Amid cancellations and uncertainty, film festivals are taking the online route to keep movie buffs engaged. Here is what to watch and where
Placebo by Abhay Kumar is on view this week on DIFF's Viewing Room
From the archives
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Recognizing the need to turn to cinema and the arts for some inspiration in these trying times, the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) started the Viewing Room as early as March 31. The specially curated alumni films are changed once in two weeks, almost like a regular theatre. "As India went under lockdown, we were wondering what we could do as a film festival to contribute something positive. The idea of a virtual screening room where we could show films from past editions of DIFF for free seemed like a good thing to do," says festival director Ritu Sarin. Currently screening are films like Yoshinori Sato's 2017 drama, Her Mother that deals with punishment and a mother coming to terms with her daughter's murder, and Jallikattu by Lijo Jose Pellissery, the acclaimed Malayalam filmmaker. Among two interesting documentaries are Abhay Kumar's Placebo, which documents high-pressure academics and student violence in one of India's premier institutions through found footage, animation and special effects, and Pushpa Rawat's Nirnay, which is on the lives of a group of women from Ghaziabad.
Log on to www.diff.co.in/viewing-room/
Something new
Aunty Sudha Aunty Radha is available on the MAMI platform
Closer home, the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) Mumbai Film Festival, popularly known as MAMI, decided to make its Year Round Programme digital. Aptly titled Home Theatre, it brings to viewers new films that are not available on other platforms. "The programme empowers filmmakers to bring their films to you directly. This is our way of bringing you fantastic titles that don't have a home in a platform yet. They are not accessible to anyone, which is tragic, but hopefully, this will fix the gap," said artistic director Smriti Kiran. Currently, viewers can watch Tanuja Chandra's heart-warming documentary Aunty Sudha Aunty Radha, which is about the sisterhood of two grandmothers from a village in north India, and Awake, a short film by Atul Mongia, starring Ishika Motwane, among others.
Log on to www.mumbaifilmfestival.com to register
Time to binge
Vinay Shukla's An Insignificant Man that documents the rise of AAP
For movie buffs who like to binge on art-house content, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, has also been screening movies online. Their repository contains more than 800 films and projects that one can either rent for a fee or watch for free. They have also curated some collections based on themes including Europe Day, on the road, World War 2, solidarity in times of social distancing, among others. The latter includes a familiar name: Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla's An Insignificant Man which documents the rise of the Aam Admi Party. There's also the Chinese film, Please Remember Me that takes you along the journey of an old Alzheimer's patient and her husband, the only face she remembers.
Log on to www.idfa.nl/en/
Eye for Europe
Doc Alliance's online film portal, the result of a collaboration between seven key European documentary festivals, is the place to go to if you're looking to deep-dive into cinema from the continent. With a database of over 1,900 films that are accessible across the globe, the website is also screening a curated selection of movies to help raise funds for Italy, which is one of the worst-hit countries in the world. While you can subscribe to their monthly or yearly plan to get access to their entire collection, you can also register on the platform to watch some of the free films.
Log on to www.dafilms.com
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