Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, Open Forum III: Skill-building through master classes
An essential feature of every international film festival around the globe, mater classes abound at IFFI too. FFSI, in collaboration with DFF, chose to highlight their benefits in skill-building at the third Open Forum. An open-air affair, it did not attract too many attendees. Firstly, the location was remote and secondly the timing that has been a permanent slot for Open Forum at IFFI is from 1.30 pm to 2.30-3 pm, exactly when the audiences take their lunch and head into the scheduled third screening of the day. Moreover, the occasional benevolence of offering tea/snacks to those present has become a rarity, so most enthusiast choose partaking a meal over skipping a meal.
On the panel were A. K. Bir (Chairman of the Technical and Theatre committee at IFFI; famed director-cinematographer); Ketan Mehta of Qube Cinema (not the namesake film director); another Mehta, Hardik (film-maker, whose film Famous in Amdavad was being shown at IFFI Goa 2016); Astri Ghosh (actress of mixed Norwegian-Indian parentage who grew up in Delhi); Tapan Acharya (who played a lead role in the Konkani film Aleesha, shown at IFFI 2004); Judy Gladstone (casting director and executive producer from Toronto, Canada) and Aseem Chhabra (Director of the New York Indian Film Festival).
Hardik made a strong case for attending master classes. “The best lessons I learnt were from a master Class by the German genius, Werner Herzog, which I attended in Locarno. Believe me, it’s the best learning experience for a beginner. You can still catch it online. Why, right here at IFFI Goa 2016, there was an enlightening master class on costume design by Rosalie Varda of France, who told us how she turned to museums to recreate period costumes from paintings.” Tapan predicted that, in the age of online communication, there might soon come a time when IFFI films would be viewed in real-time screenings on TVs, computers and phones across India, just by obtaining a password.
Amazingly gifted, Astri speaks English, Norwegian, Bengali and Hindi. She has translated the plays of renowned Norwegian playwright Ibsen and Bengali/Indian legend, Rabindranath Tagore and acted in two feature films, Life Goes On and Baarish. “It was while attending master classes at film festivals that my desire to take to acting as a profession was spurred on,” she revealed. Judy reminisced about her experiences in Toronto, which has a film festival every week!
“With the advent of Barco’s laser projectors, the era of Xenon lamp projectors is about to end. Also, films that used to be sent to festivals on DCP format are making way for online transfer,” prophesied Ketan. An attendee asked Aseem Chhabra whether the ‘talk-clips-Q&A’ style of master classes could be changed to a much more interactive approach, he replied, “What you are suggesting is that master classes should be more like workshops. A master class is usually conducted in the present manner only.”
Bir shared with the audience that the silver screen and laser technology was in use at IFFI, and it greatly helped in projecting 3D images from two projectors. “A semi-conductor chip, 1/5th the breadth of human hair, houses innumerable mirrors, on hinges, that move to adjust to the demands of the picture’s luminance. Considering we still do not have a state-of-the-art festival complex (expected in 2019), we are doing quite well, technically.” Commenting on master classes, he had words of wisdom to share, “Any interaction with a master will stimulate a cognitive mind. But, in the end, we will need these three qualities for any creative process to be meaningful: Bounty, restraint and compassion.”
This was to be the last Open Forum at Kala Academy, also the last to be organised by then Federation of Film Societies of India. The baton would be passed on to the India Documentary Producers’ association for the next day, where confusion would prevail. What the confusion would be was an Open guess.