Winds From The East

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...

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 80s Read More

Editorial How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare One of the sole motivations for working towards establishing a scope for co-operative film criticism, production and distribution here in India was when an acquaintance in Mumbai told me it would take 20 years to change things. That’s when I believe we had a target date in hindsight. What we seek is an age where there would be freedom for the director to film the places he loves, the restaurant he visits and the college he studied. In a manner that is personal and close-and a camera style that is distinctively his very own. And a time where one is not deprived of reading criticism against great men of cinema who are thought to be infallible- A time of questioning. A time when people will not hide behind the veil of mediocrity- in the name of serving the interest of the masses- Or protecting the rights of the proletariat. Above all; a time of choice, for every film from Mumbai we should get to hear a story from Chhattisgarh, Manipur, and ...

Editorial- Issue No-4 In an interview with Jacques Rivette, the great French auteur Jean Renoir remarked that technical advancement is not the way forward but step backward towards ugliness. Something that we witness every Friday with our weekly release of mainstream films, no matter how far our directors go with their new gizmos they still lack the touch to create magic on screen- like a Guru Dutt close-up- or a Vijay Anand dynamic camera movement. This absence is evident across our mainstream industry in India. And even our regional cinema is decaying and adopting the nomenclature of Bollywood. Read More Issue No-4 ------------------------

Issue Focus: Film Noir in India and Vijay Anand Auteur in Focus: Vijay Anand - Vijay Anand - His Classic: Guide - Bolly Noir and Frailites - Shades of Grey Feature - Body and Soul: Pakeezh - Iranian Cine Experience - The Vertigo Zoom and Death of the Dutch Angle - Film Studies, Film Practice and Asian Cinema: Points in Re-Connection - Interview with Bijen Therani World Cinema - The Case of Sergei Eisenstein - Discussion on Sergei Eisenstein Film Education - La Politque Des Auteurs 2 Critique of Critique- Raja Sen Indian Auteur: ARCHIVE

Our second issue is dedicated to Ritwik Ghatak who was not just a visionary, but a poet. One, which world cinema lost too early, he was an original filmmaker whose only wish was to reach the masses through the medium of films- A dream that is yet to be fulfilled. I feel angry, frustrated and sad that the films of our cinematic forefathers are in a sad state of affairs. The legacy of Satyajit Ray is preserved because the Academy of Motion Pictures have helped in restoring many of his works. But, masters like Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen are not in such favor. The Cannes Film Festival 2009 planned to organize a retrospective of Mrinal Sen’s Calcutta Trilogy in the classic section. But the condition of the negatives is so poor that they are not fit for screening. This shows the sheer neglect on part of the government funding bodies, various producers and organizations that have not bothered in restoring our own legacy. The state of Ritwik Ghatak’s films is in a poor condition too. In s...