The 10th Seattle South Asian Film Festival (SSAFF), the largest South Asian Film Festival in the United States, will come to Redmond for the first time on Oct. 23, with three films showing at the SecondStory Hideaway located at the Redmond Town Center: “The Journey Within” (Pakistan), “Magizhvan” (India) and “Big Time: A Doodled Diary” (India/U.S.).

“These films touch on themes of upholding cultural identity and love in the face of extreme challenges,” said Rita Meher, co-founder and executive director. “Social issues like these are on the minds of South Asians everywhere, even here in Redmond.”

“The Journey Within,” directed by Mian Adnan Ahmad, begins at 7 p.m., and tells the story of the incredible journey of a music show that helped to reclaim the rich and vast music heritage in a post 9/11 Pakistan.

“Magizhvan,” directed by Mani Shankar Iyer, begins at 9 p.m., and is the first Tamil Feature film made for LGBT community awareness based on a love story complicated by religion and family.

The short film “Big Time: A Doodled Diary,” directed by Sonali Gulati, is an intimate journey of a teenager growing up and coming out in the ’80s in India, negotiating her independence and freedom, and discovering the complexities of gender and sexuality.

Tickets are free but limited, so residents are encouraged to reserve their tickets in advance on the SSAFF website: www.ssaff.tasveer.org.

Running Oct. 15 through Oct. 25, SSAFF 2015 includes 32 feature films and 27 shorts representing nine countries. The festival kicks off with the comedy-drama “For Here or To Go?” directed by Rucha Humnabadkar, that looks at personal battles faced by immigrants living in America against the backdrop of the 2008 recession. An opening-night gala follows the screening at the AMC Pacific Place in Seattle. Sri Lanka will be a focus during the 12-day festival, and includes a retrospective of veteran Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage that will take place over the first weekend, and the filmmaker himself will appear at Q and A’s following each of his four films.

The City of Redmond is a sponsor of the program, providing SSAFF with an Arts Season grant to make the films shown in Redmond available. The Arts Season is a grant program administered by the city’s arts program, with the goal of ensuring residents have access to a robust season of high-quality arts and cultural programs all year long. The grant also provides SSAFF’s parent organization, Tasveer, with space at the Old Redmond School House Community Center to use as a home base for the festival.

“We came to Redmond because we want to be closer to our community,” said Meher. “I live in Sammamish, work in Redmond, in a cultural office space generously donated by Redmond. By adding Redmond as our new city, Tasveer can help promote it as a new cultural hub. It’s been wonderful to engage people in conversations and discussions on some of the key South Asian issues that are of both local and global significance so close to home.”

Tasveer is a local nonprofit whose mission is to cultivate the artistic work of South Asians through films, forums, visual art, performances that engage and empower the community. Tasveer was founded in 2002 by Meher and Farah Nousheen as a direct result of the racial discrimination experienced in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombings on 9/11. Their goals were to increase the awareness of South Asian countries and cultures from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; and to use independent South Asian film as a vehicle to give voice to marginalized communities.

“One in 10 people in Redmond is of Indian descent,” said Jessica Rubenacker, the Arts Season Grant program coordinator. “Supporting organizations like Tasveer not only serves this community but bringing projects like the Seattle South Asian Film Festival to Redmond helps to build bridges across cultural communities. It’s been a great partnership.”

The application period for the next round of Arts Season Grants is open. The city seeks arts and cultural projects that will be implemented in the community between March 1 and Sept. 30, 2016. Another application period for projects implemented between Oct. 1, 2016, and Feb. 29, 2017, will open next spring. The application can be found on the city’s website and are due on Nov. 16: www.redmond.gov/arts.