In Conversation - PHOTOS (11.06.2013)

Inconversation between Jabeen Merchant and Deepa Dhanraj

Festival Buzz - PHOTOS (11.06.2013)

Meet the Director - PHOTOS (11.06.2013)

I Try to Bring the Audience into the Situation: Nishtha Jain

Feminist and filmmaker Nishtha Jain has said that her method of documentary making focuses on bringing the audience right into the situation that the characters face. Nishtha, the director of the 96-min documentary “Gulabi Gang” was speaking at the third ‘Face 2 Face’ conducted as a part of the 6^th IDSFFK. Her recent film was completed over a span of four years. While making films, she realized that the real difficulties and frustrations of people are quite different from what we infer from newspapers.  But if given proper treatment, a documentary can portray the real experience as it is - she said.

In reply to a question about crossing the division by a documentary film towards a fiction film, Nishtha opined that “it’s high time to get rid of the divisions… as long as the film is good, it doesn’t matter that much.” To the same question, Spandan Banerjee, director of To-Let, who also took part in the session, replied that a good documentary should fulfill the audience in all aspects. To make it entertaining, it could use some fictitious elements, but it should also be informative with facts.

When asked why Thomas Mathai’s film “Alfie” is an abstract one having no strong plot, the director replied that “we are so used with plots in movies, that we forget to appreciate the beauty of a visual, just as it is. ‘Alfie’ has a surrealistic approach and there is no fixed plot, making it open to different interpretations.”

Shazia Shrivastava, who directed and co-written the film “Do Peher (One Afternoon)” with her Mother Sharifa Roy, said that her film was inspired from her Grand Mother, who was a very peculiar person. The idea behind their film came from imagining the situations that might occur if a hit man showed up one afternoon at the door of her (Shazia’s) Grand Mother’s house.

Others attended the programme were Archana Menon (director of Virag), Rajesh Jala (23 winters), Kunal Vohra (Plastic Cow), Tushar Digambar (Firdoz), Sunil Sharma and Mini Sharma. Mammad Montage was the host.

പ്രമേയമാണ് പ്രധാനം : സ്പന്ദന്‍ ബാനര്‍ജി

പ്രമേയമാണ് പ്രധാനമെും ആഖ്യാന രീതിക്ക് പിീടാണ് സ്ഥാനമെും സംവിധായകന്‍ സ്പന്ദന്‍ ബാനര്‍ജി പറഞ്ഞു. രാജ്യാന്തര ഡോക്കുമെന്ററി ഹ്രസ്വചലച്ചിത്രമേളയുടെ ഭാഗമായി നട മുഖാമുഖം പരിപാടിയില്‍ സംസാരിക്കുകയായിരുു അദ്ദേഹം. സ്വയം  വിശകലനം താന്‍ നടത്തിയി'ില്ലെും ഡോക്കുമെന്ററിയും ഫിക്ഷനും തമ്മില്‍ തരംതിരിക്കുകയെത് വളരെ ബുദ്ധിമു'ാണെും അദ്ദേഹം അഭിപ്രായപ്പെ'ു.
ഒരാശയം പറയുകയെതിലുപരി മനസ്സില്‍ ത'ു ചില ദൃശ്യങ്ങളവതരിപ്പിക്കുകയാണ് താന്‍ ചെയ്തതെ് ആല്‍ഫി എ ചിത്രത്തിന്റെ സംവിധായകന്‍ തോമസ് മത്തായിയും  23 വിന്റേഴ്‌സ് എ ചിത്രം തന്റെ സുഹൃത്തിന്റെ യഥാര്‍ഥ കഥയാണെ് സംവിധായകന്‍ രാജേഷ് എസ്. ജാലയും അഭിപ്രായപ്പെ'ു.
ഗുലാബി ഗാങ്ങ് നാലു വര്‍ഷം കൊണ്ട് പൂര്‍ത്തിയാക്കിയ ചിത്രമാണെും  ചിത്രീകരണവേളയില്‍ നേരിടേണ്ടിവ അനുഭവങ്ങള്‍ ത െവളരെ അസ്വസ്ഥമാക്കിയെ് സംവിധായിക നിഷ്ഠ ജയ്‌നും വളരെ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം ആസ്വദിച്ചാണ്   ദോ പഹര്‍ എ ഹ്രസ്വചിത്രം സംവിധാനം ചെയ്തതെ് അമ്മയും മകളും കൂടിയായ ഷാസിയ ശ്രീവാസ്തവയും ഷരീഫ റോയിയും പറഞ്ഞു.
തുഷാര്‍ ദിഗംബര്‍ മോര്‍ (പാരഡൈസ്), അര്‍ച്ചന മേനോന്‍ (വിരാഗ്), അങ്കിത ശര്‍മ (ദി ക്ലൗ ഓ 22ിറ ഫ്‌ളോര്‍), സുനില്‍ ശര്‍മ (എഹസാസ്) എിവരും പരിപാടിയില്‍ പങ്കെടുത്തു.

Good Pitch website launched

Veteran film director and KSCA chairman Priyadarshan inaugurated the website of ‘Good Pitch’ which is an initiative to make a platform of the marketing of documentaries worldwide. This is the joint venture of Indian Documentary Foundation (IDF), Kerala State Chalachitra Academy (KSCA) and Film Division. Good Pitch will arrange a platform for documentary distribution on 23^rd February 2014 at Mumbai International Film Festival.

Sophie Sivaraman, co-founder of IDF detailed the purpose and functioning of this initiative. She said that this project can bring previously untapped investment to documentary film making. Festival artistic director Beena Paul explained about the success of ‘Trigger Pitch’ which is an ongoing project to promote the documentaries in India only. Good Pitch is the inspiration of the British Project by channel 4 and Britdoc of the same name.  Sivaraman informed that the applications for good pitch are open and the documentary makers can apply online at ‘www.goodpitch.org’. She added that Good Pitch is not for monetary benefit while it helps documentarians to market their products efficiently.      

Globalization is the key factor for violence and rape: Deepa Dhanraj

“Globalization is the key factor for violence and rape” said Deepa Dhanraj, famous documentary maker and women activist, expressing her concern over the safety of women. She suggested that there should be more participation from the men in the society against such atrocities happening in the present day social and personal life of women all across the globe. She was talking at the ‘meet the director’ held at press club as a part of sixth IDSFFK.   

 “Curiosity is the subject element for making of a documentary. The process is very pleasurable and interesting”, she said. “The problem with fiction is that you have to spend all the time with actors who are fundamentally boring”, replied Deepa Dhanraj on the question of why she selected the medium of documentary to connect with the public.

Sandhya Kumar, director of “O friend, this waiting” said her film is a poetry of ‘Kshatreeya padham’. “My film is not a biopic of Adoor Gopalakrishan”, director of ‘Lights on Adoor Gopalakrishnan’ Prasanna Ramaswamy said. Sreemith N, the director of show doc ‘She Paints’ was very excited about his film and said it is on the representation of women in the history of art. They were all attending the same programme.