Leena Manimekalai was in Colombia’s Cartagena city attending Latin America’s oldest film festival early last month when the Coronovirus outbreak forced cancellation of the event midway. The Tamil director’s new film, Maadathy, was an official entry at the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival, which was in a landmark 60th edition this year. “It was a difficult journey back to India,” says Manimekalai, who chose to self-quarantine in her home in Chennai after returning on March 19.
Manimekalai, a poet and filmmaker known for her social activism and movies about caste and gender justice, may not be going anywhere soon. So will be her film and those of many fellow filmmakers from India. The global health emergency has led to postponement of many international film festivals, leaving an uncertain future for movies that have either been completed in the recent past or readying to enter the international festival circuit this year.
“My film was going to the second edition of the Colombo International Women’s Film Festival scheduled for March 15-22 after Cartagena. The Colombo festival didn’t even take off,” says Manimekalai, who has invitations from many international festivals in the US, Europe and Australia. Maadathy, which had its world premiere at the Busan festival last October, had been selected for several festivals, including the Toulouse Indian Film Festival in France (April 22-26). “I was looking for a domestic release after the festival run,” she adds. Maadathy, a stinging indictment of patriarchy and caste system, tells the story of a young girl from the Dalit community, considered ‘unseeable’, immortalised as a local deity.
Uncertain future
International film festivals like Cannes, Toronto, Venice, Berlin and Busan have been the ideal platforms for independent productions from India to gain the much-needed visibility and recognition they lack back home. “Participating in international festivals is important for independent filmmakers in our country,” says Bauddhayan Mukherji, whose new film project set in the Sunderbans was chosen in early March by the Cannes festival as part of its Cinefondation-L’atelier section this year.
“Cannes is a big part of our cinematic journey. If Cannes doesn’t happen this year, the project gets pushed down,” says Mukherji, known for Teenkahon (2014) and The Violin Player (2016). The Cannes festival, scheduled to take place during May 12-23, has postponed the event to late June-early July. “Cannes festival authorities have been extremely supportive. They have been sending me emails requesting me to wait and stay put,” he adds.
Mukherji’s feature film project, Marichjhapi, which revisits the killings of Bangladeshi refugees in Marichjhapi island in the Sunderbans in 1979, needs the Cannes presence for finding a European co-producer. The Cinefondation-L’atelier section, which has 15 film projects this year, helps filmmakers and producers find potential partners through meetings and networking sessions during the festival. “I am optimistic that the festival will happen this year,” says Mukherji. “It is very important for our project.”
Unfinished projects
Not everyone shares Mukherji’s optimism. “We were headed to Hot Docs, Toronto (April 30-May 10), and the Sheffield Doc Fest in the UK (June 4-9) followed by other European and North American festivals,” says Sona Mohapatra, singer and producer of the documentary film Shut Up Sona, the story of her uncompromising battle for freedom of expression and creativity in a male-dominated music industry. “We spent over three years making this film with my personal funds. The festival journey coming to a standstill after our international premiere at the Rotterdam festival and Nordic premiere in Goteborg, Sweden, is a reality I am coping with pragmatism,” adds Mohapatra, who presents an artist’s fightback against puritanism and misogyny in the film.
Mumbai-based filmmaker and artist Payal Kapadia had been looking forward to pitching her debut feature film project, All We Imagine As Light, at the Cannes festival’s Cinefondation, when the news of the festival postponement came. “I was in the midst of completing the final draft of my film, so that I could be ready for Cannes,” says Kapadia, whose short film Afternoon Clouds was the first-ever student film from the Film and Television Institute of India to be selected for Cannes in 2017. “As my feature film is a co-production between India and France, my producers and I were keen to reconnect with potential co-producers and financiers in Cannes to secure funds for production,” adds Kapadia. All We Imagine As Light is the first Indian project to be selected by the Cinefondation Cannes Residency (2019-20) in Paris.
Arun Karthick, who directed the independent film, Nasir, which is set in Coimbatore, would have attended the New Directors/New Films festival (scheduled during March 25-April 5) at New York’s Museum of Modern Art earlier this month. “MoMA sent an official letter saying the festival had been postponed,” says Karthick, who was at the Rotterdam festival in late January to premiere the film. Many independent filmmakers feel the uncertainty over festivals this year has dealt a huge blow. “We, independent filmmakers, have been in quarantine for long without any support from the state or industry,” says Pushpendra Singh, whose new film Laila Aur Satt Geet premiered at the Berlin festival in February.
Faizal Khan is a freelancer
