Global Festival of Documentary Films

Global Festival of Documentary Films emerges as the most prestigious South Asian Documentary Film Festival as it bags the most awarded and talked about films for participation in the Festival organized by International Film & Television Club of Marwah Studios, a Creative Enterprise.

Eminent film makers like Megan Mylan, Teri McLuhan, A.S. Bedi, Kim Longinotto amongst a long list of internal names enter their films in the festival. Global Festival of Documentary Films is taking place from 20th to 22nd November, ’09 at Marwah Studios Complex, Film City, Noida, U.P.The awards in the Young Film Maker Category would be – 1st prize of Rs. 25,000/-, 2nd prize of Rs. 15,000/- and IIIrd prize of Rs.10, 000/-

The highlights of the Festival are Smile Pinky by Mylan Megan, an Oscar winner this year, and Frontier Gandhi by Terry McLuhan, renowned film maker. These directors will be present to interact with the young film makers to share their experiences and observations. This would be a golden opportunity for the students to learn from the masters in almost one-on-one sessions.

MOVIES TO BE SCREENED :-

Superman of Malegaon
Harishchandra Factory
Smile Pinky
Frontier Gandhi

MORE FILMS TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

Film Funding Opportunities for Filmmakers: Cinedarbaar is actively taking part in this initiative, so watch out for more updates on this space.

Interaction with Jury Members
Interactions With International Renowned Directors
Market Session for Marketing Films
Interactions with Producers



VENUE: Marwah STUDIO, Sector 16-A, Noida Film City, NCR.

An Interview with Atsushi Funahashi

Please could you elaborate, for us, on your history and growth as a cinephile.

I was a pure cinephile when I was in my teens and was watching as many movies I could. Usually in Japan it’s very hard to get into college so you have to study a lot. That’s why the high school forces you to quit sport- I was playing tennis since I was a kid- but the school forced me to quit and two years were spent in preparation of an entry into college. And I absolutely hated it, because it’s forbidden. A friend of mine encouraged me to come and watch films, and so I did. That one movie turned into a life long passion. But the movie that had a great impact on me was Samuel Fuller’s White Dog. I just had to spend time watching many Fuller films and it was cheap at around 600 Yen (around 6$). It is a reasonable cost for high school students.READ MORE

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DEEP IN THE VALLEY FILM REVIEW

IA Dialy: Osian Film Festival 2009

THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

Friday, 24^th October 2009 saw the commencement of the 11^th Osian Cinefan, the prestigious film festival that centers itself in New Delhi. The festival will be noted for the first significant instance of a major festival’s embracement and acknowledgment of changes in our mainstream cinema that they can see and we cannot. Thus, the fortress of Delhi, after much resistance from its enclosed and exclusive art culture, has finally fallen to the all pervasive market phenomena of Mumbai. It is an invasion, thus, of the old sacred space whose preservation is as essential as the protection of a national monument – for like the latter, the former is a document of the existence of a minority like us – a document we are not willing to let go of just as yet.Read More

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The ongoing work of Cinedarbaar was briefly mentioned in the leading daily Times of India.

NEW AGE FILM CRITICS:
Ruhi Basin

Popular flicks screened at multiplexes and on television no longer satisfy these `cinephiles' for their interest in cinema goes much beyond just watching a `good' film. For these new critics, movie viewing is serious business and discussing the nuances of each film transcending language barriers important.

Cine Darbaar, a film appreciation club in the city, calls itself one such group of cinephiles. Started by Nitesh Rohit and Supriya Suri, who come from a mass communication background, the club screens movies twice a week on Saturdays and Sundays. Twenty-three-year-old Suri said, "As an alumnus of a film school in Paris, I noticed the inability of some film schools to mould students such that they appreciate the history of cinema. I and my friend decided to start Cine Darbaar to fill this void. The club is simply a platform to watch and discuss movies.''

From the story line, narrative, camera work to music, sound and editing, various aspects of a movie are discussed here. "There are several film screenings, festivals and TV channels that show world movies, but our city lacked a forum where one could debate over movies,'' added Suri. Cine Darbaar also maintains a video library of its own and is now planning to hold a film festival in the city colleges in October to promote cinema from Taiwan. The club doesn't charge any membership fee.

Indian Auteur: Forum

OUR E-zine

Our Forum

Our Website

The primary goal of Indian Auteur is to initiate a discussion among people who love cinema and everything else that is part of the medium. Discussion is an important reason for us taking different initiative across India. From our journal, Cinephile Meeting, Film Experiences and the Online Forum.

The Forum is a place where one should engage in a discussion to understand and discover cinema. The Forum is a place to learn and interact. So please abide by the rules and guidelines to keep a healthy, passionate and engaging discussion among cinephile brewing across the world.

pic- Yo La Tengo, cover album.

Indian Auteur E-Mag and Website Online.

Online E-Mag.

Download E-Mag

Those who view the storm from afar.

…see no difference between

Here and there

To join in and to become a part of it.

This is the call of the times,

Here and there

- Kafi Azmi.

Despair is the breeding ground for any form of revolution; it makes one do the unthinkable, film the unimaginable and write knowing that this may be one’s last sentence. Nicolas De Stael leaped into the void; MS Sathyu filmed Garam Hawa and Jack Kerouac fired with On the Road…and Indian Auteur is a child of one such despair.

In a country that is in a state of transition; where the struggle to live each day is a task; that history or critical thinking cease to exist for most; hence, our relation with our very own roots is slowly and steadily disappearing. Film Archives are selling films as scraps, auteurs works are facing extinction and cinema in the nation begins with the birth of Bollywood in 80sRead More

The Delhi Manifesto

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The seeds of Indian Auteur were sown with the initiation of "The Delhi Manifesto" and nine months down the line we are working towards the same goals. So before we come online again. Our Manifesto. Relaunched
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* Our cinema screen has become an ill-constructed, and conventional portal to a world we aspire of, rather than a mirror, which reflects us.

* Our emotions are guided by leitmotifs placed deftly, and religious beliefs exploited.

* Our spirit of inquiry has become dead and we have been reduced to mere receivers in the process.

* Cinema and television has replaced interaction with imposition of thought. Its thought. An artificial, fake and ill-created thought, a manifestation of our needs to escape ourselves.

* The medium has become a symbol of cheap entertainment, devoid of any examination of the form, and a victim of our collective need to create personalities, perfect alternate universes, and images of our aspiration.

* Our criticism has become trivial. Stories take precedent over the intrinsic qualities of the cinematic medium.

* Our film lovers are snobs, indulging in their wholehearted pseudo-intellectual diatribe, condemning the ignorant, and the ignorant have become so used to a cinema that’s meager that they are satiated with films from the West.

* Our parallel offerings remain strictly entrenched in the tradition of the mainstream, and hence, are versions of the same, rather than its replacements

We reject a system that encourages the above, despite its realization, and seek:-

* To incite discussion on the possibilities, limitations and viability of the application of the auteur theory as a critical prism.

* To use criticism and our theories to both champion and strive for innovation and cutting edge in form, form and content

* To attempt a formulation of a pure love for cinema, a middle ground between the pseudo intellect of the snobs, and the ignorance of the unknowing, and attempt to mobilize their film loves to this new ground.

* To attempt a critical theory that moves beyond the supply of the story and the statistical rating points.

* To observe, notice, and champion upcoming films, filmmakers, and technicians, who remain obscured in the looming shadows of commerce and a faux parallel cinema.

* To champion cinema that creates dissonance, repulsion, interpretation, confusion and discussion rather than loud claps, whistles and scrupulous satisfaction

* To work towards a film love which adopts a middle ground, to reinstate the cinema director to his deserved position, to celebrate Indian cinema of the past and the present, to examine its potential, we propose "The Delhi manifesto.”

- A Delhi Suburb, 1st Jan 2009

SIGN IN:-

( All the early signatories will be soon be online on the new website)

The Granma

Six months or half an year ago, we launched Indian Auteur with a certain set of objectives in mind – the primary among them being the need to protect our notion of cinema – one of a personal, uncompromising, unflinching artist who wields the camera – instead of one whose film is a result of populism, rather than it being the other way around. The notion of an auteurist cinema. In these six months, we have been called confrontational, controversial, direct, and romantic. We have also been called cinephiles. The former is what we would call the collateral damage of the exercise we have undertaken. The latter is our reward.


But the idea is in the penultimate stage of its life cycle. As we come out with the sixth, the half-yearly issue, we seek a restitution and a renewal of ourselves as an organization. Hence, in September, we will reveal ourselves in a completely new format. Therefore, with the promise of rewarding our loyalists, and provoking those who are not, we will take this extended break between two issues to come out with an issue that not only puts into more serious perspective, our own position as a body, but also, that of the exercise of film writing in this country itself. All we can promise, however, is that, the first six months was the preparation. The next, would be the war.

- Indian Auteur Tm.