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Ganesh
A.P.P., a member of Chennai's Rooftop film festival, is very excited.
Only a few days ago New York's Rooftop Films asked him and his friends
to exchange their movies with the Brooklyn-based group.
Rooftop
film fests have now become a phenomenon across many Indian cities to
screen on terraces for a limited number of people unconventional and
classical films of various languages that may not be running in
multiplexes .
Ganesh, still a student, along with his graphic
designer friend Dinesh T.U, loves to watch films. The two are also
amateur filmmakers, ready to learn the intricacies of filmmaking.
"Not
too many film fests happen in Chennai, and most show only the
contemporary crop of movies. Or just Andrei Tarkovsky (regarded as the
most influential filmmaker of the post-war Soviet era in Russia).
"I
wanted to see the classics. We wanted to see unusual films, we wanted
to show films made by amateurs unconventional films that will not be
screened in the halls", Ganesh told IANS.
Supported by an NGO
called Knowledge Foundation, Ganesh and his team had their first
rooftop festival in March on the terrace of a friend's house in Raja
Annamalaipuram in the heart of the city.
The films screened
included "Hard Candy", "Call Center", "Blood Simple", "America, America
Parody", "Hi Dad", "Annie Hall" and "That Four Letter Word".
Many of these are not popular in India.
"But then, would anyone have liked it if we just showed Tarkovsky one after another?" Ganesh asked.
Ganesh
and his friends have also launched a website,
which has event pages that can be accessed by anyone.
The events
are organised when people take initiatives and log on to the website
and volunteer to contribute with DVD equipments, screen, projector or
food for the event. Then, a date is decided and the fest is organised
for some 40 people.
The festival has caught the fancy of many.
Now, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Tiruchirapally's students
and teachers are having their own rooftop film fests. NIT Calicut too
wants to join the club.
In July, Singapore will have a rooftop film fest, with content contributions from Tamil Nadu.
Indo-Asian News Service
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