…is coming to your city, every weekend, starting tomorrow, as part of the Dharamshala International Film Festival’s ‘best documentaries package’.
by Medha Kulkarni
The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), in association with The Root Reel and Blue Frog, is presenting ‘The Best Documentaries Package’, in which some of the best documentaries will be screened for Mumbai audiences, every weekend. The initiative starts tomorrow.
The first film to be showcased tomorrow, August 4, is the highly acclaimed film 5 Broken Cameras. It is a deeply personal, first-hand account of life and non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village surrounded by Israeli settlements. Shot by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, Gibreel, the film was co-directed by Burnat and Guy Davidi, an Israeli filmmaker. Structured in chapters around the destruction of each one of Burnat’s cameras, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of village upheaval.
As the years pass in front of the camera, we witness Gibreel grow from a newborn baby into a young boy who observes the world unfolding around him with the astute powers of perception that only children possess. Burnat watches from behind the lens as olive trees are bulldozed, protests intensify and lives are lost in this cinematic diary and unparalleled record of life in the West Bank. In the current climate, with constant upheavals in the Middle East, this film is a telling reminder of how life changes in a seeming instant.
5 Broken Cameras is the first-ever Palestinian film to be nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards. Watch the trailer here:
About the initiative:
As filmmakers based in Dharamshala, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam of White Crane Films, have long believed that the town’s unusual profile would make it a perfect destination for an international film festival. The inaugural edition of DIFF was held in November 2012, showcasing 26 contemporary features, documentaries and shorts, curated from the best of international independent cinema.
The second DIFF will take place over four days in 2013, from October 24 to 27, 2013. The aim is to build and expand on the blueprint of the first edition and establish DIFF as a world-class film festival, where filmmakers and film lovers can interact in an intimate, creative and informal way.
The Root Reel is a Mumbai based organisation whose main objective is to be a mirror, reflecting upon stories around us and try bringing them closer to the urban audience.
Entry is free and on a first-come-first-seated basis. Head to Blue Frog, Zeba Centre, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Lower Parel, tomorrow at 7.30 pm. Call 098200 95432 for details.
(Pictures courtesy rabble.ca, www.newwavefilms.co.uk)