The Dharamshala International Film Festival is back with its 5th edition which is all set to begin today in the picturesque location of Tibetan Children’s Village, Himachal Pradesh. What better location to host a film festival than the surreal mountains, one must think, but that’s not it. The line-up of the four-day-event includes films from across the world, feature films, masterclasses, panel discussions, conversations and even a dedicated section for the children’s films.
As we gear up to celebrate the lesser-talked-about world of Indie cinema, here’s a quick list of things to look forward to at DIFF 2016.
Participation of 21 Countries
The total number of films to be screened this year is 43 which includes - 27 features films, 15 short films and 1 docu-fiction from across the world. France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Singapore, Thailand, UK and South Korea are some of the countries besides India to present their cinematic masterpieces at this festival. Several filmmakers and actors are also expected to grace the occasion.
Screening of critically-acclaimed films
The opening night itself offers Raam Reddy’s much-appreicated Thithi. Vetri Maaran’s Interrogation – India’s Oscar entry for 2016 – is yet another film which makes this festival a promising one. Other than these two, there are various films representing the best of Indie cinema such as Mangesh Joshi’s Lathi Joshi , Umesh Kulkarni’s Highway and Bauddhayan Mukherji’s The Violin Player.
A promising Asian line-up
Some of the notable names in this section are Tibetan filmmaker Tenzin Dasel’s short drama, Café Royal, nominated as Singapore’s entry for the foreign language Oscar and Pimpaka Towira’s genre-twisting Thai road movie The Island Funeral. Among the feature documentaries in the line-up, Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog (USA), Sean McAllister’s A Syrian Love Story (UK), Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s Sonita (Iran), and Pushpa Rawat’s Mod (India) complicate notions of the personal within a volatile social and political landscape. Other highlights include Ladakhi filmmaker Stanzin Dorjai Gya and Christiane Mordelet’s The Shepherdess of the Glaciers (India) and Mickey Lemle’s The Last Dalai Lama? (USA) make for the most awaited ones.
Lucratives for Bollywood buffs
The line-up offers something exciting for the ones who’ve been in love with Bollywood since forever. One being Rajeev Masand anchoring a discussion with Naseeruddin Shah wherein he’ll talk about his life and work. The second is the panel discussion, moderated by film writer Saibal Chatterjee, featuring directors Rajeev Ravi (Kerala), Raam Reddy (Karnataka), Umesh Kulkarni (Maharashtra), Bauddhayan Mukherji (West Bengal) and Sanjeev Kumar (HP), who will discuss the place of India’s growing independent regional cinema in a country dominated by Bollywood movies.
Another interestingfeautre is the screening of various short films from Bollywood’s known names - Anurag Kashyap’s That Day After Every Day, Adhiraj Bose’ Interior Café Night and Jyothi Kapur’s Chutney.
Focus on Indie Cinema
One of the major reasons why such festivals should be brought into limelight is because they tend to focus on the dying wave of parallel cinema. What started as a significant domain in the film industry is slowly beginning to be fogged by the commericalisation of cinema – and the fact that it aims to encourage this kind of filmmaking – is a reason enough to celebrate this festival. The programme spotlights a Kangra Valley section which aims to bring in focus the losing art of Indian Indie cinema.
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