One of the nice perks about living in the Coachella Valley is its superb indie film festival...the Palm Springs International Film Festival to be precise.

The PSIFF has grown by leaps and bounds from its inception in 1989. This year's festival will attract 120,000 attendees (nearly 10,000 more than last year) over the 10-day, 254-film festival...one of the largest and most affluent festivals in the United States or Canada with apt and deserving comparisons to the Seattle and Toronto film festivals. Pretty darn good for a film fest whose host town has a population of just under 48,000 people.

With that in mind the opening gala started with the US premiere of the film Outsourced which starred AOTC's Queen Jamillia herself, Ayesha Dharker. Ms. Dharker was in attendance at the premiere as was the Outsourced director John Jeffcoat. The theatre (at Palm Springs High School...no kidding) was filled to it's 1100 seat capacity with a wide variety of patrons and film buffs who were excited to see the new comedy kick off the festival.

I was a little late to the premiere because of work and traffic, but I arrived in time to take a few shots of Ms. Dharker arrive and start an interview with one of the news stations. She looked absolutely delightful and positively regal in a full-length turquoise and lavender dress and was kind enough to stop for me before entering the theatre for the screening.

The film itself was a charming comedy about a young man, Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) who manages a Seattle call center who's staff is going to be outsourced to cheaper labor in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The insult to injury comes when he must train his staff's replacements...by moving to Mumbai.

Anderson expects the worst but is pleasantly surprised about the India, Mumbai and the people he is training, especially Asha (Ayesha Dharker) who is outspoken and utterly charming as Anderson's employee/romantic interest. Each learns a lot about the other's culture in rooted-in-reality style humor which is not insulting to either side.

Outsourced is a film worth a look, if nothing more than to see the beautiful and completely understated talents of Ms. Dharker and maybe just to brighten the day a little.

LM