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Finest and rarest artefacts and publicity material from Hollywood and World Cinema were on display at the annual Cinefan film memorabilia auction during the 12th edition of Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival held recently. The festival, showcases the best of Asian, Arab and Indian cinema, was held in collaboration with the government of NCT of Delhi. A special screening section gave a tribute to late filmmaker Mani Kaul who was creative director at Osian’s since 2006 and was the director-general of the OCFF 11 held in 2009. To mark the legacy of one of the most remarkable filmmakers of World Cinema, Cinefan instituted the annual Mani Kaul Memorial Lecture this year. The festival kicked off at the Siri Fort Auditorium on July 27 with a tribute to Rajesh Khanna, who passed away recently. A beautifully composed montage of the best of songs and dialogues from his films was presented. The festival opened with Japanese director Keiichi Sato’s Asura and closed with Rituparno Ghosh’s Chitrangada. The festival presented 15 world premieres, eight international premieres, 104 Indian premieres and 13 Asian premieres from China, Estonia, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Morocco and Algeria among other Asian and Arab countries. The films selected for screening in the NewStream Cinema section this year were — Deool (Marathi) directed by Umesh Kulkarni, Ranjana Ami Aar Ashbona (Bengali) by Anjan Dutt, Paan Singh Tomar directed by Tigmangshu Dhulia, and Mumbai Diaries or Dhobi Ghat (Hindi) directed by Kiran Rao, Shanghai (Hindi) directed by Dibakar Banerjee and Shoojit Sircar’s Vicky Donor (Hindi). These films are not a part of any competition in the festival. NewStream Cinema begun in the last festival with its title coined by Mani Kaul featured Indian films this year. These are films that have earned a sympathetic audience in the traditional screening space occupied by mainstream cinema yet have broken new cinematographic ground within the Indian film industry. Freedom of Creative Expression was a special section for landmark films in cinema that had at one time or another banned by the authorities. The six films featured in this section were: This is Not a Film by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Emperor Tomato Ketchup by Shuji Terayama, Rockstar by Imtiaz Ali, the classic Indian film Karma (1931) featuring Devika Rani and Himangshu Roy and directed by J.L. Freer-Hunt with several kissing scenes, Salo or the 120 days of Freedom (1975) by Paolo Pasolini and Baise-Moi (2000) directed jointly by Virginia Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi. One of the major attractions of the festival was a tribute to Japanese filmmakers Koji Wakamatsu and Masao Adachi known for ‘pink films’. A set of seven films were screened as a tribute to the illustrious careers of these two Japanese revolutionary filmmakers. Koji Wakamatsu is a well known director of Japanese ‘pink films’ (soft pornographic theatrical films) such as Ecstasy of the Angels (1972) and Go, Go Second Time Virgin (1969). Pink films dominated Japanese cinema from the 1960s to the 1980s. His recent films have been Caterpillar (2010) and United Red Army (2007). Masao Adachi is a director-screenwriter known for his collaborations with Koji Wakamatsu. He was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen award for Caterpillar in 2010. The festival opened with Japanese director Keiichi Sato’s Asura and closed with Rituparno Ghosh’s Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish, a post-modern film inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s dance drama of the same name but narrating a different story. The festival celebrated 15 world premieres, eight international premieres, 104 Indian premieres and 13 Asian premieres from China, Estonia, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Morocco and Algeria among other Asian and Arab countries. The 12th Osians-Cinemaya also screened contemporary films of significance from across the world such as Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui’s Iran 2012, the inaugural film in the newly designed 7.4 Environment Section, South Korean debutant director Yeon Sang-Ho’s King of Pigs that has won a string of international awards already, Waiting for P.O. Box (Netherlands) by Bassam Chekhes, Local Kung Fu (India) by Kenny Basumatary, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s much-discussed This is not a film (France), Mani Kaul’s Duvidha (1973), Yam Laranas’ The Road from the Philippines, Johny Toe’s Romancing in Thin Air (Hong Kong) and the two parts of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur. Local Kung Fu is a martial arts comedy made with a shoe string budget of Rs 95000. The Aruna Vasudev Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Cinema was conferred on Egypt-based film critic and author Samir Farid. Farid has authored several books on cinema and is the consultant for cinema affairs in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, library and cultural centre in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.
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