Noel Burch, the famous
documentary film director, said that he is not interested in the concept of
“pure documentary films, which has no message to convey. He was speaking at the ‘Meet the Director’
conducted in connection with the sixth edition of IDSFFK at Press Club.
In his opinion documentaries are
considered to be made only for some ‘elitist’ group of intellectual people, and
not for the masses. This assumption
results in the decreased viewership of documentary films. But, Michael Moore, filmmaker,
might be an exception in this case as he has been able to gather a
significantly large number of audience for his documentaries.
Famous cinematographer and
director, Santosh Sivan, talked about his documentary film “Oru Kuttanadan
Karshakan.” He said that he might have ended
up being a farmer if not a cinematographer, as most of his relatives are
associated with farming. The film portrays the contrast between the Kuttanad in
the past with the present.
M. K. Vijayan, a farmer and the
male protagonist in the film, assisted Sivan for the making of the film. Vijayan
opined that there’s both good and bad changes happened to Kuttanad, and most of
them are mainly due to modernization. The good ones are that the government is
more supportive of farming, more tourism related activities are going on, and
the mechanization of farming is a great leap for the agricultural people. But
like everything, there a dark side too. But it’s not an investigative or an activist film;
rather it showcases more of an insider viewpoint of the life of farmers in
Kuttanad.
Betty Bernhard also participated
in the programme. Bernhard who is more associated to theatre than celluloid,
detailed about her film “Out! Loud!” as a documentary that draws parallels
between ancient Indian stories, such as the Puranas, wherein representations of
homosexuality and trans-sexual activities are clearly available.
She said, it’s her first time working
with Malayalam directors, and the experience was great. When asked about
whether she liked Kerala, “What’s not to like about Kerala” was the reply. The people,
food, backwaters and classical dance especially Krishnanattam and Koodiyattam are
so memorable experience and that is the reason she is ready to travel the 22-hour
long flight from Los Angeles to Kerala.
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