The Hindu : Row over film festival

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 11, 2004

National

National

Row over film festival

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN. 10. Concerned over the aspersions cast by documentary film-makers over the selection process at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), a member of the MIFF organising committee and leading film-maker, R.V, Ramani, has written to the festival director, Babu Ramaswamy, seeking clarifications.

In his e-mail, Mr. Ramani said he had met documentary film-makers in Delhi who were "disturbed'' over the fact that their films were not selected, in spite of getting "tremendous recognition and appreciation'' elsewhere. Some of the selection committee members themselves seem to be unsure which films have been selected for the festival. "We were also informed that the selection committee members were asked to just grade the films and the final selection was made by someone else from the Films Division,'' he alleged. Stating, "this seems to be a drastic departure from earlier procedures", Mr. Ramani said it would lead to "serious doubts about the selection procedure'' in the minds of film-makers, especially in the "backdrop of the censorship fiasco that happened recently''.

He also requested the festival director to take up this issue during the organising committee's meeting. He also sought the names of all the selection committee members and asked why the final selection was not made by the committee and left to someone in the Films Division. Stressing the importance of "total transparency'' in this area, Mr. Ramani said this "alone would win the trust of the film-makers who are equal partners in this festival."

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