The MAMI film festival held recently in Mumbai was my first expereince of attending any film festival. Unlike my earlier post on the short film festival where I spoke about the stories in the movie, this post will deal on two aspects – the people who watch these festivals and what is common among all good ‘festival films’.
People from the the press, entertainment industry and students of these two fraternieites form majority of the crowd. A sizeable chunk is also the creative people from the ad industry – copywriters, ad film makers, etc. A very small minority forms people like me. Film lovers. Now that’s a pity!
The first thing that I experienced about this crowd was that these people are quite vocal, rebellious, united and impatient. They cheer blatantly and condem unsympatheticly. Piano girl from Turkey, for example, got a standing ovation. In another incident the script writer of this English film from UK was on the dias before his film Infedel was about to be showcased. In such instances someone usually introduces the guest, a bouquet is given and then the guest gets to speak a few words about the film. Our guest was introduced from the US in stead of UK. The bouquet was given in a way most people would find despicable. The guy was however a sport and laughed it off but the crowd boo-ed the presenters mercilessly. If this were Filmfare awards, it would pass with a few murmurs.
In another incident a Mrinal Sen movie Kandahar was getting showcased. They started off by showing parts of the movie in two identical splits, one with the old print and the other one restored. For the first couple of minutes no one said anything. But then people started shouting. They argued that they got the point that restoration has helped but couldn’t fathom why show two identical splits from different parts of the film for five to seven minutes. People started shouting and threatened to walk out until the organisers intervened and apologised and got the film started.
About the movies I noticed that most good ones had a few things in common. Their story was very simple. This allowed the director to focus on a slice of life. Fiction though the stories were, their ends were real. Dramatisation was low, focus was sometimes on the dialogues and sometimes on silence allowing us to question, relate and engage.
If you are one of those who likes to watch off beat films, you should make an attempt to go and see these film festivals, now conducted in many big cities. Movies showcased are usually of impressive quality.
