Bhubaneswar, Jan 13: The second day of the JD Centre of Art’s 12th International Film Festival on Art & Artist saw screenings of multiple award-winning films, two workshops, and the continuation of exhibitions on Odia handicrafts. The Festival was made possible by a partnership with Department of Tourism, Govt. of Odisha and support from Odisha State Beverages Corporation.
The day began with the screening of Atul by filmmaker Kamal Swaroop, who also had a Q&A session with the audience later on.
Delhi-based award-winning filmmaker Nandan Saxena was back with his series of workshops on filmmaking, this time titled Cinematic Films on a Budget: Digital Filmmaking, where he spoke about the parallels between literature and cinematography.
The day was packed with a variety of films that included Oscar-winning Iranian film, The Salesman by Asghar Farhadi, Kamal Swaroop’s Atul, on artist Atul Dodiya; award-winning American film makerTom Lowe’s stunning time-lapse film, Timescapes; Russian film maker Smirnov Igor’s Wooden Temples of the Leningrad Region, which was presented by the producer of the film, Elena Smirnova and OP Srivastava’s film on renowned film maker, Girish Kasaravalli.
Many students were in attendance today, and were able to watch the architecture-based film by Avijit M Kishore, Nostalgia for the Future. The Mumbai-based director introduced the film.
Canadian artist Bryan Mulvihill’s workshop on calligraphy, Imaging the Word, demonstrated calligraphic techniques and talked about transforming text into artistic expression.
Mulvihill spoke of the richness of calligraphy in Japan, China and India. He spoke about the ancient Indian calligraphic technique Devnagri and Prakrit. He next spoke about Chinese calligraphy and the symbolism involved in the creation of Chinese characters. He concluded the demonstration by drawing a piece of bamboo using calligraphic strokes.
Mulvihill made three works throughout the workshop, which he donated to JDCA’s collection.
The day ended with the monthly edition of JDCA’s Meet the Artist Series. The session was a commemorative presentation of the life and work of renowned Odia filmmaker, the late Nirad Mohapatra. The discussion included his brother, eminent journalist-editor Sampat Mahapatra, film director Susant Lulu Mishr, film makers and fellow FTII alumni, Kamal Swaroop and Sudhir Tandon, and was moderated by filmmaker Birendra Das.
The event concluded with the screening of Nirad Mohapatra’s documentary Chhau Dane of Mayurbhanj andwas followed by his iconic feature film, Maya Miriga (The Mirage).
Other films screened Saturday included young Odia film maker Sanjay Bhatt’s films, one of which was on the renowned veteran Odia artist, Jagdish Kanungo.
The festival continues Sunday, January 14, at the IDCOL Auditorium.
The festival will conclude with an illustratedtalk by one of India’s foremost photographer’s Raghu Rai and the Oscar-winning Argentinian film, The Secret in their Eyes by Juan Jose Campanella. (PNN)