The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : The cinema of the festivals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 22, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

The cinema of the festivals

By Sudhish Kamath

CHENNAI. DEC. 21. Halfway into the second Chennai International Film Festival, the organisers today announced that a seminar on `Film Festivals and World Perspective' would be held on Thursday morning.

The seminar, set to kick off at 10 a.m. at Anand theatre, would provide a platform for the delegates and the media to interact with people involved in promotion of film societies around the world, the festival director, E. Thangaraj, said.

Aruna Vasudev, Director of Cinefan from New Delhi (who will speak on Asian Cinema), Paulo Minuto, vice-president of the International Federation of Film Societies from Italy (who will turn the spotlight on European cinema), Sudhir Nandgaonkar, the director of Mumbai International Film Festival (who will represent Indian Cinema), Etami, secretary of the Croatian Federation of Film Societies (who will speak on East European cinema), H.N. Narahari Rao, vice-president of the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI), Southern Region (who will focus on classical cinema from India) and Premendra Mazumdar, treasurer of FFSI, Kolkata (who will speak on shorts and documentary films) will participate in the discussion moderated by U. Radhakrishnan, Secretary of FFSI, New Delhi.

"The discussion will look into the need for focussing on world cinema at film festivals around the world and how world cinema could be projected effectively," Mr. Radhakrishnan said.

Celebrities who dropped in at the festival today included actress Rohini, actor `Nizhalgal' Ravi (a regular at the festival) and director Bharathirajaa, who came in to watch Janaki Vishwanathan's `Kanavu Meiypada Vendum.'

Earlier in the morning, Sekhar Kammula's `Anand' in Telugu attracted a neat audience, despite the fact that it was screened without sub-titles.

The closing ceremony will be held on Friday evening with a sprinkling of film personalities. "The curtains will go down with the Peruvian film `Dias Desantiago' (Days of Santiago), directed by Josue Mendez, which won the best film and best director awards at the recently-held International film festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram," Mr. Thangaraj said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu