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IFFS NEWS
- PREPARING THE 4th WORLD CONFERENCE OF FILM SOCIETIES (GUIMARAES - PORTUGAL)
- PREPARING NEXT GENERAL ASSEMBLY
- A REPORT FROM THE ASIAN GROUP
AROUND THE WORLD
- CUBA
- NEPAL
- RUSSIA
- TUNISIA
THE DON QUIJOTE PRIZE
- TUBA ATLANTIC. DON QUIJOTE PRIZE IN KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL
IFFS NEWS
PREPARING THE 4th WORLD CONFERENCE OF FILM SOCIETIES (GUIMARAES - PORTUGAL)
Gabriel Rodrígez (Director WCFF)
The 4th World Conference of Film Societies (WCFS) will be held in the European Capital of Culture, Guimarães, Portugal in November 2012.
The WCFS is a platform for research, analysis and dissemination of the film societies movement around the world. With the participation of the International Federation of Film Societies, the WCFS held its first editions in Mexico City in 2008 and 2009 bringing together representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Catalonia, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Italy with virtual participation from Burkina Faso and Colombia.
In the first edition the Charter of the Rights of the Public was recovered and an international campaign for the rights of the public was launched. It has led to events in Argentina, Brazil, Catalonia, Spain, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal and Uruguay. The 3rd edition of the conference was held along with the General Assembly of the International Federation of Film Societies in December 2010 in Recife, Brazil with participants from all continents.
The 4th edition will focus on the following themes: Film societies and memory; Government role and laws of cultural incentives; Horizons of the IFFS, Archives, publications, models and practices.
La 4a Conferencia Mundial del Cineclubismo (CMC) se llevará a cabo en el marco de la Capital Cultural Europea en Guimarães, Portugal en noviembre 2012.
La CMC es una plataforma de estudio, análisis y divulgación del movimiento cineclubista alrededor del mundo. Con la participación de la Federación Internacional de Cine Clubes, la CMC realizó sus primeras ediciones en la Ciudad de México en 2008 y 2009 reuniendo representantes provenientes de Argentina, Brasil, Cataluña-España, Cuba, México, Italia y se contó con participaciones a distancia de Burkina Faso y Colombia.
En la primera edición se recuperó la Carta de los Derechos del Público y se lanzó una campaña internacional a favor de los derechos del público que ha llevado a realizar eventos en Argentina, Brasil, Cataluña-España, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Italia, Malaysia, México, Nueva Zelanda, Portugal y Uruguay. La 3a edición de la conferencia se llevó a cabo en el marco de la Asamblea General de la Federación Internacional de Cine Clubes en diciembre de 2010 en Recife, Brasil y contó con decenas de participantes provenientes de todos los continentes.
La 4a edición estará enfocada en los temas Cineclub y memoria; El papel del Estado y las leyes de incentivo cultural; Horizontes de la FICC; Archivos y publicaciones y Modelos y prácticas.
PREPARING NEXT GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The last week of June, the General Secretary of the IFFS, Julo Lamaña, he will visit the Tunisia Federation of film societies to work together in organizing the next General Assembly, scheduled for first quarter 2013.
La dernière semaine de Juin, le Secrétaire Général de la FICC, Julio Lamaña, va visiter la Fédération des ciné-clubs de la Tunisie pour travailler ensemble dans l'organisation de la prochaine Assemblée Générale, prévue pour le premier trimestre de 2013.
La última semana de junio, el Cecretario General de la FICC, Julio Lamaña, visitaré la Federación de cineclubs de Tunez para trabajar conjuntamente en la organización de la Asamblea General, prevista para el primer trimestre 2013.
A REPORT FROM THE ASIAN GROUP
By Secretary group, Premenmdra Mazumber
Out of total 29 members of the FICC/IFFS, now the Asian Group has only four members – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Though Asian cinema is very strong and has got a high impact in the panorama of world cinema, but due to various reasons we have not succeeded to spread the film society movement in all parts of Asia. Even we have failed to get our old colleagues in Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam as regular members though they have participated our conferences for several times and agreed to continue their cooperation for spreading the film society movement in the respective countries. We have to reopen our negotiation with our ex-colleagues in these countries and also to expand our network at other countries especially in Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Lebanon, Maldives, Myanmar, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, etc. where the film culture is already existing. In this report we are mainly focusing on some salient activities in India and Nepal and hope we can do the same for Afghanistan and Bangladesh in our next report.
INDIA
In India there are more than 350 regular film societies and about 200 campus film societies actively working throughout the nation. This huge film society network of the country is monitored by the apex organization ‘Federation of Film Societies of India’ (FFSI) which works through four full fledged Regional Offices in the North, East, West and South parts of the country situated in Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and Bangalore respectively. The National Council of FFSI is constituted with 60 members elected through direct voting by the member societies once in every two years who further elects a 15-members Central Executive Committee to run the operation of FFSI properly. ‘Federation of Film Societies of India’ is a body of statute recognized by the Government of India and mostly by all the Provincial Governments of the country as well. It represents in several committees of the Governments related to cinema. Right now the process of the biennial general elections of the FFSI for the term 20012-14 is on full swing throughout the country. The elections are held in three phases – at local, regional and national levels and the entire process will end up in the middle of August this year. However, here are some important activities of FFSI in recent past:
Participation in FICC/IFFS Jury
Indian Federation (FFSI) is nominating the jury candidates against each and every call from FICC/IFFS in a regular manner without considering the reimbursement of air-tickets and other expenses whatsoever. FFSI has resolved that it’s their sincere duty to co-operate with IFFS in all such activities by volunteering its representatives. As a result in last two years the following Indian nominees have served in the FICC Jury in different festivals:
1. Mr. Bijan Sensarma. Kristiansand, Norway, April 2010.
2. Mr. Ratan Kumar Pal. Tromso, Norway, January 2011.
3. Mr. Anil Krumar Jain. Fribourg, Switzerland, April 2011.
4. Mr. Tapesh Sharma. Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, July 2011.
5. Mr. Bijan Sensarma. Tallin, Estonia, November 2011.
6. Mr. Gangadhar Pandey. Coimbra, Portugal, November 2011.
7. Mr. Tapesh Sharma. Fribourg, Switzerland, April 2012.
8. Mr. Sankar Kumar Pal. Krakow, Poland, June 2012.
Central Executive Committee
The 15-members Central Executive Committee of FFSI last met in Bangalore on 18th March 2012 to discuss on various policy matters for strengthening the film society movement in the country. The highest body of FFSI emphasized its deep concern to spread the movement in schools and colleges by expanding its network through campus film societies so that the film culture could be developed from the student level. It also worked on censorship exemption issues for screening films imported from the foreign countries. Decided that the collaboration with the foreign missions in India, especially with the cultural missions of Germany, Hungary, Poland, France, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Cuba, Iran, Japan, Korea, China, Portugal and other countries will be continued as usual to import films for screening through the film society network of India. (Photo below: Members of the Central Executive Committee of the Federation of Film Societies of India. Bangalore, 18/03/2012)
Bangalore International Film Festival
Mr. H. N. Narahari Rao, President of the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) took active initiative for the participation of the film society activists in the 4th Bangalore International Film Festival (15-22 December 2011) which was a major film event of the country. As the Artistic Director of the Festival he initiated to set up a special ‘Film Society Jury’ for the competitive section of the festival. FFSI also organized the regular program ‘Open Forum’ for discussion on various issues of world cinema where the national and international film dignitaries attending the festival took part. More than hundred films of different genres were shown in the festival at different theatres of the city where thousands of delegates and media representatives participated. ‘Suchitra Film Society’ – one of the largest film societies of India having its own Art Theatre Complex in the heart of the city was one of the prime collaborators of the festival. The festival was organized by the ‘Karnataka Chalachitra (Cinema) Academy’ – an organ of the Government of Karnataka. (Photo below: H N Narahari Rao, V T Subramaniam and Premendra Mazumder at the Open Forum of the Bangalore International Film Festival. Bangalore. 17/02/2012):
Bangladesh Film Festivals in India
On active initiative of Mr. G R Biplob, Bangladesh Federation of Film Societies presented a package of eight contemporary award winning full-length feature films from Bangladesh to its Indian counterpart FFSI. This package created a huge sensation in the film society network of India. A chain of festivals in most of all the major metropolis like Calcutta, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Siliguri, Baharampur, Burdwan, Salt Lake City, Nagpur, Pune and so many other places was organized by the FFSI with these films which were highly appreciated by the viewers. The films shown in the package are:
• Chaka (1992) by Morshedul Islam (65 mins)
• Chitra Nadir Pare (1998) by Tanvir Mokammel (114 mins)
• Joyjatra (2004) by Taukir Ahmed (119 mins)
• Swapnodanay (2007) by Golam Rabbany Biplob (88 mins)
• Aha (2007) by Enamul Karim Nirjhar (128 mins)
• Chandragrahan (2008) by Murad Parvez (125 mins)
• Third Person Singular Number (2009) by Mostafa Sarwar Farooki (123 mins)
• Opekhsha (2010) by Abu Sayeed (84 mins)
The chain of festivals started from Calcutta on 23rd May 2011, the inaugural ceremony of which was attended by Mr. Biplob along with the representative from the Bangladesh foreign mission in India. The films were so liked by the film societies all over the country that they have demanded for such more films from Bangladesh to be screened as soon as possible. The Indian press & media also came forward to give a wide publicity of the events. This is important to mention that this was a project of the IFFS-Asian Group which resolved to inter-exchange the films amongst the participating countries. (Photo below: G R Biplob with the Indian colleagues at the inaugural ceremony of the Bangladesh Film Festival. Calcutta. 23/05/2011):
International Women’s Day
FFSI observed International Women’s Day on 8th March 2011 in Calcutta through a seminar on the ‘Image of Women in Indian Cinema’ addressed by the eminent Parliamentarian Ms. Malini Bhattacharyya, national award winning film critic Ms. Shoma Chatterjee and famous thespian Ms. Dolly Basu. Highly acclaimed full length Indian feature film ‘Devaki’ (2006, 87 mins) by Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay which addresses the women’s issues in a very sensitive manner was shown after the seminar. The program was highly appreciated by the press & media. (Photo below: Malini Bhattacharyya, Shoma Chatterjee, Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay and Dolly Basu at the FFSI Seminar on International Women’s Day. Calcutta. 08/03/2011).
Film Appreciation Course
FFSI regularly organizes Film Appreciation Courses in different languages throughout the country. Western Region of the Federation organizes the course mainly in English, Hindi and Marathi languages whereas the Eastern Region organizes it in English, Bengali and Assamese languages. Southern Region conducts the courses mainly in English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam languages. National Film Archive of India, one of the largest film archive in the world run by the Government of India, collaborates with FFSI to organize the Film Appreciation Courses in different centers in the country. Several Universities also collaborate with FFSI to organize such courses. In September 2011, FFSI organized the Film Appreciation Course in Siliguri, West Bengal conducted by the ‘Siliguri Cine Society’ in collaboration with the National Film Archive of India where 130 participants attended the program. Eastern Region of FFSI organized such a course for 50 participants in Calcutta in March 2012 (see the poster below). Besides West Bengal, so many such other courses were organized in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in recent past.
Festivals in different Metropolis
FFSI organizes festivals of films from different countries in different metropolis throughout the year. Very recently it has organized Turkish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Argentine, Mexican, French, German and Iranian Film Festivals at different centers through its Regions. Though the festivals were organized mainly in the big cities like Calcutta, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, but most of the films of these festivals for which due permission were there from the respective foreign missions later on were circulated amongst the affiliated film societies throughout the country. To commemorate the Golden Jubilee of ‘Psycho’ (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock the Retrospective of Hitchcock’s Films were organized in Calcutta. It also showcased a retrospective of the films of Miklós Jancsó in last month. FFSI paid its homage to the Bollywood superstars Dev Anand (26th September 1923 – 3rd December 2011) and Shammi Kapoor (21st October 1931 – 14th August 2011) for their contributions to Indian cinemas through a seminar held in Calcutta very recently (see the poster below):
NEPAL
Earlier Mr. Prem Basnet, Ms. Reshu Aryal and Mr. Nabin Subba attended the IFFS Conferences in different years from Nepal but no specific steps could have been taken by them regarding the membership of Nepal in IFFS. Finally Mr. Rajesh Gongaju of ‘Kathmandu Film Society’ took the initiative to take the membership of IFFS as an individual film society in absence of any National Federation there. Recently some enthusiastic news has come up from Nepal which says that a National Federation has been formed there named “Film Societies Federation of Nepal” with the following eight film societies:
1. Himalayan Film Society
2. Everest Film Society
3. Typical Nepali Movie Society
4. Jagaran Film Society
5. Fishtail Film Society
6. Pokhara Film Society
7. Gaurishankar Film Society
8. Focus: Social Transformation through the Cinema
AROUND THE WORLD
CUBA
Lázaro L. Alderete. Presidente de la Federación Nacional de cineclubes de Cuba
Me dirijo a usted por este medio, gracias a la buena intervención de Lazara Herrera, quién nos hizo llegar su email, yo soy Lázaro L.
Alderete Terry, presidente actual de la Federación Nacional de cine clubes de Cuba, me agrada tener la posibilidad de informarle que la federación cubana sigue trabajando y con creces en el fomento y desarrooolo del audiovisual aficionado , tanto en la creación como en la preciación, tenemos en la actualidad dos encuentros nacionales importantes, el Encuentro "Yumuri", que se celebra en la ciudad de Matanzas y que dentro de unos dias tendrá lugar (del 6 al 10 de JUnio) donde celebraremos nuestro consejo nacional y el "Festival de Invierno"en la ciudad de Santa Clara, que se desarrolla en el mes de Noviembre, done tiene lugar nuestro segundo consejo nacional y cada tres años celebramos nuestra Asamblea General.
Además de contar con otros eventos territoriales y talleres nacionales para la preparación y superación de nuestros miembros en lo que a realización y apreciación respecta.
Mantenemos la entrega de nuestro Premio "Mégano" en el marco del Festival Internacional del nuevo cine Latinoamericano de La habana y estamos en conversaciones con la direción del mismo para volver a integrar dentro del marco del Festival, la entrega del Premio "Quijote" de la Federación Internacional de Cine Clubes.
NEPAL
Premendra Mazumder. secretary Asian group
Recently I have visited Kathmandu and Jiri of Nepal to attend the 2nd International Film Workshop (10-16 February 2012) organized by the Film Directors Guild of Nepal. I have had the opportunity to talk to the Prime Minister and other high-power Government Officials looking after the development of cinema in Nepal during the opening ceremony of the Workshop in Kathmandu. I also had the opportunity to interact with several young film enthusiasts of Nepal amongst which there were eminent film makers, cinematographers, film scholars, film critics, novelists, writers, poets, journalists, politicians, film activists and even the film lover Members of the Nepal Parliament. In the workshop, I conducted some academic sessions on the History of World Cinema, Making of Bollywood Phenomenon and the Film Society Movement in India. My presentation on the Film Society Movement in India and its impact on the development of film culture in India impressed a large number of participants and as a result during last few months a couple of new Film Societies have been formed in and around Kathmandu. Recently I have been informed that these newly formed Film Societies are organizing themselves to form a National Federation of Film Societies in Nepal and they are trying to convince the Government of Nepal to get its support for the development of film culture in the country.
I shall keep you all posted of any further development in this regards.
RUSSIA
The film societies member list from Russian federation of film societies
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Film Club "Politechnik" (Vladimir)
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Film Club "Lik" (Vladimir)
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Film Club "Alternative" (Volgograd)
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Film Club "Chance" (Volgograd)
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Film Club "Warsaw" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Height" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Illusion" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Rainbow" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Russia" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Spectrum" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Francophone" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Frigate" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Ezra" (Moscow)
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Film Club "Sigma" (Novosibirsk)
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Film Club of the city of Obninsk Moscow region
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Film Club "Pushchino" (Pushchino), Moscow region
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Film Club "Rostselmash" (Rostov-on-Don)
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Film Club "Sovremennik" (Rybinsk), Yaroslavl region
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Film Club "Cinema" (Ufa), Republic of Bashkortostan
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Film Club "Yunost" (Yaroslavl)
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The Association of film clubs of the city of Saint-Petersburg (Saint-Petersburg)
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Film Club "Kaleidoscope" (Chernogolovka), Moscow region
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Film Club "Dialogue" (Tver)
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Film Club "Sigma" (Krasnodar)
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Film Club "Rakurs" (Samara)
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Film Club "Stalker" (Kirov)
THE FEDERATION OF RUSSIAN CINEMA CLUBS (FRCC)
Postal Address: Building 51, 1st academic building, room 556, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119899, Russian Federation
E-mail: kinoclub@rambler.ru
Website: http://www.fedkinoclub.ru/
Telephone (fax) number: +7495 9394869
Name of the president or director: Mikhail Basharatyan (The President of the FRCC)
Name of the secretary or other executive: Natalia Gantman (The Organization Secretary)
Year of foundation: 1991
Contact: Mikhail Verkh (The Central Council member): mikleverkh@rambler.ru
TUNISIA
DON QUIJOTE PRIZE
TUBA ATLANTIC. DON QUIJOTE PRIZE IN KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL
The FICC Jury at the 52nd Krakow Film Festival consisting of: Veit Geldner (Germany), Sankar Kumar Pal (India), Szymon Stemplewski (Poland) has decided to give the Don Quixote Award for the film TUBA ATLANTIC directed by Hallvar Witzø (Norway), which is not a black comedy but a magical surrealistic trip around what’s really essential for us: are we able to keep fighting, able to trust, to forgive, to listen to each other?
(Foto: Den norske filmskolen).
Cultural President
Luce Vigo- France
President
Claudino de Jesus –Brasil
Vice-President
Golam Rabbany Biplob – Bangladesh
Secretary General
Julio Lamana - Catalonia-Spain
Treasurer
Raivo Olmet – Estonia
Secretary (African Group)
Saida Cherif - Tunisia
Secretary (Asian Group)
Premendra Mazumder – India
Secretary (Australasian Group)
Ryan Michael Reynolds – New Zealand
Secretary (Central and Eastern European
Group)
Maciel Gil - Poland
Secretary (Latin America)
Cristina Marchese – Argentina
Secretary (Mediterranean Group)
Vacant
Secretary (Nordic group)
Maeve Cooke - Ireland
Special Duty Officer (Archive)
Robert Richter – Switzerland
Special Duty Officer (Research and Publica-
tions)
Wong Tuck Cheong – Malaysia
Special Duty Officer (Education)
Guy Desiré - Burkina Faso
Special Duty Officer (Children and Youth
Films)
Hauke Lange Fuchs – Germany
Special Duty Officer (Communication)
Jon Iversen – Norway
Special Duty Officer (Communication)
Gabriel Rodriguez – Mexico
Special Duty Officer
(Secretariat and Jury Administration)
João Paulo Macedo – Portugal
Special Duty Officer
(Secretariat and Jury Administration)
Atle Hunnes Isaksen – Norway
External Auditor
Torbjörn Kjellsson – Sweden
