logo

The author further talks about his interpretation of the festival, right from the name to its staff etc. I am not going to cut the following paragraphs because it needs to be read in one flow.

“IFFLA stands for Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Its a carefully thought of name -INDIAN (proud to be one) FILM (a beautiful medium of expression) FESTIVAL (celebration)of LOS ANGELES (mecca of hollywood). There’s this observation I made during my flight to LA - every third person in LAX is an Indian (or even a pakistani/sri lankan). So that means Los Angeles (which is in USA) is brimming with people of Indian descent. Now what is more surprising is - the INDIAN film festival is run by a lovely lady, Christina Marouda, a lady of GREEK descent.

India & Greece - the only relation between the two is Alexander the great crossing the Indus river to …

“I wasn’t feeling too well this time around. Maybe it was the California sun or the moisturizer that I applied to get away from it - but this time I wasn’t feeling too well. Being housed up in a small room at the “Orchid house” (aka Directors’ house), I was the youngest among the other legends that I shared the space with.”

It is not apparent as to what the author is saying here, so we read further -

“So I wake up on one of the mornings - mind you we used to sleep at 4 am , while the others finally used to vacate at around 6am; and I hear sounds in the kitchen. As I make my way to the dining table, Sriram Raghavan is heating ‘parathas’ on the pan. Opposite to me, Shivajee Chandrabhushan is trying to work his skype on his laptop while Sanjay Routray offers me …

For a change I want to write a happy post. I was trying to figure out how? Its hard nowadays for people like us to be happy. We aren’t happy about anything – right from our 9-5 jobs, trains, people, sound, crackers, no smoking, saawariyan etc. And so I start my post on a happier note.

:-)

:-)

:-)

Hmmm. So am I actually happy? I had written a long post/rant on how people are finding it hard to make a single film without thinking about its repercussions. When I was in college, my mind used to keep working round the clock. We used to go about hiring a DSR cam and go about shooting, without thinking of location permits, editing suites, film festivals etc. Just go and make a film. Once done, automatically we used to find a source to edit it and then we had the final product which we used to …

Off late, I’ve been party to a short film shoot and a mute spectator to a lot of other shorts around me. It’s refreshing to see so many new ideas and concepts – ranging from worst to interesting. The whole concept of ‘short films’ is still primitive in this part of the globe. There are numerous ‘aspirants’ – the so-called intellectual ‘film makers’ who have visualized their ‘dream short’ in their dreams, but when it comes to making one, they fall back.
The other day I was standing at the bus stop and I over heard two college students talking about a short film concept that they were planning to upload for some online competition. I guess I caught them in the midst of an argument they were having on which camera to use. One of them was a staunch SONY supporter while the …

Disclaimer: Purely un-intentional.
So its that time of the month, when we all come out of our cocoons and have to write that one article which keeps us alive on PFC. Of late, I was trying to figure out, what am I going to write about? Maybe I could just get away by writing a review of a film – give my “expert opinion” on how the film was or try and dig my closet and get out an ‘almost forgotten’ classic and talk about how great the film was in its times and how it is so relevant now (whereas in reality you don’t even get a VHS of the film anywhere; forget vcds or dvds). Or maybe, I could vent out my frustration on the current crop of film-makers and just blindly go on talking about what they OUGHT to be doing, without …

At IFFLA, I met a lot of people – from film makers to IT professionals to students to nobodies. But of all the people that I found, the organizers were the ones with the biggest heart. No I am not saying it because my film was selected or whether it won, it’s a fact. Its interesting to note that almost all, present in the committee, were from a ‘non-filmy’ background. Bankers, IT professionals, Clerks, students comprised what is called as the “IFFLA STAFF”. Being my first time in LA, none of them made me feel like a stranger in a strange land. It was like a family picnic there. Discussions ranged from films to philosophy to science etc.
I have learnt a lot from my visit there. I met industry professionals, who are good only at talking and nothing else. I met people …

So I’ve finally landed onto the PFC platform and all thanks to Oz and Vijay. Being my very first post, I would have loved to introduce myself as a ‘learning film-maker’ and go on about my tryst with film-making and film-makers, but all that can wait. Because right now I am nothing but just an avid cinema-goer just like all of us. Why is that you ask? Well that’s because the topic that I am posting is about a meeting I had with a man who goes by the name of Quentin Tarantino. But before you start showering me with abuses, let me tell you that it was a chance meeting of which even you could have been a part of, if you were here at LA for the Indian Film Festival.

Anyways, a short run down of how the things took place. We were all chilling at the ‘Arc Light …