KAUFMAN - "Or cramming in sex, or car chases, or guns. Or characters learning profound life lessons. Or characters growing or characters changing or characters learning to like each other or characters overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end. Y'know ? Movie shit."
Kaufman is sweating like crazy now. Valerie is quiet for a moment - from "Adaptation".
We are all about CINEMA. That movie shit.
NOTHING is sacred.
NOBODY is spared.
Because we talk about films, dammit.
Not your sex life.
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Filmmaker Amar Kaushik’s short film, Aaba has been selected for 67th Berlin International Film Festival which will run from 9-19th February, 2017. The film will premiere in the Generation Kplus category of the fest.
Interestingly, Amar’s mother, Shashi Kaushik has written the story. It revolves around an orphan girl who comes across the news of her grandfather reaching the terminal stages of lung cancer. As the grandfather (Aaba) starts counting his days, the family faces unexpected turns.
The film has been shot in the picturesque valley of Arunachal Pradesh. Aaba is produced by Raj Kumar Gupta and Mitul Dikshit, and co-produced by Onir and Alison Welly.
Earlier, Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair’s Ottaal, Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dhanak, and Avinash Arun’s Killa have premiered in the same category of the fest.
Click here to read about the shooting experience of Aaba.
Bikas Mishra’s debut feature Chauranga is all set to release this friday. The film bagged the top award in the section of Indian films at last year’s Mumbai Film Festival. And it seemed like a good time to look back at his earlier film – short titled Naach Ganesh (Dance Of Ganesha).
The film was screened at Busan, Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand and few other international film festival.
About the film
An Indian folk dancer is caught in his daily struggle of survival in an automobile factory. The burden to earn a living for his family and preserve his family tradition of ritual Ganesha dancing is humongous. His two roles – the sole bread winner of the family and the magnificent elephant god Ganesha, are so diverse that his journey from factory to village looks like time travel and his existence schizophrenic! Ganesha, the dancer lives in the fear of the day when he will have to choose between livelihood and art/tradition
Little Terrorist, a short film directed by Ashvin Kumar was nominated for Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in 2005. And if you haven’t seen the film yet, here’s the good news – the filmmaker has put the film online.
Here’s his note with the film –
The Gurdaspur Attack, the arrest of Mohameed Naved and escalation of hostilities on the LOC raise troubling questions about freedom and independence. Real people live real lives on either side of these fences. Barbed wire cuts the landscape of humanity, culture, civilisation; dividing children from their history. They stymie that very human touch that could resolve such a conflict. I don’t know which film-maker would say this, but I am almost dismayed that this film has aged so well. Its message of hope, my wide-eyed idealism for an even handed resolution feel a bit naive, given the hawkish, illiberal, imperialist impulses that have come to characterise public life today. Sigh. Anyway, suspend disbelief for fifteen minutes on the fifteenth of August and feel good.
After having its screening at New York Indian Film Festival and International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, Prosit Roy’s short film Bloody Moustache is online now. Do check it out.
The film stars Jameel Khan, Priyanka Setia and Nisshan KP Nanaiah.
It was an open bet. If Navjot Gulati‘s world-famous-in-vacuous-versova short film gets a million hit, we will feature it in our world-famous-in-vacous-versova blog. Fuck knows what we were drinking that day!
And thanks to his relentless social media marketing skills, the film really managed to cross the mark. And so, here is the film. Enjoy!
ps – Never take a bet with Navjot if it involves any promotional skills 😛
The Crafts Council Of India is having a short film contest. So all you film buffs and students who want to get into filmmaking, here’s a good chance to participate and test your skills.
Click on the play button and watch the video. All the details are there. There is cash prize of Rs 20,000 (1st), Rs 15,000 (2nd) and Rs 10,000 (3rd).
If you want to know more about it before clicking the play button, here’s the official synopsis –
In a story that plays out entirely on a teenager’s computer screen, Noah follows its eponymous protagonist as his relationship takes a rapid turn for the worse in this fascinating study of behaviour (and romance) in the digital age.
It’s directed by Canadian film students Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg.
The film was screened at TIFF recently.
To know more about the filmmakers and the film, click here.
Bombay Talkies has released in the theatres. And so far the unanimous verdict is that Dibakar Banerjee’s short Star is easily the best out of the lot. Click here to read what we thought about the other short films and do vote for your favourites.
Back to Dibakar’s. It’s based on a short story by Satyajit Ray titled Patol Babu Filmstar. Though the basic idea is the same Dibakar has added many new elements to it and given it a new setting too. Do read.
I first saw this short film by Chinmay Nagesh Dalvi at Mumbai Film Festival’s 2011 edition. It was in the “Dimension Mumbai” section, a competitive segment for U-25 filmmakers where films have to be about the city and duration should be less than 5 minutes.
I loved it, and thought that it will easily win the top spot. But Bombay Snow went on to receive the Special Jury mention. Later on it bagged the award for Best Short Fiction at International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala. Since then i have been recommending it to everyone looking for good shorts. But the film wasn’t online. So for all those who have been asking for the film, finally the short film is online. Enjoy.
The version that was submitted at MFF was slightly shorter than this one. It didn’t have the scene of the boy stopping near the park. Compared to other shorts in the segment, this was brilliant as it didn’t try to force the “Mumbai” factor in it. Also, it beautifully touches upon so many subjects without shouting or saying anything – displacement issue, rural versus urban, the equation between husband, wife and hooker, and that epic “bombay snow”.
We are premiering a short film on our blog for the first time. A short i saw during Mumbai Film Festival and liked it. It starts with an intro by its director Mihir Desai. Over to him.
It’s been a year, almost since our short film Aakra-Man first screened at Mumbai Film Festival in 2011. We’ve been dying to post it online but weren’t allowed due to its festival run. Here it is, finally the online premiere of our DIY superhero short, Aakra-Man.
I am never really keen on writing intros or ‘making – of’ posts before my film is watched. Anyone wanting to criticize my work should have the freedom to do so without thinking about how much I struggled to make a film, because frankly everyone goes through that struggle. Most importantly it’s always fun to let the film speak for itself and to see how the audience reacts and interprets my vision. (Ed – and so i am stopping him right here. Watch the film and then read the rest.)
So I decided to write about something else. Let me jump right into it. (This may or may not be directly related to Aakra-Man so feel free to skip it)
‘Rogue methodology’ is a myth. As filmmakers we are constantly involved in the process of making films, we see our film over and over again. When I put a shot in my film, it’s there for a reason. It’s by choice I’ve added or removed something. You don’t shoot a film with multiple cameras just because you can. The format you shoot a film on is as important as the screenplay of your film. Aakra-Man is essentially a mockumentary. Shooting with a slightly faster shutter speed on digital SLRs helped me achieve what I wanted. It looks more “video” than “film” because ‘videos’ like this would usually come on television and not in theatres. From what I’ve seen, it seems like ‘rogue methodology’ has zero thought behind using a certain format or camera therefore shots end up looking like mistakes or ‘NG Takes.’ The first rule of DSLR filmmaking is, to understand the flaws of these cameras. Only then can you come up with innovative ways to adapt to this new technology. It’s really annoying when popular filmmakers make use of this technology without educating themselves. This is a big threat to smaller filmmakers because once a DSLR feature flops not a single investor will trust its potential. I’ve been working with video DSLRs for a long time and I know a lot of great independent filmmakers making such good use of these cameras. Unfortunately it’ll go unnoticed; DSLR filmmaking in India will continue to be discouraged.
Overwhelmed by the size of these cameras, followers of rogue methodology have probably forgotten that films are first and foremost an emotional experience. If the audience is only talking about how the film has been shot, the filmmaker has failed. Struggles and techniques should be invisible because all of that adds up to the story one is trying to say. That is of utmost importance. Although I agree with Mr. Rogue when he says the cameras should be invisible to the actors but in that process the director shouldn’t become invisible too!! There is only so much an actor can bring to the table. If he or she is a ‘good’ actor they’ll come prepared with the look, body language, research, back story, accent, etc but the rest is how the director moulds their performance. The “why” is the director’s job and the “how” is the actor’s job. Rogue method seems to completely disregard this fact.
If rogue methodology wasn’t enough we have studios trying to put a ban on Vimeo. The reason I make short films is because I get the freedom to experiment. I am aware that when I make a short film I’ll be distributing it online only. My investment is always very low because I won’t make any money after releasing my film online. However, what I will get instead is an audience. This audience of mine, will hopefully support me when I eventually make a feature in the future or make more shorts for the Internet. By banning a distribution site like Vimeo the studios are not only putting an end to creativity but destroying the niche we independent filmmakers have created for ourselves. I can confidently speak for a lot of my fellow indie filmmakers and say that our intent has never been to compete with studios. We just want to co-exist. Vimeo is not just a distribution website, we can use it to share footage and collaborate globally. With the consent of my filmmaker friends abroad I’ve used footage they’ve shot in my documentary Common Thread and they can do the same with mine. Collaboration without increasing production cost! Banning Vimeo is just taking all these privileges away from independent filmmakers. When I was re-cutting Aakra-Man I never thought it would end up becoming ‘just another YouTube video.’ Sadly that’ll be my primary source of distribution here. Social media is a really powerful tool, see what you can do by getting the hashtag #SaveVimeo to trend. It’s really important to the indie film community.
Aakra-Man is just a film about someone who is struggling to ‘fit in.’ Rahul Desai has written and acted this part. We hope this video is worth your time. Our plan for the future is to make a feature length version of this film so please help spread the word and share your thoughts, rate/review it on IMDb. For best quality, watch the film on Aakra-Man’s official website (this is a Vimeo embed, if your network allows it watch it here) Those in US or Canada can download a full HD version for free on iTunes. The rest can watch an embedded version below (please watch it in full HD)
Download Alex Marianyi’s soundtrack for free:
Lastly, please bookmark http://www.aakraman.com . It’s a work in progress website we will be allowing free download of the screenplay and if people are interested to know about the making of the film then a possible commentary by Rahul and me.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 