SAIIER 2014:Aurofilm

SAIIER 2014:Auroville Nature Camp		Aurohamsadhwani Arts Centre
Aurofilm

Objectives

The aim of Entity:Aurofilm is to use Cinema as a tool for education and for artistic and creative research. By organizing regular screenings of high quality films, we wish to offer to the Auroville community a way to develop taste and discernment. In order to fulfill our goal, we have to find or stay in contact with various persons in the film industry, do research and gather information on Cinema in general, and particularly the work of certain Indian organizations and individuals that relate to Cinema in India (doing research, production, promotion and preservation of films from India and the world).

Programs and Activities

Aurofilm provides regular film-screenings for the community of Auroville. In addition, we organize at least one annual thematic film festival and other film related activities. For our work, we have to find out which suitable films are available in the country that could be borrowed or/and rented for our weekly screenings at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Bharat Nivas. We plan, prepare and organize the program, requesting, renting and/or borrowing the films from the relevant distribution sources. We have to contact the different organizations and companies holding rights or custody of the selected films, like the National Film Archive of India (NFAI, Pune) and Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF, New Delhi) – both under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, GOI – the Embassy of France in Delhi that lends us the French films we choose from their list of 35mm English subtitled prints and DVDs with screening authorization; and some commercial distributors, TV Channels, or individuals (film directors for instance) having commercial rights or authorizations for Indian films. These are from Chennai, Mumbai or elsewhere and they send us what we request – if the films are available – upon a concession fee and transport charges, or as a gracious gesture for our promotion purposes.

Films screened this year

• 
• 

Screening of selected classics of the world and Indian cinema is a must for inspiration. We want to expose the public to these stimulating works of art that open up new perspectives onto the world at large, and at the same time convey a sense for quality and creativity. Our selection of world cinema included films like Monsieur Lazare from Canada, Kandahar and At Five in the Afternoon from Iran; Invictus by US veteran actor/director Clint Eastwood on Nelson Mandela’s attempt to unite a torn-out South Africa upon his becoming the president of the country; The Kid With a Bike by Golden Palm winners from Belgium, the Dardenne brothers; another literary work adaptation of G. Garcia Marquez by famous Mexican director Arturo Ripstein; and a premiere screening – thanks to our meeting at the International Film Festival of Goa – of Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic’s When Day Breaks. This is the touching story of an elderly music teacher whose true family story and background are suddenly revealed to him in the city of Belgrade today.

French Cinema was well represented with Michel Deville’s classy thriller Le Cercle rouge/The Red Circle (1970) starring the best of French actors of the time: Yves Montand, Alain Delon and Bourvil. We also had an adaptation of Marcel Pagnol’s great novel Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources (a two part work), a Francois Truffaut film, Domicile Conjugal/Bed and Board, Louis Malle’s childhood memories of WWII with Au revoir les Enfants/Good Bye Children.

This year with the world classic films we have presented were Wild Strawberries by Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish master, To Be Or Not To Be, by Ernst Lubitch (US), a bold ‘comedy’, set in Poland at the beginning of the Second World War and shot during the war in 1942; and Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic 2001 – A Space Odissey (1968). We also chose to screen one more time The Structure of Crystals by Krzystof Zanussi, a seemingly very minimal film, yet bearing lots of depths both in terms of filmmaking and philosophical content.

We did not highlight the Indian Classics too much this year, as we presented only one of them, Satyajit Ray. This great master was in our program with his film Jalsaghar/The Music Room (1958) along with one of his wonderful children’s films, Sonar Kela/The Golden Fortress (1974), an adventure story based on one of his own short stories about the sleuth Feluda and set in Rajasthan; and his before-the-last film, Shakha Proshakha/Branches of the Tree (1990).

On another hand, once again our annual film festival, a “Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema” was organized in which we had a selection of six recent films. And along the year, we did present a some titles from the so-called ‘regional’ or ‘non commercial’ contemporary Indian cinema, from the different states of India, for the benefit of our Auroville international audience to discover it: Girish Kasaravalli’s Thai Saheba (1997) and Dweepa/The Island (2002) and once again Kurmavatra/The Tortoise, an Incarnation (2012), his latest work. We also screened the Bengali movie Phoring (2013), a good film from the Indian Panorama selection – which could not enter our own Panorama festival for lack of space! We also had the pleasure to receive actor and director Ram, from Tamil Nadu, who brought his own film Thangameengal (2013) on DVD, a contender for the National Awards this year. (Please see later in this report.)

This past year we screened only two documentaries. One was Celluloid Man (2012) the excellent record on the life of Mr. P. K. Nair, the man who is behind the foundation of the National Film Archive of India, and a living fountainhead for cinema, being from India or the world at large. The documentary is made by Shivendra Dungarpu who we had contacted and who sent graciously his film in 35mm film/celluloid print for our artistic and educational screening. It is a 2h.24’ monument full of interviews and film extracts and even though it is fairly long for this kind of film, the audience was really interested till the end. The other, Tous au Larzac/Every in Larzac (2011) is a 2h French record of the ten year nonviolent struggle in France started by farmers and environmentalists (then joined by students and common people) to preserve a large natural region in central France where the government wanted to extend an existing military camp, and their ultimate success when President Francois Mitterand came to power in 1981.

Other events of the year

Visit of Tamil actor-director Ram: We had contacted the well known Tamil actor Ram to organize a special screening of his directorial debut Thangameengal that we had seen in the IFFI in Goa in November. Ram was very pleased to come and offer this preview screening that was followed with a Q&A session. Thangameengal is the story of a father and daughter, the family, the village in which they live, and mostly it is about education for our children and the price to pay for the parents. Ram has written himself the story which theme is deep in his heart. The film has been very well received by a large audience that included many of our Tamil Aurovilians and local neighbours.

Filmmaking in Auroville: Apart from the film shows and research on Cinema, we always have some film making and production going on. As a matter of fact, all along the year we continue our film shooting of happenings in Auroville. We keep using these edited footages for new short films or use part of them to update “Greetings from Auroville”, a film we made on Auroville in 2009. We have made short films on: a Manipuri evening with Raasa Lilaa, a performance by Padma Sri Guru Tanil Singh and his group choreographing classical Manipuri dance and martial arts; on the first Auroville Singing Festival; on the beautiful and very classy Odissi dance-drama by Kanchana and her group: Shyaam, an Evening With Krishna; and a reportage on our annual Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema film festival. We also shot the concert of visiting Sufi singers from North India.

Networking and collaborating: As always, we also met and exchanged with film students and other people involved in film making and filmproduction who contact us to come and meet us here, or are simply visiting. And this year, a young Volunteer, Kerstin from Germany, was with us for 2 months. She is a student in Indian Culture and, as part of her study and research, took up the sorting out of our published documentation, also providing a much needed table of contents. She made an update to our brochure on the main Indian filmmakers to which she also contributed two additional articles. Being with us full time, she also provided help during the festival and the evening film screenings. That was a nice collaboration where all the parties involved learn and gain from each others.

Inputs

With our monthly budget we organise the film screenings that we present in the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium in the Bharat Nivas / Pavilion of India. Films are projected either in 35mm celluloid film or in DVDs. Even though we have less and less celluloid films due to the change in technology, we still receive some from time to time and operate ourselves the set of two 35 mm cine-projectors for some of our weekly film projections and yearly film festival. DVD projection requires our setting up of different equipment to be installed outside of the projection room, either on the 3rd row of seats or farther from the screen, on the big technical table almost at the top of the auditorium – depending on film formats. We also instal a mixing table/Amplifier to connect the sound to different sets of speakers on the stage.

With this year’s equipment grant, it was possible for us to purchase an additional wood and glass cupboard to store the increasing number of cassettes and CDs of our video film productions in a safe manner. We could also buy an additional computer that is used both for editing and administrative purposes, and a set of 7 filing boxes and 35 inner files for our voluminous documentation on Cinema.

Apart from the regular monthly budget, we still receive small regular and/or occasional contributions from Aurovilians or Auroville units who like to support our service. These donations are usually added to contributions received from the sales of our DVD film on Auroville at the Visitor’s Centre and Freeland Bookshop. These are used for the upkeep of the office, the film making activity along the year, maintenance of our computer and video equipment and for the production of new copies of the film (buying of blank DVDs and their cases, printing of the color cover and inside stickers).

Gérard and Surya are still the main people in charge of Aurofilm. We have been joined on a part time basis by Susana from Columbia, who has just become Aurovilian. We got valuable help from Aurovilians and Guests to organize the film festival in February, and from our volunteer, Kerstin in the office and for the film projections at the auditorium.

Our building in Kalabhoomi, in the Cultural Zone of Auroville serves well its purpose as far as the administration, research work and the filmmaking and editing, workshops, discussions and exchanges are concerned. We still hope to be able to upgrade it as it still needs finishing. A volunteer room can be made on the roof of the office and the room we currently use as a storage place could be equipped with inbuilt desks and shelves to become an editing/recording studio. This would enable us to welcome one or two students or researchers in Cinema and filmmaking and give lodging to one at least. So far this has not been possible.

Outputs

Film screenings for the community: All along the year we have organized the weekly 35 mm film and video projections programs at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium. The audience for these regular film shows had an average of 250 people of mixed nationalities and cultures. We screened a total of 43 films.

Other activities this year: (these are possible with additional funding/other budgets)

• Attending the 44th IFFI (International Film Festival of India at Panaji, Goa).
• Our 3-day Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema film festival in Auroville, with the presence of award-winning film critic Saibal Chatterjee from Delhi.
• Visit and Q&A with Tamil film director Ram.
• Short Films: 1st Auroville Singing Festival; Manipuri Dances; Shyaam, an Evening With Krishna; A Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema (records of the festival) and other recordings yet to be edited.

Outcomes

Cinema is an amalgamation of different art forms and is thus whole and complete. It is our conviction that cinema, for those with an eagerness to learn, open themselves and progress, is a wonderful channel through which they can relate with their own inner beings and that of the others. This aspect of cinema makes so much sense and encourages us as Aurovilians to strive towards our goal of reaching human unity, one day. Also, cinema is experiential in the very event that it creates an opportunity for people to literally come together and share their perspectives. Cinema is creativity, experience, technique as well as search for beauty and aesthetics, and through all these facets one can develop discernment. Both fiction and documentary films give us a new perspective on life, and while it is of utmost importance to choose the right type of film to be screened in a place like Auroville, that choice should not stem from a moralistic standpoint.

Conclusion

Research, evaluation and selection are an evolutionary process for us as far as cinema is concerned. We do this through weekly film shows, festivals during a calendar year, reading and compiling studies, analyses and studies. We are grateful to be able to consecrate our work to Aurovilians, guests and people of the world at large. By this we feel that some action is done through this endeavour and it does work on all the levels of our consciousness. Perhaps this brings us closer to our aim of transforming human nature.