---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Frederick Noronha [फ़रेदरिक नोरोनया] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080428&fname=Film+%28F%29&sid=1 Shot At Sight CPI-M turns film critic, kills festival ............ Anjali Puri | e-mail | one page format | feedback: send - read | A West Bengal government famously intolerant of 'discordant' voices—from protesters in Nandigram to Taslima Nasreen and Tibetan freedom fighters—has subjected a central government department to an extraordinary tantrum over the inclusion of a documentary film on the Singur agitation in a festival of Indian Panorama films. With graphic footage of lathicharging cops abusing and attacking villagers, and interviews with peasants, social activists and economists, Ladly Mukhopadhay's 40-minute film, Whose Land is it Anyway? is a critique of the Left Front government's acquisition of 1,000 acres of land for a Tata small car factory in Singur, and its handling of the agitation that followed in 2006-07. The Left's cultural commissars woke up late to the documentary's inclusion in the film festival. The film, cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification in December '06, was selected for inclusion in the Indian Panorama by an independent jury of filmmakers. It was screened at the International Film Festival in Goa last November, along with other Panorama films and found mention in press reports. For some reason, these events seem to have escaped the attention of the Left Front which only appears to have woken up to the film's inclusion in the prestigious list when it travelled last month to Nandan, the state government's film centre in Calcutta (and a regular haunt of film buff-CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya), as part of a festival of Indian Panorama films. The Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) in Delhi, a wing of the Union I&B ministry which organises international and other film festivals, (including Whose Land...) sent synopses of all the Panorama films to Nandan, in advance of the Calcutta festival. Even from a cursory reading of the synopsis, it's pretty clear that Whose Land... is far from being a paean for the state government's actions in Singur. However, it appears that this, too, went unnoticed by the cultural commissars of the Left Front. It was only after the screening on March 26 that hell broke loose. Nandan took the extraordinary step of "suspending" the rest of the festival. And its ceo Nilanjan Chatterjee followed up that very afternoon with an officious fax demanding explanations from a startled DFF. His phraseology ("I am directed", etc) suggested that he was writing at the behest of his political bosses. In his fax, Nilanjan took the DFF to task for "the content of a film (that) directly violates the ethical principles of centre-state relationship". "I am directed to state that it is highly objectionable to include such a controversial film in the Indian Panorama package," he stated. "As such," he continued, "I am directed to request you to kindly state the reason for the inclusion of such a film in the said package". And then came the clincher: "I am further directed to inform you that all the screenings earmarked on 27 March, 2008, will remain suspended till a satisfactory reply is received from your office." By the time the DFF replied with a statement narrating the facts of the case, the threat had been executed. Calcutta audiences were deprived of watching even Panorama films that did not offend the Left Front government—as punishment for watching one that did. -- -- -- + Savad Rahman Subeditor Madhyamam Daily Kochi,Kerala India-682018 cell:9995431420 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I am only one, but still I am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And just because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." -- Helen Keller --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
