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Seems times are changing at last - for the better, and fast. After all these years of scouring the film festivals and pirated DVD shops (unless we have deep pockets to splurge on the highly-priced original DVDs of foreign films), it seems 2008 is bringing some happy tidings for us, the lovers of world cinema (that is, anything that comes from outside the country minus Hollywood).

Suddenly, Indian companies have started taking marketing rights for a large number of world cinema and at least two dedicated channels to telecast cinema of that kind are readying for launch. And, trust the French to do it - more and more French films are being screened, at least in Delhi and Mumbai, screened mostly free of cost through tie ups with multiplex chains, to introduce the casual moviegoer to the variety that rides with their cinema (hope other countries would also have as …

IFFLA 2008 Announces Call for Entries
The Sixth Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) seeks narrative, documentary, music videos, experimental, children’s and animated films of any length and format. IFFLA will run April 22-27, 2008 at ArcLight Hollywood, a state-of-the-art facility located in the heart of Los Angeles. Jury and Audience Choice Prizes will be awarded for Best Feature, Documentary and Short Film.
IFFLA 2007 had over 6,000 attendees and screened 36 films from 8 countries. In addition to the high-quality of presentation of their work, filmmakers in attendance gained access to an eclectic mix of professionals from the Los Angeles film industry.

Check out what our past filmmakers …

Recently I had interviewed Neville Tuli, the founder chairman of the Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art, which organizes the Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian (& Arab - from this year) Cinema, in New Delhi. While some parts of the interview have been carried in my paper Deccan Herald, I am reproducing the whole text of the interview for PFC readers, for I am sure Tuli’s comments would provoke interesting responses. For information, Aruna Vasudev, the lady who built the Cinefan festival, has parted ways from it recently. Unconfirmed reports say Mani Kaul, who was the Creative Director of the Film House of Osian’s, has also quit. It remains to be seen how Tuli steers the festival without Vasudev, who built the festival brick by brick using her wide contacts in the film festival circuit and her reputation as a film critic / historian. So here it goes:

Arab Cinema have already been …

Iranian filmmakers for long have thrived on their unmatched ability to reflect upon their times through the eyes of their children. Majidi is perhaps the finest examples of exploring the issue through the viewpoint of the children who live it, because they are perhaps the only ones who see the world for what it is. They don’t judge, they observe. They see it, and tell it like it is. In the same vein, “Turtles Can Fly” matches if not betters the precedent set by Iranian masters.

Set in the Iraqi-Turkish border, Bahman Ghobadi showcases the lives of Kurdish refugees during the days leading up to the US invasion and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. A young boy known across all the surrounding villages as Satellite (because of his ability to install satellite dishes), holds himself responsible for the well-being of all the orphaned children in the …

Received from Worldwide Film Distribution yahoogroup… Please spread the word!

Let me take this opportunity to introduce you about me and social activities of our organization. …

I am working with a government organization, one of the most important & entertainment department called “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE” is given to me and I am looking for your help to expand the membership.

What is “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE” ?

The National Film Development Corporation Limited (NFDC) is a Government of India Enterprise set up with the objective of fostering excellence in Indian Cinema. It provides film enthusiasts in Mumbai an opportunity to see good meaningful World-Class Films throughout the year through the “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE”.

For the past twenty-five years, National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has produced/co- produced more than 200 films in 15 languages, including English. Amongst these all several internationally acclaimed films like Gandhi, The Making of Mahatma, Mirch-Masala, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Sardar, Parinda and …

[oz note: bumped to Exclusive]

Fascinating FARSI films! How I love them.
Be it Iron Island [ Mohammad Rasoulof ] or The Day I Became A Woman [ Marziyeh Meshkini ], Secret Ballot [ Babak Payami ] or Offside [ Jafar Panahi ], Father[ Majid Majidi ] or Beneath the Skin of the City[ Rakshan Bani Etemad ] they have all succeeded in enthralling us with their tales, the way they tell these tales.

None I admire more than the Director of TURTLES CAN FLY. So when I ran into Mr Bahman Ghobadi at the Toronto Fim Festival last September, in a chance encounter, I could not have asked for a better ‘festival’ treat.

He proved to be a very unassuming man, with a perpetual twinkle in his eye and a lovely handsome clean shaven appearance.His easy charm belied his struggle to make films in a harsh region where …