FILM SOCIETIES - A OBSERVATION

In one of the Film society screenings a member says these films are available on net let us go out,
his friend follows silently and in another session of screenings a college student says that ‘its boring
I am unable to understand and appreciate the film let us go for canteen’ The day is not off when such situations become omnipresent
at all the film society screenings.
As staunch film society activists what skills we need to acquire to face this challenge?
What will be our changed role?
Will film clubs/societies are needed? Or will the tribes of film society activists face gradual extinction? Its rather worrying, isn’t it?
Primarily we need to be techno-savvy. In today’s digital environment ‘Film and screen’ have become antediluvian even in remote villages of India.
Audience is quite aware of the internet and downloading films online and even small towns are having access to the DVD parlors that are making available
of films of national and international repute.
We as film society activists shall continue to be material producers but with a difference.
Our programmes need to be changed and they should be prominently interactive.
Now the present generation of members is not just viewers as they were in 80’s or 90’s.
But they are exposed to the latest trends in the cinema and technology. The plethora of Indian and
foreign media invades their conscience and the internet is spreading unbelievable web of information around them.
In this wealth driven and consumerist society the material comfort and gadgets are easily available to the members
In this situation the members of film societies demand much more service from our film society activists and their programmes.
So the film society activities may not end simply with the screening of films and conducting film festivals at regular intervals,
they need to reach the members with a variety of access points like chatting, sms and by creating blogs instead of merely delivering
news letters or house journals etc.. We should master even the email language. so we have to make use of the available the technology.
Further the role of film society activist as a counselor acquires importance now. We should update our knowledge of cinema every time
and the information of film festivals and film trends must be on our finger tips and we should be ready to disseminate information at any point of time.
The film society activists should use the latest media technology and provide the critical points of film appreciation and the merits and demerits of a film.
Even the knowledge of styles of film making will also be useful to the members.
Reaching the young and student community must be the top most priority of the film societies today. The interests and likes of
present generation are quite different they need to have instant and nascent information with regard to anything on the earth.
They are the generation of mobiles and smses, mails and chats, so the film society activists should be able to tune ourselves
to reach them and get their nod for art and aesthetics of cinema.
So we need to go to campuses, but the task is not simple.
No doubt the present student tribe is trusting only seeing visuals to learn various subjects,
we have to make use of this phenomenon and percolate into the campuses. We can approach the college authorities and organize film screenings
and to add to this we have to plan for short term courses in film appreciation and film making for the students. We can also organize short
film festivals and competitions among the students and put them in the stream of good cinema.
Change in the working styles of film societies and its activists will only help them survive otherwise the society and the new generation will no sooner switch off the movement.

ViBGYOR Film Festival-2012: CALL for Entries

ViBGYOR Film Festival-2012: CALL for Entries Welcome to the 7th Edition of ViBGYOR International Film Festival for Short & Documentary films, to be held in Thrissur, Kerala, India from January 25-29, 2012! Renowned filmmaker Megnath Akhra is the Festival Director for 2012 VIBGYOR. You may submit documentary/short fiction/music video/animation/spot or experimental films that pertain to any `spectrum’ (see below) for PREVIEW. An eminent panel of Jury will select the final set of films for ViBYOR-2012. The last date for film submissions: NOVEMBER 15th, 2011 (postmarked). Film Spectrum ‘South Asia: Lives and Livelihoods’ is the special focus theme of ViBGYOR-2012. Apart from the Focus theme package, there are seven ViBGYOR theme packages, namely: 1) Identities 2) Rights 3) Gender & Sexualities 4) Fundamentalism & Diversity 5) Developmentalism 6) Nation State and 7) Culture & Media. There are three zonal divisions such as International/National/Kerala Spectrum. One may enter films under `Focus of the Year’ package, `ViBGYOR’ Theme package and `Kerala Spectrum’ package. (Only films made by filmmakers residing in Kerala will be considered under Kerala Spectrum, which showcases documentaries, short fiction and `Focus-Children’ films based on `Kerala’ themes) We wish to insist on Online Film Entries submission procedure, for which you may visit www.vibgyorfilm.org and also refer to Film Submission Guidelines and FAQ. For any difficulty/problem with online film entry procedure please send queries to info@vibgyorfilmfest.org or contact us at: 0-9447441621 There is an Entry Fee of INR.300 for National/Kerala Spectrum entries and $10 for entries from overseas. You may submit more than one film, but each entry should comply with all submission requirements. Please make sure that in the Online Film Entry form you provide with all mandatory information regarding each film entry and about yourself and also upload high resolution stills of your films and any other publicity material. For Festival screening, we accept DVCAM, MiniDV and DVD as Exhibition copies (if your film is selected). However Two DVD (PAL) copies should be submitted for Selection Preview purpose, without which we will not consider your entry. Send the film submission packets to: ViBGYOR, 2nd Floor Kalliath Square, Palace Road, Thrissur, 680 020, Kerala, Tel. 0487-2323590/9809477058. Please mention your Online Film Entry (registration) number on all discs, packets and in all further communications. All selected films will receive a Certificate of Participation. ViBGYOR is a non-competitive Film Festival; so there are no Awards. However we award filmmaking Fellowships to Three deserving young filmmakers whose films are entered under the National/ Kerala Spectrum sections. The filmmaker or a representative of all selected films is invited to attend the festival and assured of local hospitality. (ViBGYOR is not in a position to pay for travel expenses). Warmly, Seena Panoli (cell. 9447546417) President-ViBGYOR Film Collective Joseph Lazer (9447441621)Secretary-ViBGYOR Sarat Cheloor (9809477058) Programme Coordinator Benny Benedict (9447000830), National Coordinator

The 4th ‘Cut.In’ Students Film Festival

The 4th ‘Cut.In’ Students Film Festival will be held as a part of “Resonance“ at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai on the 21st and 22nd December 2011. http://cutinfest.wordpress.com/ The festival is being organized by the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies (CMCS), Tata Institute of Social Sciences. This year Cut.In is organized as a part of “Resonance” as the institute is celebrating its platinum jubilee. CMCS is an independent centre of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, engaged in media teaching, production, research and dissemination. Currently the Centre runs a two-year Masters degree in Media and Cultural Studies focusing on professional media practice and research within a framework that enables the development of a critical perspective on media, culture and society. It seeks to enable the creation of a lively group of thinking doers and doing thinkers. Entries are invited for the following categories: a) Documentary (under 45 min) b) Short fiction (under 45 min) c) Public Service Message (Under 2 min) The festival will feature works by graduate/postgraduate/diploma students all over the country and other interested international students selected by a panel of judges. Two prizes will be given in each category. The prize consists of a trophy and a citation. In addition there are prizes for Best Cinematography, Editing and Sound Design. For any queries please write to : cmcs.cutin@gmail.com Also for any other specific queries please contact: Shweta – 07709520655 Vikram – 09920147057 -- ---------------------------------------------------------- K.P. Jayasankar, Ph.D., Professor Centre for Media and Cultural Studies Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088, India Phone: +91 22 2552 5660(Work) Fax: +91 22 2552 5050 e-mail: kpj[AT]tiss[DOT]edu URLs: www.cmcs.tiss.edu

The 2nd Siliguri International Short & Documentary Film Festival

The 2nd Siliguri International Short & Documentary Film Festival is scheduled to be held on 12th and 13th November 2011 at Siliguri, the 2nd largest city of West Bengal, at the foothills of the Darjeeling-Himalayas in India only 582KM away from Kolkata, 86KM from Darjeeling and 114KM from Gangtok. Films of any genre from any country made in any format with English subtitles within the period 2009-2011 with a duration of NOT more than 30 minutes are eligible for the festival. There is NO entry fee. Entries (two copies of the DVD, an application in plain paper duly signed by the right-owner and publicity materials) should be sent to the festival authorities before the deadline positively. After the success of the 1st edition, this time there will be a competition section also for the films made by the directors from North-Bengal and North-Eastern Provinces of India. A three-members jury will be there to declare the awards. A preview committee constituted for the purpose will select the films for final screening in relevant sections like (a) National Panorama, (b) International Panorama and (c) Competition for NB & NE Regions. Deadline for receiving the entries at the the following address is 31st October 2011.

Premendra Mazumder
For Siliguri International Short & Documentary Film Festival

Please send your entries to:
Mr. Pradip Nag
Convener 12th Siliguri International Film Festival Committee
General Secretary Siliguri Cine Society
Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation
Nivedita Market, Hospital Road
Siliguri - 734001
West Bengal, India
Ph: 09434233833/ 09233424101/03532430856
mail: email:competition.siff@gmail.com , diptalukdar@gmail.com

TWO DAY FILM MAKING WORKSHOP

To inculcate and develop GOOD CINEMA CULTURE in students the Federation of Film Societies of India conducted a two day film making workshop to the engineering students of the JNTUK and the workshop was a great success.Thsi wrokshop being organised by the ffsi and the Srikakulam Film society a campus film club of Aditya Institute of Technology and Management. The club is the maiden club started in an engineering colleges.
The workshop was held on 6 & 7 of August 2011 at Tekkali, Srikakulam district a remote in Andhra Pradesh. Around 120 students from different engineering colleges like GMR, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Vishakapatnam etc..were shortlisted for the workshop said Varala Anand the secretary of the Federation of film societies of India.In the two day programme the students were exposed to many issues of film making and appreciation.
With this kind of workshops the new generation will be aware of the International cinema and the art and aesthetics of the Cinema art, they were taught basics of the film making and film appreciation he said.The inaugural function was chaired by the Director of the institute Sri Nageshwer rao.The popular film director of the Telugu cinema Mr.Relangi Narasimha rao participated as the chief guest in the inauguration of the workshop. He has explained his experience of making films.
One of the resource persons M.V.Raghu Cinematographer explained the intricacies of the photography and choice of colours etc.Mr.C.Uma Maheshwer rao explained about montage and the philosophy of film.Mr.Praveen Banadaru explained about the film narration to the students.Film writer K.L.Prasad narrated about the story and screeplay. Mr.Anand Varala dealt with the international cinema its history with PowerPoint presentation. The regional secretary Bh.S.S.Prakash reddy explained about the film society movement and the ffsi.
the student convener of the Srikakulam film society Mr.Santhosh Gudla was given an Appreciation certificate from the FFSI.

TWO DAY Film Making Workshop

Campus Film Clubs' attract students

THE HINDU
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 06, 2011
Education Plus Hyderabad

‘Campus Film Clubs' attract students

Creating awareness: Members promoting Campus Film Clubs.
In this world of information technology where reading had been declining considerably and students trusting only seeing through visuals to learn various subjects, the Collegiate of Education had decided to launch Campus Film Clubs in all the degree colleges in the State.
The cinema is a powerful media in this world.
Particularly the student community is very much attracted to the medium for the entertainment as well as education. In the wake of popularity of the cinema, the planners have decided to educate the student community about the other side of cinema i.e, parallel cinema or new era cinema by constituting campus film clubs.
The man behind this novel concept is Varala Anand, a film maker and critic and also secretary of Film Federation Society of India (FFSI) southern region. After introduction of NAAC grading system in the colleges, almost all the colleges have been equipped with LCD projectors and other technologies.
Taking advantage of the modern infrastructure, Varala Anand, who is at present working as faculty at SRR Government Degree and PG College in Karimnagar had first launched the campus film club in the college by screening various films through LCD projectors to attract students towards the cinema.
He was successful in educating the students about the subjects through films.
Following the successful conduct of Film Club in SRR College, Mr. Anand was instrumental in launching similar clubs in 15 colleges throughout the State. Incidentally, the students of engineering colleges were showing more interest in launching film clubs and their active participation.
Varala Anand said that the film clubs were really helping the student community in learning subjects such as environmental sciences and other current topics prevailing in the world.
He said that they were screening films on environment, science and other academic activity for the film club members. Besides, they were also conducting a programme called “view and review” of the films in the clubs.
Free of cost
He said that the FFSI was providing the films to the campus film clubs free of cost so that the students could watch the cinemas and understand the subject and develop his creativity.
He said that now a day the students were also making films by using their cellular phones and also participating in short film competitions.
Each film club consists of 50 members, he said and added that the clubs were aimed to enable and encourage students to take films and television media as their profession.
Besides, the clubs would also expose the students to richness of variety of international and national cinema.
K.M. DAYASHANKAR
in Karimnagar