Though MIFF is still going on, since my work has started I could’nt go there today. But the last 3-4 days have been phenomenal. All the movies that I saw inspired me. A few were very good. And some were really really bad. And these i thanks these bad film makers in making me believe I could do it 5 times better.
Discovered a great finnish documentary maker Lasse Naukkarinen. He uses such a easy flowing, non rushed style, poetic at times, i did’nt know documentaries could be made like that. And the music he uses is so powerful, almost always finnish music, which was another of my discoveries.
These are the rest of the movies i could catch:
Selected fiction – a non linear short film, very funny, and shot like a documentary.
Ismail
Women, Bukkets, Guzzlers and condoms with tarun chick- a amateurish but interesting school project.
Good news
Alone in tehran- a iranian documentary with no subtitles, and lots of dialogue, took a small nap.
Once upon a time there was utopia- a classic documentary by Lasse Naukkrinen. Shows the turbulent times of 60-70s. Political as well as cultural.
Monkey business – NID student project. (music rocked, soundtrack had altaf raza songs)
ARK – NID student project again, i do not remember what it was abt though.
BIrthday boy – this was from the oscar winners package, short film.
The red jacket- Again an oscar winner, and one hell of a short film.
Ferry tales – oscar winner (forgot wiw abt)
Holy men and fools – A firang goes in search of esoteric ascetic knowledge. His guides are a naga sadhu, Vashisht Giri, fluent in english, and very sauve. And a swedish model (now old and wrinkled) who came here in the 70s and dint return. also had some very graphic scenes of giri tying a langot. Would be interesting for a firang to watch.
Health matters – A documentary deploring indias worsening health facilities …
Baba black beard – a god short film, with a kid as the lead character. what was so great was that, it used the kid’s natural responses. could be called a docu – fiction.
kinjal – NId student project abt a girl named kinjal. abt gender bias etc…
Bhugol – awefully bad movie. again a NID student project.
Train of zero o clock – iranian documentary of azerbaizani refugees who know live in scrao wailway bogies.
School in the corner – About a school run by a retired iranian teacher for afghani refugee children. These kids do not have any valid papers and are denied admission into regular schools.
Christine – this was really amazing. Documentary abt a iranian woman know 40 years old, who was adopted by a swedish couple when she was some months old. The couple dint let her know she was adopted. When she started learning biology and came to know that two people with blue eyes cannot have a brown eyed child, she confronted her parents who told her she was iranian. Finally when she was 40 years old and was financially stron she decided to find her real parents. Advertisements in local iranian papers got an amazing response. Not one but around 30 set of parents claimed her as their own. And who wouldnt want a wealthy american citizen(shes know an american) as their daughter. The whole narrative was very interesting.
Roses for you, & Somebody to dance with – short films by lasse nauk… and very good.
Artist’s life – documentary showing how the artistic talents of his 3 year old son evolved. His son is really interesting. Lasse’s wife is an animator which makes their house into a artists den.
Asylum – documntry abt people who for some reason or other come to US in need of asylum.
achhi films thi yaar. lucky ho yaar. the best thing abt some films esp “children of heaven” is that they achieve such a lot with a strong script and no faltu extravaganza and melodrama.