Winds From The East

IA author Manjari Kaul on the latest film of Ashutosh Gowarikar, Film theorist, Andre Bazin, in his essay, “The Ontology of the Photographic Image” notes that if cinema was ‘put under psychoanalysis, the practice of embalming the dead might turn out to be a fundamental factor in [its] creation’. Cinema’s preoccupation with history, the spirit and achievements of a particular age, its heroes and its villains, the glory and shame are never a pointer simply to an era gone by but also to a continuum that the filmmakers wish to evoke between the past and the present. The historical film in Hindi cinema has been a genre devoid of imagination for it seems that the only times in the country’s past that seem to get evoked time and again are- the vibrancy of the Mughal era, the heroic freedom struggle and the holocaust of the partition of the Indian subcontinent. Ashutosh Gowarikar has, over the years, marked out the Historical as his preferred territory. He has sung his eulogy to M...

You said in a press conference that out of the 43000 feature films that have been made in this country since the dawn of cinema, only 5000 have been preserved. What do you believe justifies this callous attitude towards our film heritage? The tendency to preserve is not inherent in our culture. There is a clear lack of initiative in the field of archiving. There is also a lack of a proper series of steps being taken by the established authorities to educate the young generation of film lovers, or even the current members of the film fraternity. Do you believe that this lackadaisical attitude also stems from a disinterest from a commercial standpoint in the preservation and later, exhibition, of these films? I believe that these films, once released, will definitely find a commercial audience. There is an also a sustained effort from our side (NFAI) to upgrade these films to more updated formats – for instance, the present edition of IFFI features an exhibition of 5 obscure Indian films...

International Film & Television Club (IFTC) is organizing the 3 rd Global Film Festival; Noida from 12 to 14 th November, 2010 at Marwah Studios, Film City, Noida. The film festival will be focusing on the theme of children this year by bringing in films from diverse country such as Iran, France, America, Spain and U.K. The opening film of festival will be a Japanese Anime film, Nitobeh and the closing will be a Spanish Masterpiece Spirit of the beehive. The festival is also organizing seminars and workshops that will be held throughout the 3 days. The prominent topics to be explored in seminars are Commercial Viability of Children Films (Headed by renowned director Mr. Sudhir Mishra), Are animation films for children only (by Mr. Kundan Shah) and How to make children films available in Multiplexes (By Ms. Sai Paranjpye). The workshops will be held on Delhi : A venue for shooting films, Cinema and social Responsibility and Children Films not a child’s play to be taken ...

casual appraisal of how Varma tends to assume his audiences know everything beforehand, and much like a bad storyteller who cannot wait to tell you about the twist in the tale without setting it up first, he is essentially making films only he can enjoy. Varma is often believed to have triggered some sort of a revolution in terms of how Bollywood films are made – a reputation that is largely a yield of his 1998 film Satya. His frequent complaint is that a lot of the writers on his films, or even his audiences, tend to compare whichever of his efforts is the latest to feature on the marquee with this earlier tour-de-force of a film– thereby invariably resulting in a circumstance of unbalanced and unequal comparison, where Satya will always triumph, but more importantly, his latest film will always be given the raw end of the deal. It is to Satya’s credit and some sort of a perverse ode to its endurance that a film its director makes in 2010 is still compared to a film he made in 1998...

The action on Indian Auteur might be a little less these days but we slowly sorting out all the mess to get things back in order. From the content to design. But our offline efforts with IA sister body Cinedarbaar is being noticed. Here is a major news wire(IANS) service story on film clubs in Delhi. Cinedarbaar is actively involved in the space for film programming, interaction, discussion and championship of auteur studies. It has been involved in programming and otherwise in over 15 festivals, 10 film workshops, 5 major Film Interaction Programme( National Film Awards, Indian Panorama etc), Summer Film Camp for Children and Cinephile Meetings in the last one and a half year of its existence. Delhi is talking world cinema, thanks to film clubs By Mohita Nagpal New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) No longer are “Breathless”, “Rashomon” and “Amores Perros” the preserve of the well-heeled at Delhi’s arty evenings. Critically acclaimed international films like these have struck a chord amon...

When dreams and reality coincide, the concoction can be deliciously smooth and fantastic, literally. Satoshi Kon’s anime mostly allude to that concoction – the merging of the real and the fantasy, the thoughts and the illusions blurring lines between. But these are not the only pegs to his storytelling. Kon’s creation are an amazing introduction to the world where line blurs, the definition concedes a conundrum, giving way to a chaos of simplicity. Like the name, Studio Madhouse, that has produced all his films till date, Kon’s films delve into a realm that tries to reflect the utter madness that our imagination can infuse into any ordinary circumstance. Portions of his films feel like captured memories, the heightened ones of course. Manga –artist turned anime director, Satoshi Kon’s oeuvre, over the last two decades, garnered him the name “auteur anime director”. His films have been known for defying the conventional genre and their exquisite, fantastic choice of subjec...

Cine Darbaar, in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan, Directorate of Film Festivals, Japan Foundation, is organizing a 3-day Animation film festival at Siri Fort auditorium II on the 20 th , 21 st & 22 nd August, 2010. It’s the first time that a festival will be celebrating Japanese-Anime, Manga (Comics) and Pop-culture in India. Anime Cine Experience will be bringing the great anime works of Japan with films like The Girl who leapt through time, Grave of the fireflies, 5cm per second, Voices of Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days . In its inaugural edition the festival will showcase Japanese comics, anime serial, short film competitions, pop-culture exhibitions. To give the audience a wider understanding of Anime, the festival will have workshops and special discussions will be conducted by one of the emerging game designers in India, Mr. Shubham Mauria, on the topic of The Relation of Anime and Its Avatars in Popular Culture in Relation to Japa...

This tradition of exposing the vulnerability of the male ego, in cinema, ran rather curiously, simultaneously with the tradition of taking a male figure and granting him exclusivity among lesser mortals. Would it be wrong to say that for a long time, and even now, the discussion on the nature of the male ego has remained the most significant dialectic between purely studio-based mainstream blockbuster cinema and smaller cinema? Is it ironic that Ben Hur and Shadows were released close to each other; or that the same year gave us Luke Skywalker and Alvy Singer? READ MORE

Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre, New Delhi, in collaboration with Directorate of Film Festivals will be hosting acclaimed Director Ang Lee’s Retrospective Film Festival from 23 rd to 25 th July 2010 at Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi. Thereafter, the movies will be showcased in Pune and Kolkata. The five films that will be screened for audiences are: Fine Line (1984), Pushing Hands (1992), The Wedding Banquet (1993), Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000). This festival traces Ang Lee’s journey starting from his first college. READ MORE

IA talks about experimental auteur Tom Chomont and examines his role in the hierarchy of the 1960s Structuralist Cinema in America, while also inaugurating its annual Film Critic Symposium in its Issue 11 READ MORE

Rossellini says, “A shot is not right when it is beautiful, but beautiful when it is right,”; and these attributes (right, or wrong) can be attached to something only in relation to something else; only within a context; which is to say, something is right only when something else is wrong. In the case of a film, that context is a set, almost unchangeable aesthetic plan that a film chooses for itself. Read More

‘What is the point of a dream that is not unattainable? If it’s attainable, is it even a dream still?’ A vacation has been imposed upon Indian Auteur; and this is no time for a vacation. Like Robert Frost’s traveler being compelled to make a detour which he undertakes in his sleepy stupor, we have become victims of our circumstance. Due to some technical and design issues, the website's content has not been updated. We are working on making the interface and experience for our readers more enjoyable. In a recent interview with trade analyst Komal Nahta, setup to make it seem like a serious discussion on his film Housefull’ s grand success, director Sajid Khan took the opportunity presented to him by the commercial vindication of his film to ridicule each new filmmaker who tries to attempt a personal film because well, apparently, they do not know how to make films for the audience and he does. The point he states, and overstates is that he is a man deser...

American Center and Cine Darbaar welcomes you for the retrospective of Alfred Hitchcock movie from May 7 th -9 th 2010, American Center, New Delhi. Discussions follow each screening. In its continuing efforts to screen films by past and present cinematic masters for a large group of people and subsequently inculcating critical discourse through discussions among the audience members, thereby attempting a restoration of cinema to a communal activity, Cinedarbaar will organize a retrospective of the films of cinema heavyweight Alfred Hitchcock. The event will feature interactive sessions conducted by the writers from Indianauteur.com – typical of all events organized by Cinedarbaar, multimedia presentations to illustrate various aesthetic schemes employed by Hitchcock to achieve the title of ‘Master of Suspense’, and his everlasting influence on hordes of cinema greats who followed him. READ MORE

The prestigious Cannes Film Festival, held annually at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in the French city of Cannes since 1946, has announced the list of films in its official selection for its 63 rd edition, to be held from 12 th May to 23 rd May 2010. Read More

Cine Darbaar is a non-profit welfare society has been engaged in promoting cinema in India and Indian films internationally. Its vision lies in programming and curating films with the purpose of taking cinema seriously in our country by developing sensibilities through exposure to good cinema. Cine Darbaar’s focus lies in making a good platform for education in cinema in India. Hence it has been organizing workshops for all demographics in India and provides opportunities to those who lack the accessibility to learn about the medium. DETAILS Venue : Film City, Marwah Studios, Sec 16-A, Noida Duration of the workshop : 12 Days Dates : 24th May to 3rd June 2010 OUTLINE SUMMARY The Cinedarbaar Summer Film Camp basis its activities upon the belief that the children are not provided with enough opportunities or outlets for the expression of their creative, intellectual or social beliefs – and with the oncoming of the digital media and its utilization in the process of filmmaking, children c...

The Madcap Laughs: IA TABLE OF CONTENTS: Volume no 2 Issue no-1, March 2010 E-Mag Read Online Download Online Articles on the web AUTEUR Postmodernity and the Cinematic Object in the films of R. W. Fassbinder - Devdutt LA Bande Designee Omniyam- Kamal Swarop/Jay Krishnan Cover Story Shion Sono Exposed - Jasper Sharp The Man of the Moment : Sono Sion- Anuj Practical Joker and AirMan- Ebrahim Kabir Dreaming in Darkness - Sagorika Singha Exposing Memories - Sachin Gandhi From The Vault Cinema and ethics: Somo Sahi

CINEDARBAAR

EDITORIAL :- LOVE EXPOSURE: Boa Sr, died a broken heart, she was about 85. She suffered from loneliness and isolation, as she had no one to speak to. At the time of her death, she passed away with histories(s) that linked to a tribe that was 65,000 years old. She was the last surviving member of the Bo tribe of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. In the only reality that we know of- death- Boa Sr, became a memory. One that is hardly documented or one that is never represented, in other words she became, a dream. A figment of imagination, of which mainstream India, has absolutely no clue. With the ever changing Indian landscape coupled with our power to show celebration of mainstream cinema and exploitative documentary (the only possible identity for most Indian documentary films). The state of affairs of our own being is reduced to nothingness with each passing day. Our choice to express our identity that contains our personal world view has become limited. It’s next to impossib...

The Indian Auteur Tm, run a small independent-cinephile lead' Cinedarbaar Welfare Society', under the leadership of artistic director, Supriya Suri in New Delhi, India. The society is extensively involved in pushing film education, the ideas of film programming and showcasing films in schools, colleges,villages, towns and cities its involved in creating a forum for discussion, learning and debate. ...And creating a space against the tyranny of Bollywood. In Feburary, Cinedarbaar is organising its latest event called ‘ Horror Cine Experience’ at Instituto Cervantes or the Spanish Culture Center from the 25 th to the 27 th of Feb 2010 with media partners in the form of Radio Noida and BatchBuzz Read More VISIT: INDIAN AUTEUR.

TABLE OF CONTENT E-magazine: READ ONLINE AUTEUR IA Master Series: Kamal Swaroop COVER STORY A Documentary Fantasy: Our Beloved Month of August : Dr Adrian Martin Cinema, considered as a Toolbox : Ignaity Vishnevetsky Berlin School : Srikanth Srinivasan 20 Young Independent Thai directors : Jit Phokeaw Call Money or Mani Kaul : Satyam The Dreamer of the East:- Corneliu Porumboiu : Anamaria Dobinciuc Zero Bridge: IA talks to Tariq Taqa : Indian AuteurTm Reviews Tingya: Sagorika Paa : Debojit Avatar : Anuj FROM THE VAULT Cinema and Television in India: Nitesh Rohit Editorial : GOODBYE SOLO:- Independent filmmakers in India come in two shapes and sizes. The first that s (he) is a filmmaker confined to represent ideas of our world via the bastardization of social realism aka documentary filmmaker. The second group is a cousin of the carnivores T-Rex aka Bollywood, these small dinos...