A fest in Dharamsala
A tourist destination, McLeodganj is famous for its snowy peaks, tea gardens, pine forests, and above all, the presence of the Dalai Lama. This year, the town has added a new attraction—films—even when it does not have a single movie theatre.
As McLeodganj hosted its first film fest, the Dharamshala International Film Festival earlier this month, people of the town got to see an eclectic mix of films. These were not the typical Bollywood masala flicks, but mostly documentaries, fictional features and short movies based on various aspects and people and made by movie makers globally. The festival screened 30 films, including Hansal Mehta’s Shahid, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s When Hari Got Married, Jennifer Fox’s My Reincarnation and Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi-directed Five Broken Cameras, to name just a few.
Most of these movies and their directors are internationally acclaimed. So why did they come to a place that does not even have a movie theatre to showcase their movies? “That is precisely why we wanted to have a film festival here. We wanted to bring people together and boost independent cinema. Also, a festival like this will inspire the youth in this area,” says Ritu Sarin, a Dharamsala-based film
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