SAIIER 2016:Aurofilm

Arka		Attending Goa International Film Festival of India
Aurofilm

Introduction

The aim of Entity::Aurofilm is to use Cinema as a tool for education, artistic and creative research. By producing short films (documentaries and fictions) and organizing regular screenings of quality films, we wish to offer to the Auroville community a way to develop taste and discernment.

For the last three and a half decades, Aurofilm has done research on Cinema and been offering regular film screenings for Aurovilians and their Guests. In addition, we organize at least one annual thematic film festival and other film related activities such as inviting film personalities to give a conference or workshop, and from time to time we also produce documentaries and short fictions. This is done as a cultural and educational service and is wholly non commercial. Gérard C. is the founder (ca. 1981) of the service/SAIIER sub-unit, Surya is a long time collaborator (ca. 1987) and Susana joined us three years ago.

Film screenings

This past financial year, we screened 43 films. For this significant part of our work, over the years, we have defined 7-8 films categories that are (as much as possible) evenly distributed every month - all along the year. They are:

Classic films,
Becoming Classics,
New Indian Cinema,
Cinema of the World,
French Cinema,
Documentaries,
Animated and/or Children's films.

Below is the list of films screened this year, by category.

1. Classic films:

THE GENERAL, 1927, and
THE CAMERAMAN, 1928, both by BUSTER KEATON, USA.
LES VISITEURS DU SOIR / THE DEVIL'S ENVOYS, 1942, and
LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS / CHILDREN OF PARADISE (2 parts), 1945, both by MARCEL CARNÉ, FRANCE, the 2 worldwide favorite films in the “100 best films ever made” list. The script and dialogues were written by a great French poet, Jacques Prévert.
HOUSE OF STRANGERS, 1949, JOSEPH L. MANKIEWICZ, USA.
THE RIVER, 1950, JEAN RENOIR, US/FRANCE, based on Rummers Godden’s novel and shot in India – a film where the careful spectator can spot a small photo of Sri Aurobindo seen on the newspaper one of the protagonist is reading. We believe it can only have been deliberately chosen as the story happens in Bengal and it was the year Sri Aurobindo left his body…
LES VACANCES DE MONSIEUR HULOT/MR. HULOT'S HOLIDAYS, 1953, a fine comedy by JACQUES TATI, FRANCE.
TOKYO STORY, 1954, YASUJIRO OZU, JAPAN, a beautiful foray into a Japanese family.
SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, 1955, INGMAR BERGMAN, SWEDEN, a sweet and witty comedy by the Swedish film master.
ARANYER DIN RATRI / DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST, 1969, SATYAJIT RAY, INDIA’s greatest filmmaker…

2. Becoming Classics:

LE DERNIER MÉTRO / THE LAST METRO, 1980, and
VIVEMENT DIMANCHE, 1983, both by French New Wave director FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT, FRANCE.
E LA NAVE VA / AND THE SHIP SAILS ON, 1983, FEDERICO FELLINI, ITALY.
AMADEUS, 1984, MILOS FORMAN, USA.
ANKUR / THE SEEDLING, 1974, SHYAM BENEGAL, INDIA – one of the leaders in the New Cinema movement in India.

3. Contemporary Indian Cinema:

CINEMAWALLA, 2015, KAUSHIK GANGULY, WEST BENGAL.
OTAAL / THE TRAP, 2015, JAYARAJ, KERALA.
KADAMBARI, 2015, SUMAN GHOSH, WEST BENGAL.
RADIOPETTI, 2015, a lovely debut film by HARI VISWANATH, TAMIL NADU.
I CANNOT GIVE YOU MY FOREST – Documentary on the knowledgeable and spirited tribal women inhabiting original forests in Odisha, 2015, N. SAXENA and KAVITA BAHL.
SHYAM BENEGAL'S NEW CINEMA – Documentary on the great Indian filmmaker, 2015, IRAM GHUFRAN.
NATOKER MOTO / LIKE A PLAY, 2015, DEBESH CHATTERJEE, WEST BENGAL.
COURT, 2015, CHAITANYA TAMHANE, MAHARASHTRA.

4. Cinema of the World:

SAMURAI - MYAMOTO MUSACHI - part I, 1954, HIROSHI INAKAGI, JAPAN.
SAMURAI - DUEL AT ICHIJOJI TEMPLE - part II, 1955, HIROSHI INAKAGI.
SAMURAI - DUEL AT GANRYU ISLAND - part III, 1956, HIROSHI INAKAGI – This trilogy, starring the wonderful Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, is based on a legendary Samurai Myamoto Musashi. The novel from which the script is adapted is famous in Japan and worldwide.
SPRING SUMMER AUTUMN WINTER… AND SPRING, 2002, KIM KI-DUK, SOUTH-KOREA.
TAMBIEN LA LLIUVIA / EVEN THE RAIN, 2010, ICIAR BOLLAIN, SPAIN – This film screening was in collaboration with the “All for Water for All” event organized in Pondicherry and Auroville.
JIMMY'S HALL, 2014, KEN LOACH, UK.
MUD, 2012, JEFF NICHOLS, USA.
THE KINGS' SPEECH, 2010, TOM HOOPER, USA.
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, 2012, DEEPA MEHTA, CANADA/UK.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, 2005, JOE WRIGHT, UK/FRANCE/USA.

Films from the world are really a window open to different space and times. They propose a lot of variety in film expression and allow the viewer to approach, history, geography, literature, arts, society, cultures, environmental and social issues. We also choose them for the great cinematic way they are produced.

5. French Cinema:

LA VIE ET RIEN D'AUTRE / LIFE AND NOTHING BUT, 1989.
LA PRINCESSE DE MONTPENSIER, 2010.
QUAI D'ORSAY, 2013.

These are three top quality films by French director BERTRAND TAVERNIER. B. Tavernier was invited to the IFFI in Goa, 2011 where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Many other French films were presented in the different sections such as Classics, Becoming Classics, Children Films/Animation and Documentaries. This is surely not because some of us are French national in the Aurofilm team, but because of the quality French Cinema still holds nowadays in all the genres!

6. Documentaries:

WILD FRANCE (Le plus beau pays du monde) - Opus 1 and 2, 2014, 2 outstanding documentaries by FREDERIC FOUGEA, FRANCE.

7. Animated and/or Children's films:

MIA ET LE MIGOU / MIA AND THE MIGOO, 2008, JACQUES-REMI GIRERD.
LES CONTES DE LA NUIT / TALES OF THE NIGHT, 2011, MICHEL OCELOT.
LE ROI ET L'OISEAU / THE KING AND THE BIRD, 1952, PAUL GRIMAULT.
MINUSCULES: LIBELLULES & BANANES, Thomas SZABO & Hélène GIRAUD – 2 very short animated films (2-3 min).

The four films in this category happen to be by French directors. It is a fact that there is a particularly high quality in French animation, from the concept, script to design, sound, music, etc. This is probably equaled by Canadian and Eastern European countries, but their productions are unfortunately too difficult to get – unlike the French…

Special events and projects

Apart from the film screenings, in September 2015 we received the visit of Nagraj Manjule, a Marashtrian film director we had met in the IFFI Goa 2013 after the screening of his debut film, Fandry, as we had really liked this film and wanted to invite him and present it in our Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema in Auroville. It was not possible at that time, and after asking his permission, we screened the film in July 2014 and we kept the contact and at some point Nagraj himself did contact us as he was invited by the Pondicherry Engineering College for a lecture here and did propose a meeting with us in Auroville that he was very keen in visiting along with his partner. The meeting was very friendly and interesting and we took the opportunity to interview him – we made a short film of the event including some film extracts. Meanwhile the film did receive a lot of awards and praise; it was selected in festivals and had a successful release in Maharashtra.

In the winter, Raja Gopen Biswas from Pune, a young Indian graduate from NID and artist in residence at Kala Kendra, Auroville, had approached us to present one of his original “live sand animation” on screen. It finally became possible to present it in March this year. It was a 12 minute animation with sand placed on a luminous table. Raja keeps the designs changing with his hands only, while a camera –placed over the table and connected to the video projector - records everything and projects the animated image on the screen. It was an interesting and original animation that was organized before the screening of Shyam Benegal’s film “Ankur” and was very appreciated by the audience.

In terms of film production/realization, we have made a short documentary on the 8th Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema that we have organised this year (2 versions: 10 min. and 7 min.) A copy of it is given to SAIIER for the records, as well as this year festival’s brochure.

Reflections

We feel it is very important to have a regular film screening program – a quality film each week to share part of our research work, presenting it to the public in the beautiful public space that is the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium in Bharat Nivas. Several other venues exist in Auroville, but the audience that comes to this venue does so for the quality and difference of the programs. Other reasons for good attendance are trust in the selection, the comfort of the auditorium, the relatively good central location, safety of access, commitment from the organisers and the quality of the video support and projections (sound and image-wise) – as it happens we rarely use the 35 mm film projectors nowadays for want of celluloid films!

However we have been screening fewer films per year these past few years (an average of 65-70 titles before 2002-03, then 60 titles through 2012-13, and now 45-50 titles). This is due to our going to the International Film Festival of India more regularly, and also to the sharing of the venue with many other activities (various programming of conferences, performances and concerts that may have substantial set-up on stage) and Aurofilm having to withdraw its regular programs more often than before.

Conclusion

We are grateful to have provided this service for so many years and continue in the same spirit.