Just another day at the Berlinale
03 Mar 2010 2 Comments
in Berlinale, Society, Travelogue
[18 February 2010]
It was a breakfast meeting for the first time during our present stay in Berlin though technically it was the second one. We had the man-in-charge for the visibility of German films in the world cinema committee. It was interesting to learn the ways in which this plan their visibility across the media, festivals, market, television, DVD etc. the kind of money they are spending on this is huge. But then they are following a systematic way to achieve their targets. For them, even art house cinema is a cinema and they have market for that world wide too. I personally found it very intriguing to know how they find a market and promote the art house films. Filmmakers like us in Karnataka; we largely depend on the government subsidies and help for such films. So all that we spend on our films are the funds, which can possibly recovered by these helping funds (which is very less!) so we are in a fix always about making films within small budget and many such films made with compromised budgets, fighting for the budget from the government. In this way, there is no possibility for growth in quality of our filmmaking. It is not that we don’t have the talent, but it is the constraints that are keeping us away from the ambitious projects. Countries like Germany, France, Netherlands they all have international understanding to produce films. So the film festivals have networks amongst them and they systematically plan and support films and growth of cinema in general. It’s ironical that India produces highest number of films each year but it has no presence in this support system! Don’t we need collaboration? Or are we just happy making Bollywood films!?
Umesh in the well !
02 Mar 2010 1 Comment
in Berlinale, Daily Blog, Society, Travelogue
[17 February 2010]
Today was one of the most expected days for me. But turned out to be a little disappointing and later became interesting and ended with a happy note. Today was the world cinema fund day. We had a presentation regarding the world cinema fund and in that was a panel discussion regarding the world cinema fund. But then the panel discussion somehow turned towards Iranian cinema and was not all that interesting. But at the same time there were several points making very much sense to me as the conditions in India were similar in many senses when it came to the producers! On one hand international funding would be exciting and lucrative for countries like India where the foreign exchange rates play magic with our film budgets.
Meeting the officials.
01 Mar 2010 4 Comments
in Berlinale, Daily Blog, Society, Travelogue
[16 February 2010]
Today we were going to meet the officials who are responsible for our stay here in Berlin. We were requested to be dressed in suits. Since I didn’t have the suit with me for this tour, I had to borrow it from one of our guides, Martin. When I reached the hotel lobby, my jacket was ready and it was a perfect fit. I can’t thank my friend Martin enough for this favor. After meeting at the lobby, we started in our special bus towards the Goethe Institute first. There we met one of the organizers of the Berlinale to know more about the festival organization and their co-operations with other festivals, their selection process in various countries, and their vision for the coming years of cinema etc. it was a very interesting session.
Visits and remembrance of war wounds.
28 Feb 2010 Leave a Comment
in Berlinale, Daily Blog, Society, Travelogue
[15 February 2010]
Today I spoke over Skype with Amma and Rashmi. I remembered home a little more than usual. There was someone else in the common room where I was using the Internet so didn’t talk much. However, once I disconnected the call, I came to know that the lady sitting in the room was Kaveree Bamzai, the other person from India in our group. She is the executive editor for India Today and works from Delhi. She is a sweet lady with deep interest and concern towards Indian cinema and world cinema. We spoke for a while about the past few days at the Berlinale. Then I had to go to Plastama Platsa to get tickets for tomorrow screenings.
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