Indian Film Culture.P65 - federation of film societies of india

organising film appreciation and academic activities
simultaneously.
The downward slide of the movement continued for the
almost 10 years — from 1984 to 1994. However, in 1992,
Hollywood took note of Satyajit Ray’s contribution to
cinema, and honoured an unwell Ray with a Special Oscar
for lifetime achievement. Ray was hospitalized at that time,
and soon passed away. However, the Oscar created a buzz
about the legend and his cinema, and generated fresh
enthusiasm in the movement. It created a curiosity about
the movement among lay cinegoers.
In 1991, India adopted market economy, and joined the
globalization bandwagon. Globalisation opened up the skies
and satellite television followed cable television into India.
It also brought a slew of television channels, and killed the
video craze. In 1995 when cinema celebrated its centenary,
DVD and CD technology was introduced in India. If the
video technology hit the Film Society Movement, the DVD
technology rejuvenated it, and put life back into it. The
FFSI sniffed a good opportunity to revive the movement
with easy availability of films on DVD.
The 7 th Triennial conference held in Pune discussed the
possibility of adopting the DVD format in the film society
screenings. Foreign embassies and consulates informed the
FFSI that henceforth they will not bring in 35 or 16 mm
films, but only DVDs of the contemporary cinema made in
their respective countries. Since the birth of the movement,
the FFSI had relied heavily on foreign films supplied by
foreign missions of various countries. With this change,
film societies gradually began showing films on DVD, and
it triggered a revival of the movement. After year 2000,
new film societies began coming up. Some of the closed
societies began reviving, and the membership strength of
each society began improving.
In 2006 the Central Office of the FFSI shifted to Mumbai.
Shyam Benegal was President and I was elected as a
General Secretary. We conducted a survey of the
memberships of film societies and found that the average
age of film society member was between 40 & 45 years. It
meant that youngsters between the age group of 18 & 25
years were fewer in numbers. Benegal then gave a call for
forming ‘Campus Film societies’ in Colleges and
Universities. Accordingly, the West and South Region made
the first efforts in this direction and Campus Film Societies
began coming up.
In 2008-09, the FFSI decided to celebrate its Golden Jubilee
(1959 – 2009) in a big way. The purpose of the grand
August 2010 / Indian Film Culture 8
celebrations was to reach out to people outside the film
society circuit. We also noticed that the National Film
Archive of India had been organising film appreciation
courses in English since 1967. Realising that film culture
could not be spread only in a foreign language, the FFSI
decided to organise film appreciation courses in local
languages to reach out to cinegoers.
The Maharashtra Chapter of the FFSI took the initiative
and organised the first Regional language Film Appreciation
Course (Marathi) at Pune in collaboration with Pune
University in 2007. The National Film Archive of India
also joined hands, and from 2010 the FFSI and NFAI will
jointly organise F.A. Courses in Regional languages. Four
F A Courses are in the pipeline in Hindi (Indore) Kannada
(Bangalore) Telugu (Karim Nagar) and Marathi (Pune). It
is expected that these language courses will take the
movement beyond big metro cities and will also help
impress upon film societies that they should lay a special
emphasis on academic activities along with film screening.
Activities like discussions on films screened, short film
appreciation courses, seminars could be organised. And this
has become possible due to the DVD technology.
Critics of the movement often ask me what is the relevance
of the Film Society Movement today when three 24-hour
TV channels beam world cinema into satellite homes?
Moreover, they say, DVDs of world cinema can be accessed
by a lay cinegoer at the neighbourhood DVD library. On
the face of it, this argument looks absolutely right. However,
the fact is that even bad cinema has reached our homes.
Not all films screened by the TV channels are classics of
cinema. I feel that it is because of this that the Film Society
Movement remains even more relevant today.
World literature is available in book shops as well prominent
libraries in a city like Mumbai. Yet why do colleges and
universities teach literature in classrooms? It is to establish
the nuances and create a deeper understanding of global
literature. I, therefore, feel that doubts about the relevance
of Film Society Movement’s should be a closed subject
henceforth. Film society activists who work so selflessly,
without any recognition or remuneration, should continue
to work towards achieving the goal of disseminating film
culture.
To celebrate its Golden Jubilee, the FFSI has, in
collaboration with Asian Film Foundation, published a
book, History of Film Society Movement edited by H N
Narahari Rao. The book records with great care the rise
and fall and the revival of the movement. More such books
should be published in regional languages to reach out to a