DAMfest09 – Love at First Sight with Cinema

DAMfest | Festivals & Contests | January 30, 2009 at 10:49 am

Cinema is a mode of mass communication, according to various theories. That makes it a social exercise. Just like gossip. Another common factor is that both cinema and gossip have the stress-busting potency of chocolate and Prozac.

So at social gatherings, filmmakers who still have not seen their work on the ‘big screen’ grumble about the ‘industry camps’ which bar entry to newcomers. Scriptwriters complain about having to lug their papers wherever they go, hoping to interest producers. Wannabe actors take extra efforts to be seen in their nice outfits which they had bought with the money reserved for paying the rent.
Despite the competition among all of them, misery loves company. While you look askance at those waiting with you in the line, somewhere you are comforted by the knowledge that you are not the only one in this struggle.

Waiting for the big break can make you lose hair and grow bitterness instead. You hate the journey so much that the destination in sight is ignored.

You forget the time you felt kinship with everything related to cinema. The first time you held the camera and instinctively knew that it would be your extended eye for the decades to follow…the time when you watched a movie with friends and thought all the while, “I know I could do this better” and went ahead to prove it. The sense of achievement you felt at the age of seven when you imitated your loud neighbour and your mother did not admonish you because she was busy laughing with awe.

Many of us have left more lucrative fields to struggle-cum-succeed in film. Regrets and doubt are not uncommon. Just, once in a while, remind yourself that you are where you are supposed to be.

Recall the first moment you looked beyond the line of vision.

Come join others with your same vision February 1 – 3 at DAMfest 2009. Visit http://www.thedamfest.com for more details, and keep watching PFC for a full schedule of events.

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