Film festivals
A fad or a need?

Film festivals are often called elitist but for any film industry to evolve and prosper, and for any audience to grasp and appreciate the finer points of the medium, these festivals are essential so as to stay abreast of global showbiz trends, writes Saibal Chatterjee

The roadshow is never-ending. It is that time of the year when India hosts an international film festival virtually every fortnight. The question is: how much is too much? Cineastes, on their part, aren’t complaining.

Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Janala (The Window) was showcased at the Toronto festival

Why would they? These film festivals give them an opportunity to savour the best of world cinema – something that the nation’s mainstream distribution-exhibition system does not usually allow. So,`A0the`A0more the merrier, especially for those who love the purity and diversity of cinema and have the time and passion to register themselves as itinerant delegates at these film festivals.

For a film buff the itinerary has been fantastic during this frenetic season. Even before the curtain came down on the 11th Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival (OCFF) in New Delhi, the 11th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), hosted by the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI), in collaboration with Reliance Big Entertainment, hit the road. And no sooner had MFF wound up its act than the 15th Kolkata Film Festival kick-started itself.

The film buffs’ caravan is now all set to move to the quaint little city of Panaji in Goa for the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI, November 23 to December 2). And that’s definitely not all – the international film festivals of Kerala, Chennai and Pune, besides the biennial Films Division-hosted Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, are lined up for December, January and beyond.

It’s a winter of contentment for film lovers. The calendar is chock-a-block with riches. The question arises again: does India really need so many international film festivals? It does. Do these events actually serve the cause of cinema? They do. Yes, film festivals are often called elitist and targeted only at a certain segment of film watchers. But that is what these are meant to be – a sort of "art and trade fair" for film professionals, connoisseurs and scholars designed to help them update and upgrade their knowledge of the medium.

A still from 101-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira’s Eccentricities of a Blond Haired Girl

If lay viewers join these celebrations of cinema, it certainly adds to the profile of the festivals. Even if they don’t, their absence might be a bit of a dampener, but it does not in any way make these festivals any less essential for those whose lives hinge on the making, distribution and dissemination of cinema.

"India produces the largest number of films in the world, but this country does not have a genuine film culture," says Neville Tuli, Chairman, Osian’s. "A film festival can foster better understanding of cinema in all its dimensions."

Indeed, for any film industry to constantly evolve and prosper, and for any audience to grasp and appreciate the finer points of the medium, it is absolutely essential for them to stay abreast of global showbiz trends. India’s movie capital Mumbai seems to have just woken up to that reality.

The international film festival hosted by the city was a rather insipid affair for the first decade of its existence. But the latest edition of MFF (October 29-November 5) was a runaway success.

Its line-up of films was first rate. The festival also attracted personalities like Greek cinema legend Theo Angelopoulos, who was chosen for a Lifetime Achievement Award and a retrospective; celebrated American screenwriter-director Paul Schrader (the man who wrote films like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull); globally feted Filipino director Brillante Mendoza; and Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara, widely regarded as one of the world’s most exciting new talents.

Indian festival triumphs An award at a major international film festival is a stamp of approval that goes a long way in putting a director and his work on the world map. The following is a list of Indian films that have won important prizes at top festivals over the decades. It is pretty obvious that for a country that produces 800 films annually, these triumphs are too few and far between. Neecha Nagar (Hindi), directed by Chetan Anand: Grand Prix, inaugural Cannes Film Festival, 1946 Pather Panchali (Bengali), directed by Satyajit Ray: Best Human Document, Cannes Film Festival, 1956 Aparajito (Bengali), directed by Satyajit Ray: Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival, 1957 Ashani Sanket (Bengali), directed by Satyajit Ray: Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival, 1973 Kharij (Bengali), directed by Mrinal Sen: Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival, 1983 Monsoon Wedding, directed by Mira Nair, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2001 Salaam Bombay (Hindi), directed by Mira Nair: Camera d’Or, Cannes Film Festival, 1988 Marana Simhasanam (Malayalam), directed by Murali Nair: Camera d’Or, Cannes Film Festival, 1999 Uttara (Bengali), directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta: Special Director’s Award – Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival, 2000 Monsoon Wedding (English/ Hindi), directed by Mira Nair: Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival, 2001

MAMI, the body that organises the MFF, has veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal as chairman, and the likes of Yash Chopra, Shabana Azmi, Jaya Bachchan, Amol Palekar, Ashutosh Gowariker, Farhan Akhtar, Amit Khanna and Karan Johar as trustees.

Understandably, there was a certain buzz about the Mumbai festival this year as members of the Hindi film industry, cinema buffs and students of the medium turned up in large numbers to check out the masterworks on view, including films like British veteran Mike Leigh’s Happy Go Lucky, Polish master Andrzej Wajda’s Sweet Rush, 101-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira’s Eccentricities of a Blond Haired Girl and Costa-Gavras’ Eden is West.

The MFF recorded a dramatic 70 per cent increase in delegate registration this year — the total figure touched 3,500 — despite government restrictions on ticketed shows. Says Srinivasan Narayanan, director, MFF: "We are happy with the response, but would have been happier, had we been allowed to throw open the festival to the public."

Until about 20 years ago, film festivals in India were open to the general public. But now only registered delegates can watch films in a festival. Narayanan, a former officer with the Directorate of Film Festivals and National Film Development Corporation, who now is in the business of acquiring non-Hollywood foreign films for distribution in India, is all for wider public participation in festivals.

According to Narayanan, negotiations are on with the government for official permission to revert to the erstwhile system under which a festival could hire public theatres for ticketed shows, in addition to screening films for the media and delegates at the main venue.

Major festivals around the world, notably the ones in Cannes and Toronto, are public festivals and local residents have access to most of the screenings. In India, this factor remains a major impediment to film festivals becoming real public events.

Constant evolution is the name of the game. Osian’s Cinefan is pushing in new directions since veteran filmmaker Mani Kaul took over as the director-general of the festival. The festival’s latest edition opted for a free-flowing programming plan rather than thematic sections.

"In an incredibly atypical approach, the festival curators this year did not embrace a theme beforehand. Instead, brilliant films were first selected, analysed and then woven into a narrative — a radical change from the way films are selected at most film festivals," says Kaul. Irrespective of whether this departure from the norm yields dividends or not, the process of change is a constant, indeed a necessity, in any film festival.`A0 `A0`A0

If the Cannes Film Festival is what it is today, it is simply because what began as a small post-World War II festival in a nondescript fishing village on the French Riviera has evolved year after year.

Today, if a filmmaker wants his work to be watched by the world, Cannes is one stop he or she simply cannot skip. This is where the movers and shakers of the world cinema congregate for 10 days to discuss the art, craft and business of cinema. India cannot afford to be left out of the party.

Pretty much the same is true of Toronto, which rolls out a flashy, star-studded annual film festival that serves as a gateway to the North American market.

Sadly, Indian filmmakers, who are overly obsessed with domestic box office returns and unable to look beyond their noses, have often had the door slammed hard on their faces. Toronto does, of course, include a few Indian films in its programme every year. This year, a Konkani-language film, The Man Beyond the Bridge, by a first-time director, Laxmikant Shetgaonkar, went on to win the festival’s prestigious Fipresci (International Federation of Film Critics) Award.

Also in the 34th Toronto International Film Festival line-up were Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Janala (The Window) and Dev Benegal’s Indo-US co-production, Road, Movie, besides two Bollywood flicks, Dil Bole Hadippa and What’s Your Raashee?

In Cannes, however, the Indian cinema has, in recent years, been relegated to the sidelines. Says Jerome Paillard, director of the Cannes Film Market: "Indian cinema needs to reinvent itself, both in terms of substance and approach, if it is to play its rightful role on the world stage... We are waiting for another Satyajit Ray to emerge from India but it seems the country does not currently give its filmmakers the environment needed for that to happen."

Paillard feels Bollywood’s overwhelming domination of the business has turned out to be counter-productive for Indian cinema as a whole. The future lies in allowing smaller, quirkier, independent-spirited films to break into the global consciousness. The Man beyond the Bridge did just that in Toronto. Around the same time, another worthy Indian (not a Bollywood) film, Aadmi Ki Aurat Aur Anya Kahaniya, directed by FTII grad Amit Dutta, won a Special Mention in the Orizzonti (Horizons) section of 66th Venice Film Festival.

India has imprinted itself on global mind thanks to the worldwide success of Slumdog Millionaire. Although it wasn’t strictly an Indian film, much of what it projected was pure Bollywood. As Michael Werner of Fortissimo Films, one of the world’s leading movie sales agents, said at Cannes earlier this year, "The world is waiting for another Slumdog Millionaire". But the worrying bit is that it might not wait for too long.

And that is the reason why India must take international film festivals seriously — these are a window to the world. Insularity can be a great impediment to growth, especially for a film industry that is as big as India’s, and yet not quite as globally influential as China’s, Iran’s or Thailand’s. Until Indian filmmakers accept that home truth and plan their global marketing strategies accordingly, our cinema will continue to be big in quantity alone.