IFFI 52, 051: Towards better IFFIs

What makes a good international film festival?

Some criteria.

1. Good international films
2. Good Indian films
3. Good scheduling
4. Good international participation
5. Good fringe events
6. Good ‘festival’/festivities
7. Good venues, with good projection
8. Good budget
9. Good (long-term) independent directors and heads of departments
10. Good and early planning

Quality of films selected is a reflection of the 1,000-odd films initially chosen by the authorities and shown to a selection committee. Since the committee has to choose from what is on offer, its liability is limited. But it is common knowledge that pressure is exerted to select certain films, and that some members lobby to get into the committee, while some others are political appointees. Such persons may not have the requisite qualifications for judging the merits of a film threadbare, before giving it the green signal. Moreover, it is whispered in the corridors of IFFI precincts that some members never show up/show up in just two or three screenings/do not watch films with the attention they deserve, and are prone to forty winks once too often. In such circumstances, only 10-20% of the films selected have high merit, which is a bad ratio.

Yes, it is possible that some of the better films might not have been made available to IFFI, for a host of reasons, yet a standard needs to be maintained. Why can’t we touch the 30-40% slab? In recent times, the percentage has been hovering near the 10% mark, and this is disastrous for someone who travels long distances, spends a lot of money and hopes to be rewarded with state-of-the-art film fare. By all means, show fewer films, if the quality of the crop is generally below par. Why can’t we have 100 good films instead of 500 mediocre/bad films? The number of films chosen is no criterion of the scale of the festival. The merit of the chosen films is. This is true of both international and national films. We desperately need to raise the benchmark for films selected at IFFI.

Appointments to the selection committees must be transparent and completely apolitical. There must be at least one representative each from the Federation of Film Societies India (FFSI) and FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics). Also there must be two representatives of IFFI veterans. These I define as those who have attended 40 or more IFFIs, and those who have been film-critics for 50 or more years: one from each of these veterans. (More about them in the next, the last Pat of my coverage of IFFI 52: Part 052). Both FFSI and FIPRESCI have done yeoman’s service to the cause of good cinema, and the veterans will provide the much needed expertise, from their points of view. These appointees can be rotated every two years, or substituted, if some of them are unavailable during a particular IFFI. I say two years because what they gain in their first year should reap benefits in the second. It goes without saying that all amenities and allowances that are given to other members must be offered to them as well. At IFFI 52, I could not find the list of members who constituted the selection committees. Most of these members are in their 60s, 70s and 80s, and it is time we not only tapped on their expertise, but honoured them as well.

Reasons and excuses may be many, but it is imperative that scheduling is done with great care. A long film at 9.30 or 10 pm is not a good idea in Panaji, where public transport shuts completely by 9 pm, and most eateries close by 9. Not everybody likes the idea of having dinner by 8 and not everybody has a vehicle to take him/her to his/her home or hotel. Private operators charge exorbitant rates. Competition films should be screened three in a day, from day one, with reasonable time apart. All screenings should be completed in the first half. In the second half of the festival, all of them must be repeated, in a similar manner. Considering a 10-day festival, 12-15 films can thus be exhibited, twice each. All of them should be shown in the auditoria with the largest capacity. After all, if they have been chosen for the competition, they must be the best of the best, so why show them in the smaller theatres?

International participation, assuming the proposed invitees are available, depends upon the standing of the festival and the budget allotted towards their travel and hospitality. But here again, it must not be a game of numbers and favourites. Having 1,000 international delegates who do not contribute in any manner, by way of master classes, etc., serves no purpose. Representatives of films that are shown have to be invited, that being the norm. Let them be introduced at the beginning of their film shows. Offering them press conferences is another matter altogether. If there are 100 such producers/directors/actors/other personnel who are attending, allotting them a press conference each would mean, on an average, 12 press conferences a day. There are no press conferences on the first and the last day, leaving only 8 days to accommodate 100 press conferences. Such a situation does no justice to the invitees, for most of the media-persons have a saturation point, and can cover only one or two press conferences, to meet deadlines. What we witness is officials of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) often coaxing and cajoling anybody and everybody in the media room, who might be rattling away a story or a review, to join the press conference, where only a handful of audience is attending, and these attendees have, more often than not, not seen the film being talked about.

Though I did not attend the events at IFFI this year, concentrating on films alone instead, that is one area where IFFI is doing well. Master Classes and Interviews can be educating and rewarding, especially for students and newbies to filmdom. Festivities, however, have been steadily decreasing. Imagine breakfast receptions by a foreign delegation, sponsored lunch press conferences, two cocktail parties every evening, clashing head-on, several stalls set-up by foreign delegations and Indian and foreign companies, freebies, a decent festival bag, containing the catalogue/brochure and chocolates, ferry rides with cocktails and dinner on board, free snacks and beer for all, a ferry boat anchored near the venue, with beer and snacks on free flow, free tours of places near within the festival city and other places as much as five hours away…I could go on and on. It saddens my heart to say this, but IFFI has little or no festival component; it merely screens films. And at the end of it all, the reasons have to be strictly political.

By and large, the IFFI venues and the film projections are good. Kala Academy, which is the biggest venue, was not available this year as it is under renovation. It is also the weakest link in the ‘good venue-good projection’ chain, having been designed for dramatic and musical performances, and not film screenings. Luckily, besides the centrally located INOX in Panaji, there is another in Porvorim, but it could take up to 45 minutes for you to reach there from INOX Panaji. Projection at both venues if of standard international quality. We have waited 17 years for a proper festival complex, with 10-12 screens, and it looks like it is not going to come-up in the near future either. Since 2004, IFFI is jointly organised by the Union Government of India and the Government of the State of Goa. If they were serious about it, the complex could have come up by now. Several times, it was announced that a piece of land had been identified and ear-marked, where a large convention centre would come-up, which could function throughout the year, with the festival dates being reserved. It remains on paper.

More than once, I have been told by Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) officials that festivities have been axed because the annual budget, which is approved year-on-year, has been curtailed. How illogical! The festival is growing in terms of number of screenings and number of delegates registered, add to that inflation, which has been very much on the rise in India over the last decade or so. Keeping in view all these factors, the budget should be increased, by 50-100% every year, instead of imposing cuts. Do we want an IFFI that if well-mounted only when the budget allows, and petered down when the money is scarce? Should there not be uniformity? Mustn’t is grow, rather than shrink? And whatever gives the impression to the powers that be that an increase of a few thousand delegate registrations is the main sign of IFFI’s growth? How is it better if, instead of 5,000 persons, 10,000 or 15,000 register? Is this an election rally? I am of the opinion that those who apply for registration, both as general delegates and media-persons, must be well vetted. A number of 5,000, with the given infrastructure, must be the cut-off point. Spin-off festivals can be held in other cities, to cater those who find it difficult to travel to Panaji and stay there on their own, a tribe that forms the majority of these delegates. When you have 15,000 delegates, you have 12,500 dissatisfied delegates, for all the venues together cannot accommodate more than 2,500 delegates. Allowing for attendees who might not attend all shows and events, a ratio of 2:1, which translates into 5,000:2,500, is fine.

Frankly, I have lost count of the number of Directors of IFFI, since 2004. For a few years, we even had the ignominy of a Director in place, superseded by another official, doing his duties, while he sat and watched. At the Entertainment Society of Goa, things aren’t any better. The Chairman is the Chief Minister, but the Chief Minister of Goa has changed many times in 17 years.

Manohar Parrikar 3 June 2002 to 2 February 2005   

Pratapsingh Rane 3 February 2005 to 4 March 2005            

Pratapsingh Rane 7 June 2005 to 7 June 2007                      

Digambar Kamat 8 June 2007 March 2012

Manohar Parrikar 9 March 2012 to 8 November 2014

Laxmikant Parsekar 8 November 2014 to 11 March 2017

Manohar Parrikar 14 March 2017 to 17 March 2019

Pramod Sawant 19 March 2019 (incumbent)

Then comes the Vice-Chairman and the CEO of ESG. The current CEO joined only a few months before the festival. Even here, the terms have been short. So, how will there be continuity? Add to that the occasional rifts between DFF and ESG, and you know why things go wrong when they do. Some of the most prestigious festivals in the world have one director for 5-10-15-20 years! So why do we Indians shuffle our DFF directors? Either they prove to be incompetent, or they lose political favour, when a new party/coalition comes to power. How disheartening is that! Occupants of this chair have been either from the government information services, or on loan from other ministries and rarely, promoted from the post of Deputy Director. Whereas the job of a festival director is largely administrative, a basic knowledge of cinema, both Indian and international, should be a must, in choosing the candidate. Administration should be delegated to a Deputy Director, who might specialise in that field.

From authoritative sources, planning, in earnest, begins in August, for an event that is held in November. Details of the forthcoming IFFI that emerge in the media during September and October are sketchy. It is only in November that it appears that DFF and ESG are on full-throttle. Rather than this last-minute-ism, planning should begin latest by March, and everything should be firmed up by late October, at least a month before the festival dates, 20-28 November. I know that DFF employs a significant number of casual employees, on three month contracts, and hence the last minute thrust. A serious re-think is need in this direction. Either have more full-time staff, or engage contractual employees not three but six months earlier.

Most of these 2,000 words above that I have spent on the topic of improving IFFI will either fall on deaf ears, or will have a one-word answer: Budget. Yet, in a democracy, one must have one’s say.

The way government projects are being launched and inaugurated almost every day, with budgets going into 10,00,000,000,000,000 each, what difference will a measly amount like 2,00,000,000 make? That is all that is needed to do more than the needful, for IFFI

Now, with DFF becoming part of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), will the purses loosen, or will they pull the strings? Ravinder Bhakar, a man who spent most of life working for the railways, and is currently with the Central Board of Film Certification, is overseeing the merger of DFF, Films Division, Children’s Film Society of India and National Film Archive of India, into NFDC. Will five trains running on one track ensure a smooth journey? Or will it lead to derailment? The route will be given the first green signal on January 31, when the Films Division will stand dissolved, and my guess is that it will all be wrapped up by 31st March, which is the end of the fiscal year for the Union Government of India. We will know by then. Bon voyage, DFF.