BackFilms Division gets ready to roll out biennial festival
This year's edition of the biennial MIFF will run from 3 to 9 February in Mumbai
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Mumbai: The 2004 edition of the Films Division of India’s Mumbai International Film Festival of Documentary, Short Films and Animation (MIFF) must count as its worst. This was the year when independent filmmakers sensed a concerted attempt by selectors to reject films critical of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, withdrew their submissions and set up a parallel festival, Vikalp.
In the decade since the public relations disaster for India’s leading documentary festival, several changes have washed over the scene—there are many more festivals and screening venues, a wider range of funding sources (grants, funds, crowdsourcing) and greater availability of DVDs. Meanwhile, the information and broadcasting ministry-supported Films Division (FD) has also gone through a churn. The producer of newsreels and documentaries extolling state schemes has attempted to widen its reach by inviting independent directors to show their works, making titles from its archive available for free viewing on its website, and announcing a museum on Indian cinema. This year’s edition of the biennial MIFF, which will run from 3 to 9 February in Mumbai, will reflect some of these changes.
“We want an exchange of ideas and experiences, and we are offering MIFF as a platform where you can come in, network and promote your own activities," said FD’s director general V.S. Kundu.
Come one, come all seems to be the unofficial theme this year. The selection process for the competition sections has been tweaked; a market development aspect has been introduced; organizers of independently run events across the country have been put on the guest list; there will be a package of Danish documentaries for children. “The festival has always been an important event, and we won’t change its character and introduce anything drastically new," Kundu said. “Our focus has been to bring in value additions to the same format. We have decided to address issues for which MIFF was criticized—for instance, it was alleged that the selection was not up to the mark. There was also dissatisfaction in terms of the awards structure—lots of filmmakers didn’t like the idea of being given an award for second best film (called the Silver Conch), for instance, so we have dropped it."
Trophies will also be handed out to producers in recognition of the vital role they play in making documentaries possible, as well as technicians such as cinematographers and editors. Two new awards have been added, one recognizing innovation and named after iconoclastic FD director Pramod Pati, and another assessing popularity and based on audience votes. The awards purse stays the same, at ₹ 55 lakh, but the money has been redistributed among a staggering 38 categories. “While we have been struggling with budget cuts, MIFF remains one of the highest prize givers in the world," Kundu said.
Programmers usually attend other festivals to scoop out the best on offer, but FD doesn’t send its representatives anywhere, waiting instead for filmmakers to show up at its doorstep. This time round, the selection process was re-jigged in an attempt to overcome intrinsic drawbacks and criticism of apathy and partisanship. Kundu jettisoned the practice of making selectors travel to Mumbai to watch the films, instead sending them screeners. He also instituted a two-tier process to ensure that several committees viewed the entries before making their choices. “Before a film was rejected, it was seen by at least three people and before it was selected, at least by seven people," he says. “That way, there is less arbitrariness and more transparency."
The festival’s line-up includes Indian and international titles made over the past two years as well as a tribute to Canadian filmmaker Peter Wintonick, who died in 2012 and whose productions include Manufacturing Consent. Filmmakers will present packages, including Gitanjali Rao and Dhwani Desai for animation, Umesh Kulkarni for short films and Ashish Avikunthak for experimental films and on video art. There will be topical sets of films on gender and transgender identity. “We had too many small packages coming in, we have tried to give a kind of unity—the festival will be made up of mini-festivals," Kundu said. Satellite editions will be simultaneously held in Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore Nagpur, Guwahati and Chennai.
Festivals are no longer purely about the pleasure of cinema. MIFF’s market section welcomes Good Pitch, a documentary development platform previously held at the International Film Festival of Kerala, into its fold. Workshops and talks will aim to connect filmmakers with funders, producers and commissioning editors in an attempt to “convert MIFF into an umbrella platform that will synergize the efforts of small groups and individuals", Kundu said. The festival could end up being a reunion party for members of the documentary network, since the invite list includes directors, programmers, organizers of independent festivals from around the country, as well as experienced market developers, such as Doc Wok, organized by Magic Lantern Movies and DOK-Leipzig, and DocedgeKolkata, held annually in collaboration with the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute.
Some changes at the FD extend beyond the festival. The organization has scaled down its production in recent years to concentrate on its traditional role as the nation’s record keeper.
“We make news magazines of foreign dignitaries who visit India and of Indian dignitaries who travel abroad, and we have also started an oral history project in which we conduct lengthy interviews of personalities who have excelled in their field, such as filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, dancer Neelam Mansingh, and artist Nek Chand Saini," Kundu said. The FD also archives footage of cultural and social events such as the Kumbh Mela, which also provides an annual revenue stream of ₹ 5 crore for the organization.
And for the past several months, the organization has been trying to get the National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) off the ground. The NMIC was supposed to have opened last year, and one section might finally be ready in time for the festival. The first phase is scheduled to open over 6,000 sq. ft at the museum’s key site, the heritage mansion Gulshan Mahal that lies within the FD headquarters in Mumbai. The rest of museum is under-construction and several months away. The first phase comprises eight chambers, each covering a different phase of Indian cinema all the way down from the silent era. One of the reported reasons behind the delay is the poor quality of exhibits made by the National Council of Science Museums in Kolkata.
“There is always scope for improvement, and there is a possibility of doing the same work in an aesthetically better way," Kundu acknowledged. “But there is no deficiency in the kind of information and research that has gone in. Some people would be happy while other might feel that the exhibits are too information heavy and not as interactive as they could be. But given the constraints of space and time, it’s a fair job."
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