BENGALURU: Memory, loss, violence... These are just some of the films that will be screened at the seventh edition of the Urban Lens Film Festival, scheduled to run until Dec. 6. Curated by IIHS Media Lab, the festival brings together filmmakers, academics and artists to create a dialogue with each other on cinema and the urban experience.
As many as 18 films in 18 languages, from 17 countries, are being screened with 3-4 films being shared each day, which can be viewed for the next 48 hours. Among the Indian films are Eeb Allay Ooo! by Prateek Vats, which has been popular in the festival circuit; Hun Hunshi Hunshilal by Sanjiv Shah, which first released in 1992, and was subsequently out of circulation for many decades; and Two Autumns in Wyszogród by Amit Mahanti and Ruchika Negi, which was made in Poland, and is of interest because of its storyline about South Asians going to eastern Europe and looking at the society there as opposed to Europeans looking at Asia.
Many are also documentaries, including Babenco, Tell Me When I Die, about Hector Babenco, a prominent filmmaker, which was filmed as he moved towards death. The section ‘Works of Art are Landscapes of the Mind’, a special package of films curated by Bina Paul, includes a film by Ghassan Halwani, a Lebanese graphic artist who in his debut feature, Erased, Ascent of the Invisible, examines how a nation’s collective memory shaves away one’s sense of past and present.
The challenge, as Subasri Krishnan, filmmaker and member of the organising team puts it, has been getting producers to trust them with the online screening. “Many of them prefer not screening their work online owing to security issues. So, it has taken a lot of discussions to get them on board,” she says. For the last 4-5 months, the team has been working to put together the festival, which will conclude on Dec. 6. But the pros have outnumbered this challenge, with viewership being spread far and wide.
They have tried to replicate the offline festival, with masterclasses and panel discussions in place. “Discussions are an integral part to get practitioners to speak about their craft, and to bridge the distance, if any, between those who create the work and those who watch it,” says Krishnan. Among this is a discussion on ‘Reflections on Cinematography and the Many Cinemas of North-East India’. “Often, North-East India is looked at as one geographical unit. This will look at the specificity of their practice and what gives rise to this practice,” she says.
The festival will also host two masterclasses. One, with Anjali Menon, on her practice as a director in and from south India and the role of collectives in creating equal spaces for women in the industry. The other one with Dibakar Banerjee will be about what his work has meant for the cinematic landscape in India, and how it has played a pivotal role in recreating a form of cinematic urbanism. (The festival will be hosted online for free, but requires registration for access. Details on iihsurbanlens.in)