SAIIER 2018:Auroville Film Festival 2017
 Arjuna Archery |
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 Auroville Tinkering School |
| Auroville Film Festival 2017 | ||
The 5th edition of the Entity::Auroville Film Festival (AVFF) was conducted from December 16-23, 2017. We screened films in four categories, meanwhile hosting performances and art exhibitions (in collaboration with the first Auroville Food Festival) in the Town Hall area.
Description of project:
The Auroville Film Festival is an activity of MMC/CP (Multimedia Centre/Cinema Paradiso), a city service. The team for AVFF '17 was Tlaloc, Tom, Marco, Christoph, Sasikant, Krishna, Jurriaan, Umberto, Marie-Pierre, Magali, Nilen, Laxmanan, Aashay and others. Our collaborators were Anveshan (Aneeta Pathak) who organised the Auroville Food Festival in conjunction with us, and Centre d'Art Citadines who organised an exhibition in conjunction with us.
The film festival took place over 7 days in 4 screening venues. Music (and other) performances were held every evening. In conjunction with the festival were an exhibition of paintings by Dominique Jacques; a poster exhibition of the films; art installations; discussions; Kino Kabaret; and the opening of the AVFF carbon neutral fund.
Our supporters/funders/partners were ACUR (Town Hall) Management, SAIIER, Foundation for World Education, the Archives building team, Auroville Radio, Auroville Artists Group, Auroville Botanical Gardens, Miniature, Krishna McKenzie, Right Path Café, Solitude Farm, Well Café, Roma's Kitchen, Centre d'Art Citadines, Autopilot, Meltin' Spot, Sadhana Forest, Tanto Pizzeria, Naturellement, brainfever media productions, Auroville Outreach Media, British Consul Chennai, Kirti Film Club New Delhi, Green Moves, AVI Germany, Neem Tree Restaurant, Pokkisham Antique Jewelry, and all the people who donated through our crowd funding effort.
Outcomes:
- 274 films from 40 countries were screened benefiting audiences (Aurovilians and others) and benefiting the reputation/image of Auroville.
- A Kino Kabaret (making films in 50 hours) benefited participants and engaged Auroville in the world Kino movement.
- 149 films were screened in the category of ‘films that develop the theme of human unity’, benefiting audiences and Auroville by engaging the world in our research on human unity and fostering a deeper understanding of the aspirations of Auroville.
- 125 films made by Aurovilians, by students of Auroville, and about Auroville were screened, benefiting audiences and the community by engaging us with our stories, our journey, our challenges, and our image in the world. This created links of understanding between individuals and activities in Auroville.
- 3 non-Aurovilian judges were invited, benefiting Auroville with their professional expertise and creating links of goodwill. One of the judges has applied to become a Newcomer.
- Moderated discussions with 9 directors of films benefited audiences by turning film-viewing from a passive activity into an intimate dialogue between artist and audience. This also created links of goodwill with Auroville.
- 10% (Rs. 7,000) of the money raised through our crowd-funding campaign went towards the planting of trees in Auroville, benefiting Auroville and the world.
- Sadhana Forest planted 100 trees in support of our carbon neutral fund, benefiting Auroville and the world.
- The first Auroville Food Festival was hosted, with food from North and South India, vegan food, Mediterranean food, raw food, African food, Asian food, and European food, benefiting visitors and Aurovilians and enhancing the joy of community life in Auroville.
- 4 art installations – by Ok, Marco, Orly, Richa & Rrivu – benefited visitors to the venue throughout the week and added to the rich cultural texture of Auroville.
- 7 evenings of performances benefited visitors to the venue and brought joy to the community.
- An exhibition of posters for the films made in Auroville was created, benefiting filmmakers and audiences alike as well as informing and exciting visitors to the Town Hall during the week.
- The festival brought the residents of Auroville together, an occasion creating a sense of community and belonging.
- An exciting festival ambience was created, making Auroville a culturally richer place to live, celebrating diversity and fostering a vibrant community life.
Reflections:
Meaningful for us was encouraging the residents to take part in making and watching each other’s films. We are inspired to give a venue to children and young people to express themselves. Through the festival we work to create a more vibrant community life, celebrating diversity and generating discussion on human unity.
The most challenging aspect was raising money. We learned that we need to put in a separate team for crowd-funding.
Our experience this year showed us that we are ready to put in place more stringent values in selecting films for the category ‘films that develop the theme of human unity’. In future we will also limit the hours of films and the number of venues. Besides the external selection panels we set in place, we will have an additional internal panel to do a final selection of the best films.
Conclusion:
Work has already started on the selection of the films for the next edition and, as I type this, a film has just been downloaded and is copying to the computer. The first batch of films will be handed over to the first selection panel in the beginning of next week (May 2018)! We are lucky in finding a motivated leader who is applying to become a Newcomer and is fantastic in finding films and getting them.
