Film Language is the Only Language I Know to Express Myself: Audrius Stonys

Audrius Stonys in his speech at the Master Class said that he doesn’t know any other way to express his ideas other than visual language. “The very important question is why one should make films. There could be many answers to that question. Making films to make money and making films to inform are the two answers in common.  It is hard to make money on documentary; there is lot other jobs to make money.  There is many other cheaper ways to inform as well, a television program, a written article or a radio broadcast, than making a film.” He responded

On the very same question he added that, “My answer is, make a film, if you see that the film language is the only possible way to say what you want to say, for me it is very essential. We have to use and we have to learn this specific cinema language which does not need any support. It can stand and deliver its purpose by itself.”

“A documentary is a very powerful tool which does not need any support. In a documentary images can speak, much more than words or music .When image can’t stand by itself then we use music and words in it. It is a distress and it actually kills the real cinema” he added.

 “Every issue can be told in the form of a fiction format too, as far as I concern an actor does not satisfy me, after all it is acting. That is why I go for documentaries than fiction, it is 100% real” he concluded.

 Anand Vattamannil

Photo Courtesy:www.snipview.com

IDSFFK the only one of its kind: R V Ramani

R V RAMANI

R V Ramani (jury member) finds IDSFFK as an awesome festival he is very much impressed with the quality of the entries.” IDSFFK is a wonderful festival organized by the State Government. The entries are wonderful films. We have seen a spectacular collection of brilliant long and short documentaries.  It is the only one of its kind in India”, he said.

On the challenges of documentary film making: “A documentary doesn’t have a script in a sense that we work in real situations. The script may not be there in a textual form, but it is always in our mind, there definitely is a thought process in working.  It can’t be pre-structured, in documentary film making we have to work with whatever happens in front of us, we have to mold with it and to move with it. Docu-film is a daring thing to some extent.”

On the market of Docu-films: “The Documentaries have a different market but we can sell anything if we work on it. If we can sell soap then we can sell art films too. If your craft is good your film will travel around the world, which brings you money fame and recognition”, said Ramani

Social commitments of documentaries: “Every human being has the responsibility to respond to the social issues, most people are contributing to the society in one way or other. It is not the job of a film maker only to create awareness. It can spark a thought or convey a message. Like a powerful incendiary speech, films sometimes create an impact on the people”, said Ramani

Photo Courtesy www.ramanifilms.com

Amit Dutta Movies Beckon Movie Buffs to IDSFFK

Eighth IDSFFK 2015 is felicitating the contemporary film maker Amit Dutta by screening 10 of his well acclaimed works. Amit Dutta has his own signature style of storytelling. As an experimental film maker he concatenates the elements of research and documentation with open imagination. Rich and aesthetically stimulating images based on Indian aesthetic theory and personal symbolism are the rudiment elements of his films, which entices the spectators. History, ethno-anthropology and cultural inheritance are the basic plot subjects he used in his piece of arts. The montage snippets in his films normally intersperse between characters and historical reminiscences, fairy tales and children stories, which are eye baffling. The audience will definitely get something to take with them after watching an Amit Dutta movie.

Film buffs and dilettantes in India and abroad, regarded this 2004 FTII graduate as one among the most elusive, exciting and finest film makers in India. Amit Dutta’s films have received international acclamation including Gold Mikaldi at Bilbao (Spain), the Golden Conch and Best Film of the Festival Award at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), the FIPRESCI critic’s award in the Oberhausen Film Festival, Germany, the John Abraham National Award, and four times the National Award of India. A retrospective of his work was held at Oberhausen Film Festival(Germany) in 2010.He is named among the Best New Film Makers of the decade by the Ferroni Brigade group of film critics in 2011. 

In 2013 he was invited by the Venice Film Festival to make a short film for its 70^th anniversary on the theme, “The Future of Cinema”.

His films being screened at the festival are, Chithrasala,Even Red Can Be Sad, Ramkhind, a Warli Village, Jangrah Film-One, Gita Govinda,Field Trip, The Museum of Imagination:A Potrait in Absentia, Nainsukh 2010, Venice Quote and, Saatvin Sair.

നിങ്ങൾ എവിടെയായിരുന്നു ഇത്ര നാൾ ???

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ഇത്ര അടുത്ത്അല്ല എന്ന് മാത്രം
ഇനി ഉണ്ടാവണം എന്ന് തോന്നുന്നു അടുത്ത്
കാലം നിന്നെ മഞ്ഞു പുതപ്പിക്കുമ്പോൾ ഓർക്കുക
ഞാൻ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു

Kutty chintha

മടി അവനാണ്  എന്റെ പേനയും മഷിയും എപ്പോളും ഒളിച്ചു വെക്കുന്നത്.....കള്ള ബടുക്കൂസ്

Capturing Dad

Capturing dad was the wonderful movie I saw on the final day of film festival and that movie made my day. The Japanese movie stole the heart of many people including me. It was the story of a divorce woman who is a lottery seller, raises her two girls in full value of life. She decides to send them to watch their dad in his bed dying of cancer. The only thing she told her daughters was to take a photograph of her dying father. The girls were told that their mother want to see the expression on their fathers face when dying. The movie progress through the girl’s journey to the dads place without knowing their father is dead. But nothing affects the girls in an emotional way because they were not so acquainted with their dad. The girls see it as a pleasure trip to capture the photograph of their dad. The elder sister sees it as an opportunity to be an adult. But she has to confront family issues and the burial of a man who is barely known to them, she handles the situation really well thou. The meeting of the  girls with their half brother Chihiro was really wonderful and cute. Chihiro bagged the attention and love of every viewer.

The casting of the movie adds to the success of the movie. Despite of that I personally felt that the director could have captured the funeral house and the emotions within the family and between the distant relatives in much more expressive way. I felt it very flat apart from the performance of our two girls and Chihiro. There is a detached irony throughout the movie. It portrays death and loss in a very cheerful way. The ending of the movie was also wonderful which connects the tuna fish irony. There was no other better way to end the movie in an astonishing way.

The Hunt

The hunt is such a good movie which steels our mind through its different subject and flow of narration. The beginning of the movie is in a usual way with full of warmth, pleasure, happiness and harmony but when the tale precedes its track changes to suspicion, sorrow, and pain. Lucas is the main character of the film and the whole story revolves around him and his friends, family and acquaintances. The story is all about the innocent man Lucas and how is he haunted and tortured by dear ones and society of the sin which he has not done. He loses his every good relationship just because of a single but serious lie by his best friend’s daughter. The movie portrays how a lie gets its acceptance and how society take it and how it spreads around and then become a truth by the end of the day. And how an innocent man is hunted by the society family and friends.

The director Thomas Vinterberg portrayed the deep emotions of every character in an appreciable way and he had given lot of instances in the movie to make the viewer think about the story instead of spoon feeding the audience by telling the story in a flat narrative style. The hunting sequence of Lucas with his friends and son in the deep woods by the end of the story smartly tells the audience that even after years the innocent Lucas is been hunted by the society. The technical aspect of the movie kept some standard and the whole movie looked good and the pace of the story were impeccable