‘Bollywood’. There are real stories -- universal stories -- that are being told in film. The reason they’re successful is because the stories are human enough to touch all cultures.”

The Gloria Film Festival showcases films that “stir the soul, heal the heart, and enrich the world.” Screenwriters Competition Director, Donna Skousen, expressed the growing strength of the screenplay competition. “We are already establishing strong relationships with a number of production companies interested in reviewing the scripts in our competition,” she said.

Now in its fifth year, the Gloria Film Festival program and competition consists of 60 films and 33 screenplays. It will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah from August 16–26, 2006.

Writer and peace activist Rachel Astarte Piccione was born in 1969 in DeKalb, Illinois and raised in Upstate New York. She is the daughter of theater director/playwright Sandi Henschel and poet Anthony Piccione.

Primarily a screenwriter and journalist, Rachel was also the 1996 Poet Laureate of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting from Emerson College in Boston and has studied acting at Loughborough University (UK) and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Rachel's work centers on the promotion of cultural unity through cinema, with a focus on the Indian film industry.

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