IFFI Bulletin - 26 th November - International Film Festival of India

06
IFFI | November 26, 2012
Indian filmmakers rue hold of multiplexes,
lack of distribution outlets
Abhijit Mazumdar,
80% crowds just because it had the backdrop of a small village
director of short film
to accommodate a Bollywood in Tamil Nadu where female
Vanishing Point made
commercial film. ‘We desperately feticide was rampant, because
his film by borrowing
need a parallel distribution Kerala which has a matriarchal
money from friends and
system and I would not blame the type of society does not allow
colleagues, and lamented that
documentary filmmakers have
to struggle a lot to get an outlet
to showcase their films. The film
is about two friends travelling
by car to scout for locations for
a small film they are planning to
make.
Sourav Sarangi who has made
the documentary film Char:
The No Man’s Island asserted
him when his own country is not
ready to fund him. Sourav added
that his job was to make films and
out to make his film which was
based on a novel which he had
read way back in 1999. “The
NFDC because the distributors
are not willing to buy their films.
What can NFDC do if the PVR
chain sold the tickets of my
Punjabi film in Punjab at Rs 900
each and Delhi at Rs 400 each’
Gurvinder asked.
Unni Vijayan who has made
his debut as a feature film maker
with the English film Lessons In
Forgetting which is a gripping
such heinous acts.
Unni admitted that he is
facing problems in finding the
distributor because no one is
willing to touch his film which
has a practical ending and he
does not want to succumb to the
pressures and make it an escapist
film, because his is not a vendetta
film but a serious issue-based film
and he was naïve enough to make
that there was practically no not distribute them, because he is novel stayed with me and I could and heartwarming story of it in English because his film had
infrastructure or governmental not an activist and it is someone not forget any of the characters redemption, forgiveness and a blend of urban and rural milieu
support for people in the country else’s responsibility.
from the novel. Singh said that second chances woven around a set in contemporary Tamil Nadu
who want to set out to make Gurvinder Singh whose it was sad that the multiplex single father and his daughter on where female feticide is rampant
meaningful documentary films
and short films and it pains him
that South Korea is encouraging
Punjabi feature Anhey Ghorey
Da Daan figures in the Indian
Panorama said that he had set
chain PVR had pulled off his
film within five days of its release
though it was pulling more than
her death bed, said that though
he is from Kerala, he set out to
make his film in English with
but the government is turning a
blind eye to the issue.
-Jyothi Venkatesh
Send social messages
through cinema
If one film deals with the question of children who
are victims of sexual exploitation, another is about
illegally procuring a child, and a third tells the story
of gangsters in an allegorical fashion.
Dutch filmmaker Jacco Groen said the film Lilet never
happened had been made to raise awareness about the
problem of child prostitution, a crime that is part of sex
tourism.
He was motivated to make the film after he met real life
child sex worker Lilet in a psychiatric institution during a
visit to the Philippines capital Manila to research a
documentary. Lilet told Award winning actor Johanna ter
Steege plays a social worker in the film. Groen says he selected
Philippine actress Sandy Talag to play Lilet from 500 hopeful
candidates. He also held a couple of workshops for the
streetkids, two of whom, aged 13, were child prostitutes."They
are traumatised and there is a problem of trust. They don't
open up easily in front of a camera. I must say I was inspired
by Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire to cast street kids who
were crying as they sat through the film."
Award winning Thai director Kongkiat Komsiri's
crime drama Antapal (The Gangster) is a departure
from the usual supernatural and comedy films popular
in Thailand, Sakarin Suthamsamai who played the title
role said. "Legends, folklore and the supernatural are an
integral part of Thai culture" explains Sakarin who plays a
pivotal role in "Antapal".
Thailand's gangster era in the fifties provides the
setting and backdrop for the film which explores the
sordid underbelly of Bangkok’s gangland in a rockaround-the-clock
mode. “Antapal" takes viewers through
two generations of mobsters starting in the 1950s.
Can by Turkish filmmaker and playwright Rasit
Celikezer and film producer Burak Akidil who received
the Sundance Festival's World Cinema Dramatic Special
Jury Prize Award for their film said it is about a young
happily married couple whose decision to illegally procure
a child threatens their future together in Istanbul. "I work
on a script as I go along and then decide whether it will
end up as a play or a film. But I do prefer the cinematic
medium" says Celikezer who wrote the screenplay in eight
months and shot the film over a three-month period.
Groen and Celikezer are keen on working with Indian
film-makers. "Racit would like to fall in love with a lady
who can help him make a film in India", Akidil said, in
jest.
-Ronita Torcato
PRESS CONFERENCE
Difficult to make meaningful films
without sensitive producers: Sumitra
Renowned filmmaker
Sumitra Bhave feels it is very
difficult to make meaningful
films without having the
backing of sensitive producers.
She said she and Sunil Sukhtankar
were able to make Samhita only
because Mukta Arts CEO Ravi Gupta
came out in support.
The film is the complex story
of the relationships of a filmmaker
who writes her own script for a film
which is based on the subject of preindependence
India in a princely
state and gradually finds this affecting
her own personal life. Sunil said the
USP of their film is that while they
shot the older portions of the film
set in the princely era in Super 35,
the contemporary portions set in
the urban milieu were shot in the
digital format after a long gap during
which they made another film called
Ha Bharat Majha. The gap actually
helped them in contrasting the two
different periods with perfection.
Digital Technology has changed the face
of cinema all over the world and camera
equipment is becoming smaller.
Not merely that, but the
customer is beginning to prefer simpler
technologies, experts who addressed the Open Forum on
Emerging Technologies organized by IDPA and FFSI feel.
Gaurav Markan who heads the Business wing of
Canon – who are organizing a three-day workshop here
– said Canon had gradually shifted from still to movie
cameras and had not produced a range of small digital
Devika Daftardar who plays the
main lead of the filmmaker in the
film as well as the role of the Queen
said that it was a big challenge for her
to play two totally different characters
in the same film, wearing different
costumes for both the characters
which required completely different
style of dialogue delivery.
Veteran actress Uttara Baokar said
the process of acting in Sumitra and
Sunil’s film was extremely interesting
because an actor gets to look at his
or her own character in two different
ways and as an actor it was extremely
challenging for her to play dynamically
OPEN FORUM
Edited by: B B Nagpal on behalf of IFFI Secretariat, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, New Delhi.
Hindi Editor: Dr. Rajeev Shrivastav, Co-ordinator: Rizwan Ahamd, Deputy Director, Mukesh Kumar, Asst Director
Photos: Photo Division
Printed at: Impressions, Belgaum
different characters in both Samhita
and the English film Lessons in
Forgetting. Uttara added that working
with Sumitra and Sunil was akin to
being part of the theatre movement.
Sumitra said as a filmmaker,
she has always believed in writing
her own scripts and since Samhita
dealt with the subject of women’s
liberation over the years, it was
conceptually quite different. She
said though she has been making
films for the last three decades, she
considers herself to be too ignorant
as far business or marketing
decisions are concerned. JV
Filmmaking easier with digital portable cameras
cameras which could be used even by students. These
were in a range of Rs four lakhs to Rs 15 lakh.
He said the aim was to publicize the cameras through
workshops in media institutions and film schools. The
aim was to take an educative approach and not a typical
marketing structure.
Filmmaker Vijay Bedi said the cameras being small
were convenient as these could be used for wildlife
filmmaking in which he specialized, since any small light
or sound could disturb animals or insects being filmed.
Filmmaker Anup Jotwani said that it was possible to
covert the digital films which were in file format to reels
when needed, but admitted that the process of scanning
was expensive.
Asked about downloading on computers, he said the
DCP system that needs a password does not
work on computers and one would need a DCP
player for that.
Indian Documentary Producers Association
President Mike Pandey said the Association would help
any aspirants to get finance for making films. IDPA was
also hoping to get slots on various television channels and
organize festivals to promote the documentary and short
film format.