Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Preview: Dharamshala International Film Festival
BackBack

Preview: Dharamshala International Film Festival

Some interesting picks from this year's indie film fest in the hills

A still from ‘Visaranai’.Premium
A still from ‘Visaranai’.

If you’ve been looking to watch Visaaranai, ever since the film was announced as India’s official entry to the Oscars this year, you could do so on a Sunday in the Himalayas. Vetri Maaran’s docu-drama crime-thriller will close this year’s edition of the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), which is to be held at the Tibetan Children’s Village from 3- 6 November. Twenty five-year-old Raam Reddy’s critically acclaimed debut feature Thithi will open the festival.

The festival this year will also include a children’s films section curated by children’s media specialist Monca Wahi. Started by festival directors, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, in 2012, the DIFF was aimed originally “to give the local community a platform for good alternative cinema".

Now in its fifth edition, the festival is scheduled to screen 43 films— which includes 27 feature films (both narratives and documentaries), 15 short films, and one medium docu-fiction— from a total of 21 countries.

In keeping with its community outreach roots, however, the DIFF has already started film screenings in different parts of the town, including showing Sarin and Sonam’s When Hari Got Married, at the district jail at Lower Dharamshala on 23 October.

From the documentaries, Heart of a Dog directed by Laurie Anderson, is primarily about Lollabelle, her late rat terrier, and melds together personal video diaries and childhood memories with musings on a range of things from surveillance culture as well as the Buddhist notion of the afterlife.

Sean McAllister’s A Syrian Love Story is a narrative filmed over five years about Amer and Ragdhda, “comrades and lovers", who’d first met in a Syrian prison cell 15 years ago, and charts their family’s journey to political freedom, through major political events such as the Arab Spring.

Steffi Giaracuni’s documentary Didi Contractor: Marrying the Earth to the Building will have its world premiere here at the DIFF this year. Fittingly so, because the 82-minute -long film follows the work and life of American-born architect Didi Contractor who constructs economically and ecologically sustainable housing (made of clay, bamboo, slate and river stone) in the Kangra Valley, just below Dharamshala.

Of the feature narratives, Buaddhayan Mukherji’s The Violin Player about one day in the life of a Bollywood session violinist will make revealing observations about art and survival, while Apprentice is the story of a 28-year-old correctional officer Rahim who, at a top prison, is taken under the wing of the prison’s chief executioner, who also happened to execute Rahim’s father.

Regional independent directors Rajeev Ravi (Kerala), Raam Reddy (Karnataka), Umesh Kulkarni (Maharashtra), Bauddhayan Mukherji (West Bengal) and Sanjeev Kumar (Himachal Pradesh)will come together for a panel discussion on the place of indie regional cinema in a country dominated by Bollywood, while popular film critic Rajeev Masand’s session with actor and theatre personality Naseeruddin Shah discussing his life and work promises to be a crowdpuller.

For the full schedule, visit here ; register online here to attend

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vangmayi Parakala
Vangmayi Parakala is a multimedia journalist who focuses on literary culture, while keeping an eye on how the internet and mobile phones influence literature, photography, and communities. She also edits the Books and Relationships sections at Mint Lounge. Currently based in New Delhi, she is an alumna of the Department of English at the University of Delhi from where she earned her M.A, and of the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, from where she earned her M.S. degree.
Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 24 Oct 2016, 06:07 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App