FFSI Film Culture: December 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

Ist Siliguri Short & Documentary Film Festival

The 1st Siliguri Short & Documentary Film Festival was inaugurated on 17th November 2010 at Dinabandhu Mancha Siliguri by Mr. Premendra Mazumder, Vice President of FFSI (ER) and Ms. Gangotri Dutta, Mayor of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation. This five days long international film festival was organized by the Siliguri Cine Society in collaboration with the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority, Information & Cultural Affairs Department of the Government of West Bengal, Federation of Film Societies of India (ER) and the Jeevika Asia Livelihood Documentary Competition 2010 New Delhi. Mr. Premendra in his inaugural speech requested the organizers to make it a regular event so that Siliguri could also be there in the international film festival map as a significant place of the festival circuit. Mr. Pradip Nag, General Secretary of the Siliguri Cine Society informed that out of 45 entries received from all over the world 24 films could be screened due to shortage of time. Mr. Pradip Nag also informed that film lovers of Siliguri, the second largest city of West Bengal, had accepted the festival very warmly which motivated the Siliguri Cine Society to continue the event in coming years.

First Asian Film Festival at Tenali

1st Asian Film Festival of Tenali-2010 was conducted from December 4th to 8th. About 30 films were screened from 15 countries. It was a Grand Success. Film personalities from Telugu Film Industry participated in the opening & closing functions and in Open Forums.

Inauguration of the first Asian Film Festival of Tenali-2010.

Tenali Cultural Film society, a very active film society in Andhra Pradesh had conducted an International Film Festival last year. This year they have followed it up with an Asian film festival in which they are able to screen some of the highly acclaimed films from China, Korea, Iran, Mongolia, and also India and other Asian countries. This is another classic example of spreading a healthy film culture with digital format. FFSI south is doing an exemplary job by helping active film societies to take up such promotional activities at non-metro cities.

Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy members attend IFFK 2010.

Kerala State Chalanachitra Academy,

Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy and the FFSI members

with Mr.M A Baby, Honble Minister of Cultural Affairs -

At the IFFK-2010

Members of the Kerala and Karnataka Academy members

and the FFSI had extensive discussions with the

Minister and the officials on various issues

including promotion of Film Society movement,

Tie up for the International film festival,

and other issues of mutual interest.

Mysore Film Society conducts 3 day course on Visual Design in Cinema and Theater.

Workshop in Session

Shri M.S.Sathyu conducted 3 day workshop on Visual Design in Cinema and Theater at Mysore, organized by Mysore Film Society and LACE films – 24 to 27, December 2010.

Workshop in Session

Mr. Sathyu was ably supported by Mr. G.S.Bhaskar the noted cinematographer.

More than 40 participants attended the course and it was an excellent interactive workshop with screening of Feature and Documentary films and clippings. Congrats: Mysore FS and LACE

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Film Fraternity protests Panahi jail sentence

Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to a 6-year prison sentence by an Iranian court and banned from making films for two decades. Panahi won Camera d'Or honors at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival for his first film, The White Balloon, and he won the Golden Lion in 2000 for The Circle. Another Iranian filmmaker, Muhammad Rasoulof, recently was also dealt a 6-year jail sentence by a regime determined to silence dissident artists. This underscores why the internationality of cinema is so important.

According to UK's Guardian newspaper, Panahi and Rasoulof were originally arrested last year for publicly mourning protesters killed following the presidential election. He was arrested againin February and sent to prison in Tehran. The formal charge: collusion and propaganda, his attorney Farideh Gheyrat told an Iranian news agency.

"He is therefore sentenced to six years in prison and also he is banned for 20 years for making any films, writing any scripts, traveling abroad and also giving any interviews to the media including foreign and domestic news organizations," the attorney told The Guardian. The conviction will be appealed. There is widespread dismay and protests from the film fraternity around the world.

IFFS General Assembly 2010 - FFSI is represented at IFFS

Mr. Premendra Mazumder, Vice President of FFSI(ER) went to Recife, Brazil during 10th and 11th December 2010 to take part in the General Assembly (GA) of the International Federation of Film Societies (IFFS) as the Official Delegate of the FFSI. Delegates and Representatives from the countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bogota, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, New Zeeland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela were present in the Assembly. A 19-members Executive Committee of the IFFS has been elected in the GA for the term 2010-12. Eminent film personality Ms. Luce Vigo of France has been elected as the Cultural President of IFFS and Mr. Claudino de Jesus of Brazil has been elected as the Executive President. Mr. Golam Rabbany Biplob of Bangladesh has been elected as the Vice President and Mr. Julio Lamana of Spain has been elected as the Secretary General.

Mr. Premendra Mazumder of India has been elected as a Member of the Executive Committee of IFFS as the Secretary of the Asian Group. After restructuring of IFFS in 1999, this is the first time any representative from the Indian Federation (FFSI) has been elected as the Secretary and Member of the Executive Committee of the IFFS. The 3rd World Conference of Film Societies was also held on this occasion. Two Meetings of the Asian Group were also held during this period. Several decisions regarding exchange of films amongst the countries, expansion of the activities of IFFS throughout the world, enrichment of IFFS Archive in Switzerland, usage of authorship and intellectual property rights et al were discussed in details in the conference. As the Secretary of the Asian Group of IFFS and the EC Member of IFFS.

Premendra Mazumder has been entrusted with the job of expansion of the activities of IFFS all over Asia. He will also look after the promotion of Asian Cinema in the IFFS network.

8th Chennai International Film Festival

Mr. D.Napoleon, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, the chief guest at the closing function of 8^th Chennai International Film Festival is being felicitated by Mr. E,Thangaraj and Mr. Ramakrishnan, of ICAF, on 23^rd December 2010.

The festival has grown in both size and reputation having made a big stride this year with the support of the Government of Tamilnadu, Film Federation of India, South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce and many sponsoring institutions. As many as 120 films from India as well as abroad were screened in the festival. This festival has come to stay as an event of importance where selected films are screened and it is of great significance that the film industry has actively associated with this event in a big way to make it a meaningful celebration.

It is also heartening to note that the festival is now able to institute an award for the best Tamil film of the year with quite a handsome cash award to the producer and the director.

2nd Visakhapatnam International Film Festival -2010

Vizag Film Society, one of the most active Film Societies in Andhra Pradesh conducted its 2^nd International Film Festival from 17 to 21^st December 2010, at Vizag.

Our efforts to spread a healthy film culture in non metro cities through DVD format is yielding results and because of the earnest and sincere efforts of a dedicated team with Mr. Prakasha Rao, Mr. Ramana, Mr. Raghu and their associates the festival has become an annual event.

Inauguration of the 2^nd Visakhapatnam Film Festival

on 17^th Dec 2010.

Inauguration of the 2^nd Visakhapatnam Film Festival

on 17^th Dec 2010.

This year as many 25 films including films of the world section, Indian panorama and the Telugu award winning films were showcased in the festival

Open Forum at IFFK 2010

Open Forum : closing session on 16, December, 2010.

This year also the FFSI Kerala took active role in presenting the Open forum on all the days during the IFFK 2010 at Trivandrum. this year’s open forum provided space for many interesting dialogues on various subjects, and on the last day evaluation of the festival was the topic in which delegates took active role in the presence of all the festival authorities who interacted with the participants. The above photo shows the session on the last day.

FFSI Kerala is also entrusted with the task of issuing delegate passes, and this year there were more than 9000 delegates – making this a film festival of people, participating in huge numbers.

Film Appreciation Workshop for College Teachers

FFSI’s Maharashtra Chapter organized 3 day orientation Workshop for College and University Teachers at Pune on 10^th, 11^th and 12^th December in collaboration with National Film archive of India.

32 Teachers from Colleges and Universities participated in the workshop.

Now, there are 25 Campus Film Societies in Maharashtra. However, it was found that the teacher In charge of Campus Film Society is interested in Cinema but does not know how to run the Campus Film Society throughout the academic year, that is why this orientation work shop was organized.

Dr. Mohan Agashe, actor and Ex Director F T I I inaugurated the workshop and emphasized the need of Campus Film societies in his one hour lecture.

Sanjay Ranade reader in Mass Communication Dept. of Mumbai University, Anil Zankar Lecturer at Whistling Wood Film Institute Mumbai, and others were the resource persons.

It was found that many teachers have not seen ‘Pather Panchali’, ‘Bhuvan Shome’. That is why ‘Apu Triology’, ‘Bhuvan Shome’ and ‘Two And Half Times in Hell’ were screened in the workshop. The booklet giving details of Film Society Movement was specially produced and distributed.

It may be recalled here that FFSI Western Region formed Maharashtra Chapter to launch new film societies in 2004 when there were only 4 film societies. Now there are 40 Film Societies affiliated to FFSI.

FFSI (WR) presents a Session of Czech Films

FFSI Western Region is conducting a festival of Czech films in Mumbai.

Films included in the programme to be screened during 8-18, December, 2010 are given below:

1. Zelary (2003/150 min/color)

Director: Ondrej Trojan

2. Cozy Dens (1999/115 min/B & W)

Director: Jan Hrebejk

3. The Protector (2009/98 min/color)

Director: Marek Najbrt

4. Dark & Blue World (2001/112 min/color)

Director: Jan Saverk

5. Tobruk (2009/100 min/color)

Director: Vaclav Marhoul

6. Divided We Fall (2000/120 min/color)

Director: Jan Hrebejk

Obituary - Vijay Hanumant Jadhav

Vijay Hanumant Jadhav, Director of the National Film Archive of India expired after a heart attack on Dec 13, 2010. He had worked with several media related organizations including Press Information Bureau, All India Radio and Doordarshan. Mr. Jadhav also had a stint as Public Relations Officer (Defence), Pune. He was interested in music and was an accomplished tabla player and had trained under Ustad Alla Rakha. Jadhav was a B.E. in Chemical Engineering from UDCT, Mumbai. Because of his chemical engineering background he could take several initiatives for preservation of films as head at NFAI. He leaves behind his wife and two daughters.

Mr. Jadhav’s association with the FFSI in conducting Film Workshops and Film Appreciation courses in Regional languages for the film society activists instilled unbounded enthusiasm in the Film Society circles. Particularly after he took up the Digital Restoration project in the Archive, expectations rose high and many of us eagerly awaited for the day when we could have DVD prints of some of the rare classics of the Indian heritage cinema including the short length of the first feature Phalke’s Raja Harischandra. Most the Film Festivals that are being held now invariably had the old classics of both Indian and foreign classics from the Archive and Mr. Jadhav always responded positively to our requests.

NFAI salutes DG Phalke Winners at IFFI 2010

NFAI presented an Impressive exhibition this time at the IFFI 2010 with photographs and profiles of all the D.G.Phalke Award winners from its inception to till date. We happened to meet Mr. Vijay Jadhav Director, NFAI, Pune and offered our compliments to him at the Exhibition. While writing in the visitor’s book about our admiration we also mentioned that next year we can have a presentation of the similar details of the films which have won Swarn Kamal, National Award Winners of Best films.

While accepting our compliments smilingly, he readily agreed to put up a similar exhibition on Best Film Award winners. He was about to return to Pune and at that particular time we exchanged pleasantries and wished that we would soon meet at a Short Term Film Appreciation course which we are planning in regional language in Telugu in Hyderabad.

But later, we got the shocking news, on 13^th December, 2010, when we were in IFFK Kerala that he passed away suddenly in the morning. We felt so bad, how unkind is the fate that he is snatched away from us when he was so young at 43, and bubbling with enthusiasm to do so many things.

FFSI (WR) conducts Open Forum at IFFI 2010.

Mr. Manoj Srivastava, Mr. S.M.Khan and Mr. Shankar Mohan

interacting with the delegates on Dec, 01, 2010.

FFSI this time conducted Open Forum in a new location, thanks to the festival authorities, it really became Open and not a closed one as it happened earlier.

It started on 25th Nov 2010 in the presence of H.N.Narahari Rao, President FFSI,

Dilip Bapat, Vice President (WR), and Mr. Subhash Desai Secretary, (WR) and Mr. U.Radhakrishnan the convener.

Mr. U.Radhakrishnan took active role in contacting the panel speakers and organizing the event during the entire festival period.

COCANADA FILM CLUB INAUGURATED AT KURNOOL

COCANADA FILM CLUB INAUGURATED IN PR GOVERNMENT COLLEGE AT KURNOOL
FFSI South makes further headway in bringing youngsters to the movement through Campus Film Societies.

Campus Film Society- inauguration

A section of the Students

IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE LETTER FROM CCE, P.R.GOVERNMENT COLLEGE, KAKINADA has inaugurated CAMPUS FILM CLUB on 7th December 2010.

TheCollege Principal Dr.M.Satyanarayana chaired the event and explained to the students regarding OBJECTIVES and activities of the club and inspired the students to know about the media and meaning full cinema. The Chief Guest of the function Sri Aanand Varala,(Librarian of SRR Govt college Karimnagar and Secretary, Federation of Film societies of India) delivered the inaugural lecture.

KCA's Unique Film Festival in Digital Format

FFSI joins Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy to present a Unique Film Festival in Digital format

Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy (KCA) associated with the Federation of Film Societies of India, in presenting a unique International Film Festival, held during November 8-25^,2010, as an academic activity to cater to the needs of students and lovers of cinema. It is unique for several reasons. It may not be a mammoth festival with a huge budget like other well established film festivals taking place in India. The festival was an event not exclusively limited to Bangalore City alone. It was an experiment to take cinema to different cities in Karnataka, such as Bidar, Dharwar, Mangalore and Shimoga. Very soon it will be extended to Mysore, Bellary and other districts. This festival is of low budget, but not at the cost of quality, at the same time it was a sincere attempt to be more effective and find a method through which we can embark on a path that eventually pave way for an ongoing dissemination of film culture throughout the state, particularly in Educational Institutions.

Mr. Nagabharana, Ms Joy Yen of Taiwan Embassy, Mr. Jayarama Raje Urs,

Mr. Basant Kumar Patil and Mr. H.N.Narahari Rao at the inauguration of the Festival.

Ms. Joy Yen, Mr. Shaji Karun and Mr. H.N.Narahari Rao at the function.

FFSI feels happy to record here that a large number of college students participated in several hundreds at each centre as delegates and watched the films with lot of interest. This festival was in Digital (DVD) format. It is obvious that handling of the prints becomes simple and easier. This also means we need not hire regular Cinema theaters for this purpose.
85 films including 8 Kannada, 10 other regional language films, 10 Old film classics starting from the Silent era, and the most recent films from Argentina, Iran, Romania, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Norway and Korea and others were screened in the festival.

We can conduct screenings in acoustically good auditoriums where we can install LCD projectors and screen the films. By introducing this process we are exploring a new avenue for serious filmmakers to find an alternate path for reaching more people in non metro cities. Our experiment became a very good success. It is decided now to make it an annual event.

Mr. Anurag Mishra, the Director, Directorate of Film Festivals took initiative in offering 10 panorama films for the festival and it was one of the major attractions of the event.

This programme was designed by Mr. H.N.Narahari Rao, the Festival Director and President, FFSI, and executed with the support of Mr. Nagabharana, Chairman, Karnataka Academy, Government of Karnataka, and its members.

9th Asian Film Festival, Mumbai

9th Asian Film Festival, Mumbai,
Third Eye October 28 to November 04, 2010

Mr. H.N.Narahari Rao President, FFSI being presented with

Satyajit Ray memorial award for promoting film as an art.

This year Mr. Shyam Benegal, the world renowned filmmaker was conferred with the prestigious Asian Film Culture Award.

Highlights of this year festival was country focus on Iran, the short film fiction competition, focus on Taiwan, Retrospective of Kon Ichikawa and a section of Netpac award winners.

2nd Asian Film Festival at Kolhapur

2nd Asian Film Festival at Kolhapur
October, 28 – November, 04, 2010

Under the Chairmanship of District Collector Lakshmikant Deshmukh, a festival of Asian cinema with the support from Asian Film Foundtion, Mumbai was held in Kolhapur. Japanese Film Director Kon Ichikawa's three films and Israeli director Dan Wolman's three films were ther in the Retrospective and Spectrum sections of the festival.

''Akaler Sandhaney'' (Bengali), ''Mrigaya'', ''Ek Din Pratidin'' (both Hindi) by Mrinal Sen were screened under the Asian Masters section. Five films from Taiwan, seven Marathi films-- ''Aarambha'', ''Pangira'', ''Hallo Papa'', ''Nirutter'', ''Platform'', ''Mee Sindhu Sakpal'', ''Sumbarana'', six films from Poland were also included in the festival.

The festival had more than 50 films that included films from Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Iran, Philippines, Korea, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan along with many other notable films.

On the last day of the event, actress Bebi Shakuntala and sound recordist Ramnath Jathar were presented with Lifetime Achievement Award for their contribution to the film industry.

Film Appreciation Workshops in Karnataka.

Film Appreciation Workshops at Colleges and Film Societies in Karnataka.

Under the auspices of FFSI, KCA, and the Asian Film Foundation and aided by HIVOS, Mr. H.N.Narahari Rao conducted 15 Film Appreciation workshops in the months during July – November, 2010 at different towns in Karnataka.

Below are some of the photographs taken at the Workshops conducted at different places in Karnataka. There is enormous enthusiasm among the college students and it is up to the FFSI and the film society activists to take it up and initiate more film societies through DVD format at different places.

FA workshop at Darshana Cinema Society, Bangalore

Workshop at Shimoga,

Workshop at Shimoga

Workshop at Mysore

Workshop at Belgaum

Workshop at Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, Mysore.

Workshop at Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, Mysore

Workshop at Mandya

Workshop at Chamarajanagar

Dasara Film Festival 2010

Mysore Film Society, Mysore conducted its annual event Dasara Film Festival in the month of October.

SCHEDULE

No.	Date	Short Films ( 10.30 AM )
1	8/10/2010	Old Man and the Sea ( Russia/Alexandr Petrov/1999/20mins)
2	9/10/2010	Watching it Rain ( Mexico/Elisa Miller/2006/15mins)
3	10/10/2010	The Lunch Date ( USA /Adam Davidson/1990/12mins)
4	11/10/2010	Zoo ( Netherlands / Bert Haanstra /1961/13mins)
5	12/10/2010	An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge ( France/ Robert Enrico /1962/26mins )
6	13/10/2010	Neighbours ( Canada /Norman McLaren/1952/8mins)
7	14/10/2010	Father and Daughter ( Netherlands/Michael Dudok De Wit/2000/9m)

No.	Date	Feature Films ( 11.00 AM )
1	8/10/2010	3 Iron (South Korea/Kim Ki Duk/2004/88mins)
2	9/10/2010	Man with a Movie Camera (Russia/Dziga Vertov /1929/80mins)
3	10/10/2010	The Scent of Green Papaya (Vietnam/Tran Anh Hung/1993/104mins)
4	11/10/2010	Jumping over the puddles again (Czechoslovakia/Karel Kachyna/1972/91mins)
5	12/10/2010	Love film (Hungary/Istvan Szabo/1971/123mins)
6	13/10/2010	Knife in the water (Poland/Roman Polanski/1962/94mins)
7	14/10/2010	Sita Sings the Blues ( USA / Nina Paley / 2009 / 82 mins)