Media Release
Bangalore, Feb 24: The much awaited two-day St Joseph’s Film Festival (SJFF) opened on Thursday February 21 to an enthusiastic audience.
The festival started with the inauguration ceremony where SJC principal Dr Daniel Fernandes, head of communication department, Dr Francis Arackal and his colleague Dr Mythili Anoop, lit the lamp.
In his address, Dr Fernandes commended the students of communication department for organizing the fest despite the city being shut due to the Bharat bandh. He further added that the students had worked hard in organizing the event and it has taken off despite the bandh.
Dr Arackal delivered the keynote address. While introducing the objectives of the festival, he said that cinema remained unparalleled in its influence of being accepted as an inviolate product. “As students of media, it is necessary for us to look at films as constructed texts,” he added.
Following the inaugural ceremony, the first movie that was screened at the festival was ‘Babel,’ a Moroccan film, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez. The cast included Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Rinko kinkuchi, Gael Bernal, Adriana Barraza and Koji Yakusho. The screenplay was by Guillermo Arriaga. The film is a reflection of the dizzying disparities of fragmented realities spanning three cultures. It also brings in focus cultural differences and human nature and values that are universal. Babel brought laurels to Gonzalez. He became the first Mexican director to win an award at 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
The audience received the movie well. Many said that they found it very moving. “The lives of the characters, all leading different lives and having different cultures, were shown in parallel. The movie brought out each character very well,” said Aishwarya, a student.
The second session saw an intense panel discussion on the topic “why is it inevitable for narrative to have an ideological function?”
The panelists were M K Raghavendra, film scholar, and founder-editor of Deep Focus; Prakash Belawadi, columnist and writer- director for stage, television and films; and Raghunandana, Kannada playwright, stage director and designer. Dr Mythili Anoop of the communication department was the moderator.
Raghavendra opened the discussion explaining the position of ideological function in film narrative. “There are always re-readings which locate ideologies. Ideology is unconscious and it is not always a rewarding exercise. A creative artist cannot overcome ideology. One has to be conscious of his/her own ideology.”
Raghunandana provided a series of examples from different movies to put light on the issue. He questioned as to why urban women are not shown as belonging to a lower caste in Indian cinema.”Women are always being portrayed as docile who stay indoors believing that to be their world.” He also questioned the glorification of the US in India cinema.
Joining the discussion, Belawadi, an ex-Josephite, spoke about the economic and political facets cinema. “Film makers practice an economics of representation. The politics of representation is affected by the people who watch the movies.” Citing examples, he forcefully pointed out that representation of life in cinema completely varies from that of real life.
The discussion kept rolling touching various facets of the ideology of contemporary filmmakers.
A large number of participants including Professor Khalid of political science department, and Mark Rasquinha and Paul Avijit of communication department actively participated in the discussion.
The St Joseph’s Film Festival (SJFF) came to a close on February 22 with a film quiz, an essay competition, and the screening of two films. The morning session began at 11 am with the students showcasing their talent at mimicry.
The films screened on Friday were, 'Burn' which was released on April 22, 2012 and 'All about My Mother' which was released on April 8, 1999. The film quiz which was open to all was held during the post lunch session and saw good participation.
“The first ever film festival organized at our college was an interesting event. I was not sure what response an event like this would receive, looking back at the event I must say that it turned out fine. Probably we could have had more participation,” said Arvin Monthiro, an alumnus of SJC.
The topic for the essay competition was ‘Does cinema serve as a register for popular concerns at any historical moment?’ Huma Mariam Husain from Mount Carmel College won the first prize and Manu Nair who is a reporter won the second.
SJFF was essentially a labor of love from a few II MS Communication students – Anindita, Aileen, Chaitra and Nishi - deluded enough to believe in the power of cinema as a political tool and who thus seek to institute a platform for discussion and reasoned debate.
They put in much work to organize this first ever film festival at SJC, the first ever organized by a college in Bangalore.
They had the added burden of putting up with the uncertainties related to the national bandh on Feb 20-21.