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CWIFF: Celebrating Int’l filmmaking and cultural exchange

Cinema of the World International Film Festival (CWIFF) stands out by breaking free from mainstream conventions…writes N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe

Cinema of the World International Film Festival (CWIFF) serves as a vital platform for independent filmmakers and groups, elevating awareness of the diverse range of films being created worldwide. Beyond the festival experience, CWIFF also facilitates global learning and exchange, encouraging filmmakers to glean insights from their peers across borders.

The 10th edition of the Cinema World International Film Festival, which is taking place from September 29th to 30th, 2023 promises to be a celebration of outstanding international cinema, fostering cultural exchange and unity through the universal language of films. Filmmakers, cinema enthusiasts, and audiences alike are invited to join this unique cinematic experience.

In an interaction with Parlav Chaudhary, Founder, of CWIFF, he reveals how the platform seeks out undiscovered cinematic gems from around the world directly to the audience.

How does CWIFF bring diversity to the filmmaking industry?

PC: Exposure to the unknown world opens the imagination of the one who’s exposed. Once the box is expanded, it becomes easier for the filmmakers to blend emotions and experiences into this new world they are exposed to, bringing surprise and excitement to their community. Networking opportunities also foster collaboration, breaking down barriers and creating an inclusive, interconnected film industry.

Plans for the 10th edition of the festival and how it will be different from the previous 9th festivals

PC:  For our 10th edition, our goal remains to reach new audiences, but with a fresh twist. This season, we will feature a contest between past winners from the previous 9 years and recent winners. However, the essence of the festival remains unchanged – to showcase films and promote storytelling as an art form. A significant development for CWIFF is the introduction of educational initiatives to teach the importance of storytelling

Exploring the Global Tapestry: Cinema of the World International Film Festival

PC:  Exploring the Global Tapestry: Cinema of the World International Film Festival (CWIFF) stands out by breaking free from mainstream conventions. The festival actively seeks out undiscovered cinematic gems from around the world, bringing them into the spotlight. By curating a diverse selection of films, CWIFF provides a platform for these hidden visual treasures to find their audience. Each new visual masterpiece showcased at the festival becomes an opportunity to ignite the imagination of its viewers, taking them on unforgettable journeys through unexplored stories and perspectives.

How are film festivals important in celebrating artistry & diversity?

PC:  Film festivals play a crucial role in celebrating artistry and diversity. They provide a platform to honor both the art and the artists behind it. CWIFF, for instance, brings together entertainment and learning, creating a joyful celebration. By showcasing diverse films, the festival highlights unique perspectives and cultures, fostering appreciation and understanding among audiences. This celebration of art and diversity promotes creativity, supports filmmakers, and enriches the global film community.

How is Independent cinema adopting innovative survival strategies?

PC:  Independent cinema faces its share of challenges, just like any other industry. However, it perseveres through its ups and downs. Despite changes in filmmakers, the art of filmmaking endures. While OTT platforms may impact content consumption, the demand for quality content remains high, especially with the rise of social movements. To survive and thrive, independent filmmakers are adopting innovative strategies, such as crowdfunding, creative collaborations, and leveraging digital platforms to reach wider audiences. These approaches enable them to continue producing meaningful and impactful films, meeting the growing expectations of viewers while maintaining artistic integrity.’The Chosen’ web-series is one such amazing example.

Reasons Indian independent cinema deserves recognition.

PC:  Indian independent cinema deserves recognition for its diverse stories and perspectives often overlooked in mainstream films. 1500-2000 films are made yearly in India, but only a few make it to theaters or platforms. International festivals offer some recognition, but others struggle. Creating a dedicated platform for Indian independent cinema, like a dedicated time slot by the likes of PVR, would give all these unique films the recognition they deserve, encouraging creativity and growth. Acclaimed films like “Court,” “The Lunchbox,” and “Ship of Theseus” exemplify the talent and potential, warranting more support.

Independent film: A genre that is facing slow death or re-emerging art form?

PC:  Independent films are not facing a slow death; they are a resilient art form that continues to exist alongside mainstream productions. They cannot be boycotted or replaced since they represent a diverse range of stories. However, without a strong commercial unit, such as a popular actor, these films may find it challenging to reach general audiences. However, the rise of OTT channels has offered a new avenue for independent films to gain recognition based on their content rather than purely commercial factors. This shift values the artistry and storytelling in independent cinema, indicating a potential re-emergence and appreciation for this genre.

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Sara wants to keep learning and work with filmmakers

“As an actor, I recognise the fact that you need to learn constantly which I am from my directors and the co-actors. I just want to be able to work with filmmakers who will allow me to grow each day,” she said…reports Asian Lite News

Believing that nothing productive can be done under pressure, actor Sara Ali Khan, born to actors Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh said that while she acknowledges the family she comes from, her effort has always been to carve out a distinct identity for herself.

“Every individual has her/his personal journey. What is paramount is that one’s own body of work ascertains a unique space.”

Currently shooting for Homi Adajania’s new film, ‘Murder Mubarak’, prepping for Anurag Basu’s ‘Metro…In Dino’ and promoting ‘Gaslight’, the actor feels lucky to be doing what she does. “I want to keep learning and work with filmmakers who can push me to deliver the best. And yes, I want to tell stories I think deserve to be told – that is what matters most.”

In times when the OTT is streaming diverse content, taking up stories from the soil and allowing filmmakers enough space to experiment without the pressure of the Box Office, Khan asserts it is not the medium that matters to her. “Point is, one’s own work should be powerful enough to touch the audiences. How they access that does not matter. I would like to entertain the audiences across mediums and be part of stories that deserve to be told,” added the actor who made her acting debut in 2018 with ‘Kedarnath’ and ‘Simmba’.

The actor, who has been signed by Kurkure as its brand ambassador said that she has always found the brand’s TVCs quirky. “They add zing to everyday moments in people’s lives, something that aligns with what I want to achieve from my performances. The decision to work with them was thus, a no-brainer.”

For someone who graduated with a degree in History and Political Science from Columbia University in the US, finishing the four-year course in three, she does not really miss formal training in acting.

“As an actor, I recognise the fact that you need to learn constantly which I am from my directors and the co-actors. I just want to be able to work with filmmakers who will allow me to grow each day,” she said.

From independent to regional films, Khan wants to explore the experience of working with varied directors. “It is important to be versatile and constantly reinvent. I would like to live the experiences of different characters that are not Sara,” concluded the actor who would like to work with directors like Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Anand Rai, and Laxman Uteka among others.

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‘Film making is voice, but it’s also craft and versatility’

Adding that she loves how challenging and liberating the format of shorts is, Maya feels it is not easy to tell a compelling multi-dimensional story with satisfying character arcs and story arcs in less than 30 min…reports Asian Lite News

While Reema Maya’s ‘Nocturnal Burger’ is her second short in a row to be selected at Sundance after her internationally acclaimed ‘Counterfeit Kunkoo’ which premiered in the 2018 edition of the festival, she says more than ‘prestige’ of it, she has immense respect for Sundance as a truly independent spirited festival and for the commitment of their programming team.

“The last time we went there, it was only us representing India. I am so excited to be going back with an Indian contingent full of multiple projects! We’re going to show up and make India be seen,” the filmmaker tells.

Inspired by a real-life incident that happened a few years ago, in the film, somewhere between fantasy, trauma, paranoia, precaution, and the promise of a burger, a night gets catapulted into an investigation of child abuse at a dysfunctional police station in Mumbai.

“I never spoke much about that night but it always remained as a knot in my stomach. Last year, I was talking to someone about exploring a short-form project and decided this is the story I need to tell,” she recalls.

Adding that she loves how challenging and liberating the format of shorts is, Maya feels it is not easy to tell a compelling multi-dimensional story with satisfying character arcs and story arcs in less than 30 min.

“But with the stakes lower than a long-form project, this is the canvas to experiment in and to sharpen your claws.”

Considering Shorts have for far too long been treated as just something students make to build their reel, Maya asserts and says the truth is that it is a genre in itself and that formats should be decided on the basis of the story that needs to be told — and there are plenty of stories that deserve telling that need a shorter canvas.

“It makes me so happy to see it having a surge in popularity. With the rise of short-form digital content in general in the times we live in, we are on the verge of short films having their most relevant and popular moment. I love how challenging and liberating the format of shorts is. It is not easy to tell a compelling multi-dimensional story with satisfying character arcs and story arcs in less than 30 minutes. But with the stakes lower, than a long-form project, this is the canvas to experiment in and to sharpen your claws,” she says.

While film festivals have always been the primary space for the celebration of shorts, she wishes film festivals supported short filmmakers more.

“Most festivals do not offer accommodation or travel as they do for feature films, which is difficult because short films have way fewer resources and a non-existent marketing budget to be able to afford to represent the film at festivals.”

And as a woman filmmaker, does she feel there is a ‘responsibility’ to talk about issues concerning her gender?

“I feel we are at a time where we do need to prioritise empowering traditionally marginalised communities to tell their stories. But the flip side of it is that it tends to teeter on those communities being expected to only tell certain stories. Filmmaking is voice, but it is also craft and versatility. I’m working on a wide array of projects with different kinds of genres and protagonists, so I personally don’t feel pigeon-holed. But I can see how women filmmakers might end up being considered only for female-centric projects. Ultimately it is about the objectives you set for yourself at the beginning of the project. For me, it is to make cinema with a social consciousness.”

For Maya, a film usually starts with a seed or an emotion that lives inside her for a long time till there comes a moment where it absolutely has to be put out in the world. Then comes huddling with a couple of key collaborators and building the resolve to make it.

“After that, it is months of writing and rewriting. The DoP and I spend a lot of time building the visual language from the characters and the themes. Production mode is frantic, and then things calm down a bit with the post-production. With ‘Nocturnal Burger’, we spent enough time on post-production to think through every decision, try it a couple of different ways, and then lock on one.”

She feels independent filmmaking is having a very exciting moment right now. The pandemic changed the audience’s viewing habits and exposed them to more global cinema.

“We see the result of that in a market that is more ready to make stories that we previously considered niche. Also with filmmaking getting more and more democratised and creative technologies developing at an exciting pace, the possibilities of realising your visions have increased.”

While OTT may have brought about a revolution of sorts in terms of viewing habits and content, this director feels the same has not really helped Shorts. Considering a lot of the more mainstream OTT platforms do not programme shorts, and the few that do not reimburse them as handsomely, she does say, “However, they have contributed to building the audience’s appetite for non-theatrical story-telling. But of course, there are the OG international platforms focused on short films — like Vimeo Staff Picks, Short of the Week, Shorts TV, Nowness, etc., who have always helped amplify the genre.”

ALSO READ-‘There are a lot of pressures on many filmmakers’

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Kulkarni wanted to unearth what’s life like in a fringed society

“The fact that one does not know what the seemingly harmless stranger walking towards you in a crowd is capable of can be really disturbing,” this writer and director of the docu-series tells…writes Sukant Deepak

During a night patrol with the cops in Nagpur, he was told about a person they recently arrested. Someone who had bought a new knife. To ‘test’ that it worked fine, he stabbed a stranger. Not really satisfied with its performance, he stabbed another one.

National Award-winning filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni, whose docu-series ‘Murder in a Courtroom’, being streamed on Netflix as part of ‘Indian Predator’ recalls the incident and admits that scary is the violence a man on the street is capable of.

“The fact that one does not know what the seemingly harmless stranger walking towards you in a crowd is capable of can be really disturbing,” this writer and director of the docu-series tells.

Kulkarni, who attended the recently concluded Dharamshala International Film Festival, back in its physical avatar after two years, says that for a long time he had been wanting to work on the Akku Yadav case. In 2004, a group of around 200 women hailing from Nagpur’s Kasturba Nagar, the place which Yadav had terrorised for many years, stormed into the public courtroom and lynched him to death.

The director, who researched for six months before starting the project recalls that for many years he had wanted to explore this incident.

“Finally, I decided to take the plunge and went to Nagpur. We met a lot of women from Kasturba Nagar. Of course, it was difficult to approach them, but the real challenge was in making them trust us. We were accompanied by an excellent research team from ‘Vice’ and shot multiple interviews. There were so many layers to what had happened on that day in 2004.”

There is violence in the house, and on the streets — the director says he wanted to unearth what is life like in a fringed society.

“So many people exist in one person. Who are we really? When it comes to the system, there are so many loopholes — we are still following so many laws and regulations drafted by the British for us. Is it not absurd?”

Talking about his first outing with OTT, this alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, who has made critically acclaimed films in Marathi like ‘Valu’ (‘The Bull’), ‘Vihir’ (‘The Well’), ‘Deool’ (‘The Temple’) and ‘Highway’ admits that he is essentially a film person.

Let’s stop looking at art in binaries: Filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni.

“This was a short so it was like a feature-length — and just three episodes. Docuseries can be very challenging, and I wanted the experience of dealing with them. Also, Netflix and Vice were very supportive — no interference of any sort.”

He feels this medium (OTT) has its own strength and one can explore much in it.

“But yes, we need to understand the format better. Everything should not look like a series. The challenge is to create something which has its own power, and I want to explore that.”

Stressing that he would call it a ‘film’, Kulkarni adds, “Let us stop putting things in binaries and look at the possibilities of intermingling. We are living in times when different art forms are collaborating. Frankly, we have shot the interviews like fiction, and fiction like a documentary. Everything has come together to create a new form,” concludes the director, who is currently finishing writing a new Marathi film.

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