AS-GIFF

Creating art film audience important than making movies: Film
curator Premendra Mazumder
    Guwahati, Nov 2 (PTI) Renowned film curator and critic
Premendra Mazumder on Saturday said creating an audience for
art cinema is more important than making movies, as emphasised
by filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
    Moderating an open forum on 'Popularising Film as an
Art Form' at the ongoing third edition of the Guwahati
International Film Festival (GIFF) here, Majumder said film
festivals can play a very important role in bringing good
cinema to the people.
    "Satyajit Ray, the most visionary filmmaker in Asia,
never wanted to make cinema. He had said that first, we have
to create the right audience to understand films," Mazumder
said.
    The film critic said, Ray started the first film
society movement in India in 1947 and commenced shooting for
iconic 'Pather Panchali' five years after that.
    "In 1922, (Vladimir) Lenin had said that cinema is the
most popular art form while legendary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak
had asserted that cinema is an art and that is war for him,"
he said.
    Majumder, also a renowned film society activist, said
that former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had started the
International Film Festival of India in 1952 to popularise
cinema as an art.
    "Nearly 25 years after commencement of IFFI, West
Bengal government was the first among the states to start a
film festival. Kerala followed suit the next year while Assam
was the last to do so," he said.
    He said GIFF was necessary for the screening of art
films.
    Mazumder said some governments have even brought film
policy without much success.
    Citing the example of Sergei Eisenstein's classic film
'Battleship Potemkin', Majumder said even art films can be
propaganda-oriented.
    "Satyajit Ray had watched 'Battleship Potemkin' 64
times, while Ghatak had said his films are propaganda," he
said.
    National Award-winning filmmaker Manju Bora, however,
said cinema should not be propaganda and any message for the
society should be conveyed keeping the aesthetic elements
intact.
    "We are not doing anything to send social messages.
Cinema is an art form and it should remain as such. There are
other departments for spreading propaganda," she said.
    National Award-winning film critic Apurba Sharma said
people will not watch a film if they cannot identify
themselves with it.
    "Cinema is enjoyed in a community, not alone," he
said.
    Film critic Christopher Dalton said, with movies of
over Rs 100-crore budget being made, the entire focus of the
art has shifted towards making money.
    Organised by Assam state government-owned Jyoti
Chitraban Society in association with Dr Bhupen Hazarika
Regional Government Film and Television Institute, GIFF will
showcase over 100 acclaimed movies from 65 countries between
October 31 and November 6.
    The third GIFF began with the screening of Iranian
film 'Charcoal' (Komur) by director Esmaeel Monsef and will
end with that of 'To The Desert' (Al Desierto) by Argentinian
director Ulises Rosell.
    Five films from Iran, the 'focus country' of the fest
this year, will be shown, while seven films from Latin America
and the Carribean will be screened.
    Also, films from countries such as Hungary, Israel,
South Korea, Spain, Iceland, China, Bhutan, Germany, Japan,
Russia, Syria and other nations will be screened. PTI TR
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)