Rohan Fernando's 'Snow' to Open ReelWorld Fest

TORONTO – Tonya Lee Williams’ ReelWorld Film Festival will open next month with the world premiere of writer-director Rohan Fernando’s Snow, organizers said Tuesday.

The Canadian indie drama about a young woman, played by Kalista Zackhariyasits, who struggles to find a new life in Canada after losing her family to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that hit Sri Lanka, will kick off ReelWorld’s 11^th edition in Toronto on April 6.

The Canadian festival will close April 10 with U.S. filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s debut feature, I Will Follow, which stars Salli Richardson-Whitfield.

Williams (The Young and Restless) launched Reel World in 2001 to spotlight movies with multicultural themes.

The 2011 installment will also feature Valerie Goodloe’s Gang Girl: A Mother’s Journey to Save Her Daughter, which bowed at the Pan African Film Festival, Russell Watson’s A Hand Full of Dirt, from Barbados, Korean filmmaker Hyun Kyung Kim’s Floating Weeds, Jamil Walker Smith’s Make a Movie Like Spike, and Leena Pendharkar’s Raspberry Magic.

Canadian films unspooling at Reel World include Ian Barbour’s Richard Ma: Actionmaker, Qimmit: A Clash of Two Truths, by Ole Gjerstad and Joelie Sanguya, and Black Hands, Trial of the Arsonist Slave, by Montreal actor-filmmaker Tetchena Bellange.

The Reel World Film Festival is set to run April 6-10.