The fourth Auroville Film Festival

In October, the fourth Auroville Film festival took place. “The aim of the Auroville Film Festival,” says the Festival brochure, “is to connect with people and cultures within and beyond Auroville and to further the aspiration of human unity by showcasing films that develop the theme of human unity.”

This year, a record number of films were screened from Auroville and the local region as well as from around the world. But the Festival was more than just films. There was also music, food, panel discussions and, of course, colourful installations like Well Paper’s papier-mâché camera and OK’s DVD waterfall.

So how did this film festival compare with the previous ones? Sasi has been involved in the organization of every Auroville film festival so far. He feels that this year many interesting films were shown, and the food and music were definitely a success – “they create a festive atmosphere”. However, he concedes that perhaps there were too many films. “In previous festivals, we showed some of the most interesting films twice, but this time we couldn’t do this. Some people may have missed seeing them because the screenings were not always at a convenient time.”

Tom was one of the organizers of this festival. One of the highpoints for him was a Skype link-up with a California director that enabled the audience to discuss a documentary by him: “this went really well”. Another coup was getting the well-known French filmmaker Philippe Borrel to show his film and participate in a panel discussion. “We really want to build on this for the next festival, to get the directors or editors of big films to come here to show their films, answer questions from the audience and take part in panel discussions. Visiting professionals could also come and give a class on cinematography and sound. Bringing star names or big films will also encourage a bigger turnout.”

The attendance this year was, indeed, rather poor for some of the films. Tom feels that one reason for this is that while many excellent documentaries were shown from all over the world, the issues they raised tended to be depressing. “Obviously these need to be discussed but it can be a little heavy for the audiences. So, in future, we need to temper these with something more uplifting in order to pull in bigger crowds.

“This time we were very underfunded. There were at least five or six films that we really wanted to screen but the distributor wanted quite a lot of money for them, and it was not within our budget.” They did, however, manage to screen the well-known documentary, ‘Girl Rising’, which tells how girls in different countries successfully battle against cultural and social barriers, after convincing the distributor that the Auroville Film Festival is non-commercial.

“And we are clear that we want to keep it that way,” says Tom.

Underfunding may have been a factor in the variable quality of the films shown, but there is also another consideration. Sasi points out that quality has two aspects: the technical quality of the film and the content. “For both of those to match all the time is difficult, particularly for our Auroville and outreach students who are still learning film-making. It would be unfair of us to reject these films, particularly as we have a special category for them and we want to be inclusive: we do not reject any films made by our students because we want to acknowledge the effort that has gone into them.”

In fact, for many people the films made by the Auroville and outreach students were one of the highlights of the Festival. Not only were they fun, they were also imaginative and, at times, deeply moving, like the film about the young girl whose friend died of cancer. And some, like the Kottakarai Cycle Race made by the Udhayam students, were also technically quite advanced (deservedly, this film won two prizes).

“We didn’t have many student films this time,” says Sasi, “but the ones that we had had markedly improved in their quality over the last festival.”

One of the reasons for this is the film education classes Tom, Sasi and Claire are running in the Auroville and outreach schools. Tom confirms that many students are interested in joining these courses. However, one of the constraints on expanding them further is a lack of equipment. “We now have three iMacs for editing and better cameras, thanks to the generosity of people like those at the Foundation for World Education, but there are still huge gaps.”

SAIIER does contribute to film education, but the programme remains underfunded. Is this because film education is still considered, by some people, as less important than academic subjects? “I have encountered this attitude,” says Sasi, “particularly in relationship to our work in the outreach schools. I’m told that our efforts there are wasted because these kids are never going to be able to make movies.”

“But this misses the point,” says Tom. “Everybody studies science at school but that doesn’t mean everybody will become a scientist. Besides, the skills we are trying to impart through film education are actually life skills. To make a film you have to be well organized, to use imagination and develop writing skills, and you have to learn technical skills like how to edit film and use a camera. To tell an engaging story in a way that the audience appreciates is a real skill, it is learning how to communicate effectively.”

And there’s another important aspect of film studies: through studying how to communicate through images, the students learn how to avoid being manipulated in a world where they are inundated daily with images trying to influence them. “This course allows them to read the imagery, to discriminate between what is true and not true,” says Sasi.

So what do the young film-makers choose as their subject-matter? Sasi grimaces slightly. “I don’t stipulate a particular storyline, but invariably they want to make a horror film or a film with big fight scenes. I try to dissuade them from doing this as we don’t want a horror film at the Auroville film Festival, and trying to create these kinds of films is not at all easy. I prefer them to make stories that are more meaningful, more to do with the Auroville ethos.”

“In the end, though,” says Tom, “it is their choice. And, actually, you can use themes like violence or horror to push the students to explore the technical aspects of making films. Arranging and editing a fight scene is quite a complicated thing to do. And for horror you have to know how to build suspense, so you could get them to study all Hitchcock’s films to learn how to do that.”

Do the outreach students differ from the Auroville students in their choice of content? “The Auroville kids are trying to understand themselves, where they are coming from and what they are doing here,” says Tom. “You don’t get that so much from the local school kids.”

“The outreach students like to focus more on social subjects, like cleaning up the village,” says Sasi. “They tend to be more socially-conscious, more moralistic, whereas the films made by Auroville kids tends to be more philosophical.”

How do they see the future of film studies? Are they still dreaming of establishing an Auroville Film Academy? “Very much so,” says Sasi. “We would like a place that has a large hall for watching films, an editing room and a studio where you can set up sets and lighting.”

“Actually,” says Tom, “Last School is developing in this direction. They already have a full-time film programme, a full-time film teacher, and they have almost all their own film equipment. It’s a good beginning.”