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River to River Florence
Indian Film festival
(Florence, Italy)
article by Wendy Dent for
Filmfestivals.com December 2005:
A
Conversation with Selvaggia Velo
Festival
Director, River to River Florence Indian Film Festival
SV: How did it begin? In '98 I organised an exhibition of Bollywood
movie banners. Still Bollywood was not fashion in Europe. And so this
was done, and then in í99 we invited those same painters, artists,
to have a live show during the Florentine summer. There are a lot of
events during the summer here in Florence, the start of Fiorentina.
And so those painters were coming and they had live performances and
they painted Italian films in front of the audience. So the audience
could see these big 6 x 3m being done in 4 hours from zero to finish
of Italian movies, with their Bollywood technique etc. They usually
do it for the Indian movies. And during those 10 days of performance,
we also had a few screenings of some Indian films, very easily done.
I mean in Betacam. But the audience liked it. And then this was '99.
2000 and 2001 we realised that there were no festivals in the world
at that time totally devoted to Indian cinema. A lot of festivals devoted
to Asian cinema. But not one devoted to Indian cinema. So in 2001 the
first edition of River to River. Very home made I must say. Very home
made! But the extraordinary thing was that when we went ñ the
first edition was October.
November, now this festival has moved
to February, this festival in India, a big film festival in Bombay.
So I arrived in Bombay with a catalogue of the first edition. I was
going around and all these Indians were completely astonished, "but
you have organised an Indian film festival in Florence city? But you
are mad!" I mean why, I said? Because Indian city is not powerful
enough to have a festival of its own. Its no use to have it mixed up
with other Asian.. I mean its Ok. It can manage to have a whole thing
of its own. That is how it all began. In 2001. And now our fifth edition.
WD; So you find the films by going to the Indian festival, and
finding them from their catalogue?
SV; Mm. I find them from going to the Indian festivals and going to
look at for example this Between The Lines, of yesterday. I saw it in
Locarno.
WD; Stunning film.
SV; Mm, stunning. And then, now the time is arriving that also films
come towards us. And so of course some film directors, writers, look
for us. Not in the first years but now yes, since the last year, third
year, yes. And then of course since I have a good relationship with
the directors so maybe it happens that a director who came here last
year or an actor is working on a new film and so he gives me, he says
"oh yes I am working on this, its very good", or "my
friend is doing a short film, I gave him your contacts". So this
is all something that goes by word of mouth.
And of course other festivalís catalogues. And then there is
this film drama programmer called Uma Da Cunha and she also gives me
contacts, she is a film programmer for Toronto. And she also helps me
a lot, she gives me contacts. She knows everyone in Bombay.
WD; So do you draw a line or is it very open that a film can
have say an Indian character, an Indian actor, or it has to be an Indian
producer .. because I noticed a lot of them are from the USA or Germany.
How do you define it?
SV; It has to have something of India. The director. Not the producer.
Lets say.. the director or some protagonists, main characters of the
film have to be Indian. For example most of the short films, some short
films are shot by non-Indians but the protagonists are Indians. Or a
short from an arriving, not a residential India, people who live in
Canada or whatever. Because they are Indian. Or there is a lot, also,
I don't know if you saw 'Turn Left At The End of the World'. And that
film I adored. And in some way I have to make it go in! And the way
it is shot, he is an Israeli director, but one of the main characters
is the father, he is Indian. Of course its living with the Indian family
and the others. So that is how I managed to put it inside the programming.
So everything that concerns India in some way.
We have quite a few documentaries,
like Between The Lines, of European directors, on India or Indian issues.
For India of course we include also Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
And yes we have 'Daughters of Everestí from Nepal'. The documentary
on the Sheipa women. And the first year we were very very "the
director has to be Indian, the subject" and everything, but now
going on you are from India, you are more open minded. You have to be
open minded.
WD; I am curious, because you have very much broken the idea
of India being about Bollywood movies, which are to be celebrated. But
what do you think is the special thing about Indian cinema then which
is different to other cinemas of the world?
SV; I think it has also a lot of things in common with Italian cinema.
In India, I mean family is very important. Indians have quite a few
values that are quite in common with them, like the family. And if you
go to India each filmmaker, of course this is all over the world, but
in India its really mad, they have studied really really well and they
love all the neo-realismo.
So of course I see a lot of films and I have to choose the good ones
because not all areÖ there are still films which talk about a little
story in a rural village, shot very slowly. Of course I donít
want to screen only films that take place in a city, that are quick
and that. But its very difficult to find the good film that is shot
in a little village. A rural story lets say. They are still quite backwards
in that kind of way. So that is difficult to be seen by an audience
that is not the audience of that region, of where the film has been
shot.
And no, I think Indian cinema is completely... its able to speak globally.
And modern. Itís a thing of nowadays. So they are able to speak
about a lot of themes that can touch everyone. And that are common to
a lot of things. And so this is why I think it can be seen and appreciated
by everyone.
WD; Then what is your favourite film? I noticed you liked Turn
Left At the End of the World, which is very special.
SV; Yes but there are the other directors!
WD; Ok yes, so you can't comment! Ok let me ask you a different
question then! So if you could invite any person for next year, without
a budget problem, any person famous
or not, what would be your
dream to have a special guest?
SV; The thing of the festival, one
of the aims of the festival is to promote young people. So people who
are the first, at their first festival. So they are not famous. So I
donít have oh I would love to invite Robert de Niro lets say.
Of course maybe I would love to invite Shabana Azmi to have a retro
on her. She is a very good actress, she is in her 50s, and she plays
the role of the elder sister in 15 Park Avenue. Or Aparna Sen, the director
of 15 Park Avenue, who also directed ëMr. and Mrs. Iyerí,
a film that is beautiful. So again they are not Bollywood people. But
you need a budget to invite them anyway.
WD; And you are getting a lot of people to the festival, its
great. Actually every screening I have been to, it has been full. How
do you manage this, it's a festival directors dream yes!
SV; First of all I always go around, for example from the 16th of December,
the 15th the festival finishes, I will go around for months with 3 catalogues
of the festival 2005 in my bag. So wherever I go, I go on vacation to
Istanbul I bring with me the catalogues. This I always do. And some
little pieces of paper where there are written the new dates of the
festival, the website etc etc. And I leave this anywhere I go. It's
a habit. Especially if I go to festivals.
For example I met a boy here, he found one of my little yellow papers
written in black at Locarno film festival and he came over. Its not
of course that we arenít also doing advertisements on the radio
and on the newspapers, but this thing of leaving everything everywhere
and then I have been sending it all over in Italy for people to put
in the various cities. I think in some way it helps in some way somehow.
WD; Well congratulations. It seems to be going very well. And
I love the idea of the midnight shorts. Tell me about that, its very
special.
SV; We had this gap, and f course we could have screened them at 11.30,
because we could have. But I said lets do that because its different.
Lets do the midnight shorts. Because its nice.
Wendy Dent
Florence, Italy
12 December 2005
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