Film Society of Bhubaneswar will be organizing its annual regional film festival from 24th-30th January. This year the festival focus will be on the diversity of Indian cinema. Every year we have remarkable films made in various Indian languages. They are generally called regional cinema but we think that together they actually give Indian cinema its own distinct identity. The cinema that we generally get to see in the theatres (generally the product of film industries of Mumbai or South India) is only a small part of the bigger picture. A film society functions on the premise that cinema is as significant an art form as the much older traditions of literature, theatre, performing and fine arts. But whereas the agenda of making available the best of literature, theatre, performing and fine arts among the various regions of India is served by Central and Regional institutions like Sahitya Akademi, Sangeet Natak Akademi or Lalit Kala Akademi, no such formal facilitation happens in the case of cinema. If we feel people in one state should have access to and get to know the literature from other states, their theatre, dance and music, their folk and classical art traditions, then the same must hold true for cinema too. It should form a necessary part of our education and an integral part of our idea of India. If we feel that there is a need to read the works of Premchand orGopinath Mohanty, then there is also a need to see the films of Ritwik Ghatak.
The focus of the 10th Indian film festival of Bhubaneswar (IFFB) is on contemporary Indian cinema, it will have different sections – a retrospective, a selection of Master Indian Film Makers, a jury led student competition section, a focus on contemporary German Cinema. The films featuring in the festival will be recipients of critical acclaim and honour at both national and international level for their artistic merit and socio-cultural relevance. They engage with and depict in meaningful, thought provoking manner significant contemporary concerns such as social reality, questions of caste and gender inequality, ecology and environment, political and economic change.
The festival will have a jury led competition section for student films, the winners will be felicitated during the closing ceremony of the festival. A Section on Indian Masters will have a focus on the works of Ritwik Ghatak, Girish Kasaravalli and Saaji Karun. There will be a retrospective on the noted German film maker Fatih Akin. The last day of the festival, 30th January, Gandhi’s assassination day, a reflection on his life and times with a special screening, a film engaging with Gandhian Values, followed by a conversation with the director is planned. The festival aims to bring to its audiences contemporary Indian cinema from across the country, from marginal areas, languages, significant voices in the cinematic medium. These films are acclaimed works, recognised in film festivals internationally. The festival is organised in collaboration of Kerala Chalachitra Academy, Goethe Institute, Kolkata, Bangalore International Film festival and the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation, Chennai.
Mr. Shaji Karun, noted Malayalam film maker, will grace the opening ceremony along with other dignitaries, his films will be screened under the Indian Masters Section. The festival will have screenings every day from 10 am till 10 pm, at Odissi research Centre auditorium.
The festival will have academic programs and invites all of you to participate to get a deeper insight into the nuances of film making process. There is a workshop on “Printed text to Moving Image” – to understand the process of adaptation of literary texts to Cinema. A session on “understanding gaze and representation of female desire in Cinema” will engage the workshop participants into the dialectics of representation of female desire, bodies and sexuality, moderated by Bijaya Biswal. She will also moderate a session on exploring the draw of the cinematic medium and its use across time and space will be explored in “Fascinating Fascism: Cinema and Propaganda”
There will be a section of student works that will be displayed at the festival, curated by Abhishek Parija. The Student Arts section will have works in sculpture, installation and material generated in classroom exploring Cinema.
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