By Vinaya
ViBGYOR festival is a five-day-long film festival held every year at the SangeethAs digital streaming platforms take over the arena of watching movies, the experience of watching a film in recent years has become an all the more new and comfortable exercise. Global web streaming applications like Netflix and Amazon Prime bring a variety of international films and shows on our fingertip and we can watch it in the comfortable spaces of our bedrooms. But what makes it elitist in nature is how few people can actually afford the luxury of watching movies on these applications where we have to pay for monthly subscription and these applications require an active internet connection as well. That is why film festivals are important, for it makes watching films a more democratic experience. It is a celebration of creativity as filmmakers, actors, audience, where all come together to explore and discuss cinema.
There has been an increase in the number of regional film festivals across India in the last decade and many of them have gained attention for the kind of movies are screened and the themes they represent. The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) is one such example. The hilly Himalayan town hosts one of the famous regional film festivals in India today. According to the official website of DIFF “When filmmakers and longtime Dharamshala residents Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam started the Dharamshala International Film Festival in 2012, their main aim was to give the local community a platform for good alternative cinema. Five years later DIFF has become one of India’s leading independent film festivals and draws audiences from across the world”. Another unique regional film festival held in India is the ViBGYOR Film Festival. The a Nataka Akademy Campus in Thrissur Kerala. ViBGYOR International Short and Documentary Film Festival has been running since 2006. It has been reported that “The festival is a celebration of human spirit, expressed through the medium of cinema, with its inherent nobility and diversity. It covers the living experience of millions of people across the globe, witnessed and retold in the form of documentary and short fiction films by a number of skilled and committed filmmakers from different parts of the world. The festival screens films, which talk about the struggles of people for survival and for identity and dignity.” The five-day long film festival creates space for a constructive interface between filmmakers, activists, leaders of people’s movements, academicians, students and common people from diverse streams of life. ViBGYOR International Film Festival is an alternative film movement built around the annual film festival and associated activities throughout the year. ‘Celebrating identities and diversity’ being its central theme, ViBGYOR explores the broad spectrum of the politics of identities through the creative medium of cinema, expressing solidarity with the struggles led by various individuals and peoples’ movements for basic rights and a sustainable model of development. Inviting audience’s attention to the much needed LGBTQ issues, the LGBT film festivals held in Mumbai and Bangalore deserves special mention.Voted as one of the Top 5 LGBT Film Festival in the World, KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is the only LGBT film festival in India to be held in a mainstream theater and South Asia’s biggest queer film festival. It has successfully completed ten years journey and is entering its eleventh edition in 2020.
Visual literacy is a 21st century aptitude and film festivals bring together the highest-quality stories to learn from. Film festivals are there to inspire audiences and keep the excitement high for cinematic experiences. Festivals have the ability to let people be something more than just mere spectators of the films by involving them in making of the event as well offering a chance to connect through sharing a unique experience. Films can cross borders by their themes and festival by their actions. Also, film festivals have an important role in widening the range and selection of films on silver screens. Films are the most popular and democratic form of art in the 21st century and film festivals are the official ambassadors of such cultural and intellectual exchanges.
