[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.
As the discussion was going on, we had another appointment to attend to. We had to meet the campus talent programmers. So we slip away from the discussion and head towards the next appointment. The talent campus was an interesting session. Unfortunately the Indian talent campus (which was with the Oceans film festival) has stopped. But the organizers were very keen to start it again with a more stable film festival. I didn’t understand clearly as to what problems they had with the Oceans film festival from India. However, the details were very encouraging for young talents from all over the world.
After the talent campus meeting. We head to the lunch point where we meet some more from our group and head towards the eating point. We meet at a restaurant and there we ate. Whenever we sit to eat as a group, it ends up taking a long time. But then, it is always exciting as interesting conversations take place and we get to know more about each others countries, their film practices, tastes etc. we had another meeting at 3:30 so we had to finish the eating business and run for that meeting.
Next meeting was with the world cinema fund people again. But this time it was one to one meeting with our group. It was mostly question and answers. But at the out set, I came to know that the world cinema fund doesn’t yet accept Indian scripts! It was a huge surprise for me and somehow, it was a little disappointing to me. What ever the reasons may be, now, that is how it is! So can’t help it. The presentation was good. But as the time clicked towards 4:30 I started becoming restless as I had a screening of Umesh’s new film Vihir (Well). I had to catch up the screening by 5! So I take leave form the meeting and rush to the train station.
Thanks to the wonderful train system of Berlin, I reach the location that is nothing less than 10KMs in about 10 minutes! Then started Umesh’s film and as usual it was a treat to watch his film. The film is about two young brothers. One dies and the other explores his partner. The film deals with lot of heavy layers of meanings. Very interestingly told story of Umesh’s forte. After the film, we had a small get-together at the flat where the entire team of Vihir was staying. Many Marati speaking people staying in Berlin had come down. We all had a great fun together. It was a mini Indian get-together. Umesh and my self spoke about films in length. We enjoy the moment of success for Umesh’s film and their last day in Berlin.
At about 11pm I take everyone’s leave and start towards my hotel, as I have to finish my daily duties and hit the bed and get ready for another busy day. So here I stop and hit my bed. Got an early call time tomorrow. Got to be at the hotel lobby by 9am. So this is it for the day.