Film festival on visual arts organised in Delhi
The four-day visual Film Festival from 2-5 August took place at Kaustubh Auditorium, Rabindra Bhawan, New Delhi. The festival organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi began with a panel discussion on the Challenges Faced in Creating Movies on Visual Art. The panel included eminent filmmakers and critics Aruna Vasudev, Kapil Mattoo, artist Babu Eshwar Prasad and moderated by National awardee filmmaker Utpal Borpujari. The programme was presided by administrator Lalit Kala Akademi C.S. Krishna Setty
Utpal Borpujari, National award winning filmmaker said that it is a remarkable event held by Lalit Kala Akademi. He expressed his happiness of seeing a young audience attending the programme. Showing a couple of clips from films like Nainsukh by Amit Dutta, and After Image— the opening film at the last year’s International Film Festival of India held at Goa, he said that the Lalit Kala Akademi should also start inviting entries for visual art films to promote making more and more films on art and artists. He said that the Akademi should reach out to hold such events around the capital as well as the country.
Aruna Vasudev, eminent film critic, said that the Lalit Kala Akademi has a great collection of art films and this creditable event by the Akademi will help art films in getting support from production houses and interested individuals in upcoming days.
Babu Eshwar Prasad, visual artist and filmmaker, congratulated the Akademi for organising this praiseworthy event. He, sharing his experiences with the Western art filmmakers, said that the BBC while making a film on Leonardo da-Vinci, even had produced the equipment and machine like Flying Machine, Submarine etc. mentioned in Vinci’s notebook; but we don’t have that kind of funds available to produce films based on art and artists. He also accentuated the importance of research work needed before beginning the production of such films. Showing his film Gaalibeeja, he said that film is the medium which includes all other mediums of Fine arts such as painting, music, performance etc. He hoped that this film festival will make people aware of films made on artists and art.
Kapil Mattoo, producer, filmmaker and visual director, said that film is a populist medium and I feel that visual art needs to inspire people and so it has to become populist. Citing the films like Rang Rasiya etc., he said that commercial films on visual art are also there that make us think of the need of popularising this medium to make to accessible to a broader audience. He suggested that the Akademi should think of building a movie gallery as well. He highlighted on the vital role that books play in making a film on visual art.
The Akademi screened around 25 art films on Anish Kapoor, Amrita Sher-Gil, Rembrandt and so on. The film festival attracted a great number of art and cinema lovers as well as art students.
Utpal Borpujari, National award winning filmmaker said that it is a remarkable event held by Lalit Kala Akademi. He expressed his happiness of seeing a young audience attending the programme.