Mother Teresa film festival packs in 45,000

Posted By jessy On August 30, 2010 @ 4:14 pm In Indian News

The Mother Teresa film festival was a resounding success with over 45,000 people attending the four-day event organizers in Kolkata say.

It was an honor for the West Bengal state government and its film center to host the event, said Nilanjan Chatterjee.

Chatterjee, the head of the government film center, was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Third Mother Teresa International Film Festival on Aug. 30.

I was proud to be part of the festival that marked the birth centenary of Mother Teresa, he said.

Nandan, the film center, along with Calcutta Archdiocese co-organized the festival.

The event made history by giving the disabled an exclusive opportunity to watch films, Chatterjee said.

No other film festival has ever done this, he added.

The festival showcased 18 films about Blessed Teresa, with 64 screenings, for some 45,000 people, said festival director Sunil Lucas.

I am “amazed” at the response, all the shows were packed with people sitting in the aisles or standing at the back,” Lucas said.

Besides the two special screenings for 500 disabled people, there were also more than 7,000 residents from Missionaries of Charity care centers, he said.

The festival will now tour India over the next six months, and will be staged in 15 other countries, he added.

Gaurav Singh Ray, a business school student, said he “was able to see missioners’ selfless service through these films.”

The cooperation between Church and secular organizations in staging the event was very moving, said Canadian Jesuit filmmaker Father Pierre Belanger who presented his film The Making of a Saint.

Source: ucanews.com

Unique retrospective of Bengali cinema opens in Edinburgh

London (PTI): The St John's Church Hall in Edinburgh has been transformed into a Sunderbans jungle for a three-day Bengali film retrospective of classics by Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Tapan Sinha as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The hall has been covered by foliage from West Bengal while the cackle and cooing of fauna from the Sunderban groves fills the air. According to film festival expert Mark Cousins, forests are a natural place to watch films, "particularly ones from steamy, florid West Bengal".The Bengali Film retrospective runs until tomorrow, when noted Indian actor Sharmila Tagore will be present to publicly discuss the mists and magic of Bengali cinema with Cousins.

Explaining the significance of watching Bengali films in a forest setting, Cousins said at the opening: "I associate forests with fairytales, so the idea of telling a story in a forest is very appealing."Bengal is famous for its jungles. Its images and sounds appear in all their poetry, music and literature.Besides, if you want to convince people to come to films they haven't heard of, you have to make it as magical as possible."

Cousins said: "We're showing West Bengal films in that little forest cinema because the creative heart of Indian cinema is in West Bengal. We invited the first lady of Bengali cinema, Sharmila Tagore, because she's a legend and her career is unique. We're totally thrilled".Classic Bengali films to be shown include Ghatak's 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' (1960), 'Titash Ekdi Nadir Naam' (1973), Tapan Sinha's 'Niranjan Saikate' (1963), and Satyajit Ray's 'Aranyer Din Ratri' (1970).

"Indian cinema is not all Bollywood. India is a federation of people, ideas and cultural forms. And West Bengal, without doubt, is the artistic heart of this federation. It has a tradition of literature and poetry that other parts of India didn't quite have. And this feeds into its films," Cousins added.The uniquely transformed movie hall is part of a cultural conversation between Kolkata and Scotland organised by the British Council.

"I want white Scots to fall in love with these films. I want people to be gripped by the desire to see what Kolkata is like. I want them to be left with a major hunger to go and see Bengali films. These are great works of art. It's as simple as that," Cousins added.

Kolkata Film Fest begins

KOLKATA, 13 th November,2008 - Shorn of glamour, the 14th Kolkata Film Festival got off to a drab and colourless start here this week. Veteran filmmaker Mrinal sen inaugurated the eight-day event, during which 276 films from 62 countries will be screened at 11 auditoria in the city, besides at one each in Siliguri, Barasat and Burdwan.

Actor-filmmaker Nandita Das was the only Bollywood presence, with the state government failing to rope in any other megastars of the country's tinsel capital despite sounding out megastars like Shahrukh Khan and Shabana Azmi. Nandita is attending the festival with her directorial debut Firaq. Among others present were actor Soumitra Chatterjee and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Bhattacharjee quoted the opening lines of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, saying it was "the best of times and the worst of times". The chief minister said the ongoing financial crisis in the U.S., which has implications for Europe and even India, made the present "perhaps the worst of times". "On the other hand, the best of times perhaps is that a black president along with his black family members will be entering the White House," he said, referring to Barack Obama's election as the U.S. president.

The centenary tribute to French director Jacques Tati will be the highlight of the annual event that ends Nov. 17. Tati's masterpieces, including Play Time, My Uncle and The Big Day, will be showcased here. Under a special segment Remembering Ray, filmmaker Satyajit Ray's favourite Hollywood films as well as his restored creations, including Teen Kanya, Parash Pathar, Joy Baba Felunath and the short film Two, will be screened. Besides, Aparajito, the second film in Ray's legendary Apu Trilogy will also be shown.

For veteran actress Shabana Azmi, filmmaker-turned-actor Farhan Akhtar's performance, was pitch-perfect- a title that she would otherwise give only to actors Balraj Sahni and Paresh Rawal.
"Farhan took me by surprise with his performance in Rock On. He was pitch-perfect," said veteran actress Shabana, who is married to Farhan's father, writer-poet Javed Akhtar.

Cine Central to screen world cinema at Kolkata film fest

Kolkata, Nov 8: Cine Central, one of the largest film societies in India, will screen 70 films from 30 countries as part of the 14th Kolkata Film Festival to be held here Nov 10-17. "Besides some remarkable Indian films, we will be showcasing some of the best films from Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Iran, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Pakistan, Sweden, South Korea, Slovakia and Uruguay," general secretary of Cine Central, Sadhan Chakraborty told reporters here Thursday.

"We will also present a package of contemporary films to focus on Turkish, Norwegian and Dutch Cinema," said Chakraborty.Under the "Homage" category, tributes will be paid to Cuban film director Humberto Solas and Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. "A retrospective of Manoel de Oliveira will also be organised to pay centenary tribute to the Portuguese film director," Chakraborty added.There will also be a "Documedia" section where documentaries from Afghanistan, Lebanon and France will be shown, along with a package of documentaries on Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara to commemorate his 80th birthday.

The inaugural film "Gulabi Talkies" will be presented by Kannada director Girish Kasaravalli at Basusree Cinemas in south Kolkata.Cine Central was formed in September 1965 and organised India's first independent international film festival in 1986 under the name Calcutta International Film Festival. This film fest was renamed as International Forum of New Cinema in 1998 and is held every year as part of Kolkata Film Festival.

14th Kolkata film festival to begin November 10

KOLKATA, 3rd Nov: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced at a press conference that the 14th Kolkata Film Festival will kick off from November 10. The eight-day cinematic extravaganza will include the screening of 276 recently released films from all over the globe.

Bhattacharjee said that the melange will have 17 Indian entries, other than 44 short-films, eight documentaries and seven children’s films. A total number of 100 foreign films from 62 countries will also be included, of which majority will be the Latin American films.

The festival, for which 2,500 delegates have been registered, will pay centenary tribute to the renowned French director Jacques Tati by showcasing four of his masterpieces – The Big Day, Mosiure Hulots Holiday, My Uncle and Play Time. In addition, a special segment of Satyajit Ray’s favourite Hollywood films as well as Ray’s restored films will be screened.

According to Bhattacharjee, “Short filmmakers would also get the chance to showcase their works during the festival at the Bangla Academy, while there would be ‘film market’ for marketing the movies all over the world.”

The Chief Minster said that the budget for the festivities has been pegged at Rs 1.40 crore. The West Bengal government would spend towards procuring the films, but other expenses like providing hospitality to the guests would be met by the sponsors.