Winds From The East

Cine Darbaar in association with the Japan Foundation, Iran Culture House, Indian Auteur and Sri Aurobindo Center for arts and culture, is organizing a 3 day programme titled Cinephilia and Beyond, to be held on the 22 nd , 23 rd and 24 th July, 2011. Cinephilia and Beyond is an independent programme for the young Cinephiles, to enrich them with innovative sessions, film screenings and interactive workshops. The ceremony will be inaugurated by eminent film maker Mr. Buddhadeb Dasgupta, along with a special screening of his latest film Janala (The Window). The inauguration will be preceded by a key note address on Buddhadeb Dasgupta and his films by Mr. Sandeep Marwah, MD, Marwah Studios, along with the opening of an exhibition on visual story telling from Iran, which will be shown on all 3 days. Buddhadeb Dasgupta has won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival and The Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival and will be conducting an exclusive Mast...

( Band of Outsiders) Our website. Chidambaram is a municipality and taluk (tehsil) headquarters in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. It is 11 km from the coast and 240 km south of Chennai by rail. Chidambaram is a major pilgrimage site for Shaivites as the temple there houses the Akasha Lingam of Shiva. The Cinephile Meeting was an interesting endeavor for everyone present in the meeting. We never had a thing like this in India and we did not come across such initiative. So, first, we are glad that the idea is being taken and great that Indian Auteur and Cine Darbaar are doing this. And we hope we can grow from here in the first meeting. We started with an introduction of the people who were present for the discussion. Currently most of them were from the college and the places nearby the college. We were total of about twelve people had assembled for this discussion. And we people are not film students or any where related to cinema. But as an audience we are interested in learn...

Our website First of apologies to all our readers, the article is not on the site due to some technical reason. But the discussion should continue without any problem. Cinephile Report: Mumbai Shubhank I'll start with Mumbai since it was chronologically the first. The Mumbai Cinephile meeting was postponed by a day since the original schedule was on the same day as the closing day of the Kala Ghoda festival . A couple of fellows, who seemed interested in attending the meet, sent me e-mails. They, however, could not turn up for the event. Hopefully they will be able to make it to the next, whenever it happens. The day brought with itself a slew of dramatic events. My favourite one - when I lost my cellphone in the train. Well, we did meet ... an hour after the actual schedule, at Prithvi Cafe, Juhu. There were 3 attendees; really. 1. Udita 2. Abhay 3. Shubhank To be honest, I was never concerned with the participat...

' ' The First step towards debunking the myth of a bright future' Watch the space Film Journal on Indian Cinema Film Club Cinephile Meeting More MANIFESTO Thank you everyone, who have signed the manifesto, and those who like to sign please do so by clicking the link above.

When I started the blog about a year back, I didn’t know I would manage to maintain consistency, because all my previous efforts were eventually a letdown. I realized it was the easiest thing in the world to start a blog, but the hardest thing to maintain one. However, over the course of the year, the blog helped me get assignments under various publications. Yet, with every passing month, rather everyday, there is something more to learn and something more to improve & work upon. And I can see the difference when I look back at the articles I wrote months back. All I can say that the coming year, things are going to be more exciting than this year. As for my favorite films in 2008, I have only included those films that had an official screening at a film festival or theatrical release in the country. So folks, have a great holiday. See you people in 2009. Here are my favorite films, music and moments from the year and thank you for reading and feedback. It definitely helped a lot....

Anyone remotely interested in Indian cinema and the nature of film-love in the country should read this discussion. The discussion is taking place at Passion for Cinema community blog. I think, I don’t need to state facts or my own opinions to point out- who is right or who is wrong-as the evidence is in the discussion. Wonder, what Bazin would have made of such confluence of ideas and perception on cinema. In the end, I’m happy, that slowly but steadily the ideas of discussion/questioning would become an important proposition in Indian Cinema. To sow the seeds in establishing a critical school of thought for our films and pave a path for a new generation of filmmakers. A little background (on the discussion) Anurag Kashyap is an Indian film director and writer. He is best known for as the scriptwriter of the 1998 film Satya and as the director of Black Friday, a controversial film about the 1993 Bombay bombings.He is also the member of International Film And Television Club of Asian ...

Supriya Suri If we look at Indian mythology, a lot of stories have dealt with guru-shishya (teacher-student) bond. And this bond was considered a very important part of the human life. Even the great Indian epic Ramayana where Ram spoke to Hanuman and in Mahabharata, Krishna to Arjun, share such importance in shaping an individual. The tradition might have focused on the spiritual enlightenment which is the best way for any human to learn provided we don't confine the meaning of the word 'Spiritual' in a very conventional way. Today one can sense the tradition slowly eroding and that has been a loss to our parampara (tradition). The avenue to learn varieties of new things and the teaching might have increased beyond the prejudice of caste system yet the bond that we once shared, and the love with which a student learned and a teacher taught has been completely lost. Cinema, in specific, is more of my concern since being a cinephile and coming from film school, this is where...

‘The Cinephile is the one who keeps his eyes wide open in vain but will not tell anybody that he could not see any thing. He is the one preparing for a life as a professional ‘watcher’ as a way to make up for being late, as slowly as possible’ - Serge Daney ‘Perhaps it is not cinema that has ended but only cinephilia -- the name of the very specific kind of love that cinema inspired. Each art breeds its fanatics. The love that cinema inspired, however, was special. It was born out of the conviction that cinema was an art unlike any other: quintessentially modern; distinctively accessible; poetic and mysterious and erotic and moral -- all at the same time. Cinema had apostles. (It was like religion.) Cinema was a crusade. For cinephiles, the movies encapsulated everything. Cinema was both the book of art and the book of life.’ - Susan Sontag, ‘The Decay of Cinema’ Main Entry: cine·phile Function: Noun Etymology: French cinéphile, from ciné + -phile Date: 1968 : A devotee of motion pictu...

Jean Luc Godard the French cineaste abandoned commercial filmmaking, in pure Godardian terms to become an active participant in formulating a direct passage between the essence of art and its reactionary functions- to create a base for political cinema. In the span of few years Godard’s activism dried up. This raises an important question of, the role of art in our lives today. A question which we all should ask ourselves; especially for cinema which is ubiquitous as a commercial form of art, but has the power to touch the masses unlike any other form of art. Hence the possibility of capturing, reflecting and storing through the medium of images is the most important tool for activism unlike any other form of art, with photography coming as its close second. "A Prophet Has Died In His Homeland," read a headline in the popular Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on the death of the Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn who took an active interest in using his art form to express the s...

Abbas Kiarostami : “My feelings don’t lie, I will go on trusting them.” Abbas Kiarostami : “Sometimes I can’t understand what the word realism means. I don’t think reality deserves any credit in itself.... When you record reality, you interfere with it. If I shoot 18 hours of film, and edit it down to 45 or 50 minutes, this means interfering with reality. If I wanted to be faithful to reality, I’d show an 18-hour film.” Abbas Kiarostami : “If a character has to feel fear, I’ll scare him, if he has to he happy, I’ll make him happy, Everything has to be real. I can’t stand artificial sentiments.” Akira Kurosawa : “I believe the films of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami are extraordinary. Words cannot relate my feelings. I suggest you see his films, and then you will see what I mean”. Alexander Sokurov : “I am nothing but a worker whom the destiny has thrown in the realm of cinema. Neither my upbringing nor my psychology prepared myself for it. Even genetically, I was not made for ...