A brief report on the Press Conference organised by the Magic Lantern Foundation and the India Internional Centre, on 16th February 2010 at the Press Club of India, towards the third edition of the film festival Persistence Resistance: a festival of contemporary political films.
At the conference, the complete festival programme and the list of films being screened was announced to the Press.
Gargi Sen, Director, Magic Lantern Foundation and Lalsawmliani Tochhawng, Programme Officer, India International Centre, were present at the occasion. Gargi gave a brief introduction on the history of documentary cinema and introduced the festival: Persistence Resistance: A festival of contemporary political films to the reporters, highlighting the aim of the festival as to bring to the audiences a wide range of emerging aesthetics, changing content and form in the world of documentary cinema; expand the scope of the term ‘political’; and establishment of newer viewing practices between conversations with filmmakers, outdoor screenings, video parlours etc.
On being questioned as to why she wants to show documentaries to the audiences, she spoke about how there are no other ways to take documentaries to the people. Since there are people who make such films, there is a subsequent need to bring their work to the fore. She also spoke about how documentary films are not meant to be treated as additives to commercial mainstream films. Since such films are broadly non-commercial, there is a need to show them in a seperate space. About the Government’s initiative in this field, she spoke about films made by the Films Division, amounting to 52 films a year, but that they are not screened widely.
About Persistence Resistance: The Festival, she spoke about how the festival starts in Delhi, and subsequently travels to various cities, over the year, in an effort to take it to places and popularise it further.
One of the reporters present at the conference asked why such films have not made it to theatres, wherein she spoke about films like Madhusree Dutta‘s 7 Islands and a metro, Anand Patwardhan‘s ‘War and Peace’ having been shown in theatres in India, and Supriyo Sen‘s Way Back Home in theatres in London. With the rules and regulations laid down by the Government in India, it is financially not viable for theatre owners to support screening documentary films in theatres.
She also talked briefly about Under Construction, a distribution initiative of the Magic Lantern Foundation, which disseminates films on various subjects. From each DVD/VCD that is sold, 65% of the sale amount goes to the filmmaker as royalty.
This year the festival brings to the audiences; new films that have been added to the Under Construction collection since the 2nd edition of the festival along with two invited packages of films. And the festival will look back to look forward. There are films of pioneers of the Indian independent documentary along with films of students from the Film and Television Institute of India and the National Institute of Design. Memory and the future go hand in hand at Persistence Resistance 2010.