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MIFF starts tomorrow in Mumbai, screenings in 9 other cities too

The 14th edition of Mumbai International Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, popularly known as MIFF, will be held between January 28 and February 03, 2016.

MIFF, which began as BIFF (Bombay International Film Festival), became MIFF when the city had a change of name. The biennial festival, restricted to Documentary, Short and Animation Films, with some rare or restored features thrown in, is organised by the Films Division (FD) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India and supported by the Government of Maharashtra.

Responding to the warm reception last time to the outreach screenings dubbed MIFF Zone, screenings of films in the National Competition section will be held simultaneously in New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Lucknow, Nagpur and Thrissur. International films cannot be screened outside the primary venue because of contractual restrictions.

There are 30 films in the International Competition, including 12 from India, and 27 films in the National Competition, vying for the Golden Conch Award. Cash prizes worth Rs 60 lakh (Rs 6 million) would be distributed for the winners in various categories, along with Golden Conch Awards. In addition, the festival will also honour a veteran personality from the Indian documentary fraternity, with the esteemed V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award that carries a cash component of Rs. 5 lakh, a trophy and a citation. Late Shantaram was a reputed film-maker, studio-owner as well as head of Films Division, for a stint.

A total of 385 films will be screened, over 6 days. Screenings will be held at the Films Division’s own theatres, which include the newly built J.B. Hall, the Russian Culture Centre (successor to House of Soviet Culture) and Sophia College theatres, at Peddar Road, Mumbai. Screenings will also be held at the Mumbai University auditorium, Kalina, Mumbai and the state owned television channel premises, Doordarshan (DD) Kendra (Worli). The opening and closing functions will be held at the more spacious Ravindra Natya Mandir, at Prabhadevi.

Addressing the curtain raiser press conference in Mumbai yesterday, the Festival Director Mukesh Sharma said, “MIFF is the oldest and the largest festival of non-feature films in South Asia. We received a record number of 831 entries from 25 countries.” Also present were acclaimed eco-documentary maker and second-term President of the Indian Documentary Producers Association (IDPA) Mike Pandey, the only person to win three Green Oscars, from 800 competitors, and Sidhharth Kak, another acclaimed documentary maker-anchor-actor, also known for his popular and long-running TV series, Surabhi.

Jackie Shroff, Mukesh Sharma, Sidhharth Kak and Nitin Sapre (PublicityCo-ordinator)

One unique feature of MIFF 2016 is the existence of a brand ambassador. In a surprise choice, FD has opted for Jackie Shroff, mass appeal hero of the 80s and early 90s, and a character artiste since then. Speaking on the occasion, Jackie said that his association with the festival will help reach a certain segment of society, but today’s big stars must also promote MIFF, in the days to come. He even expressed a desire to make documentaries himself, on subjects like cross pollination and mental asylums.

When this writer asked Mr. Sharma whether any restored or rare package would be included in this MIFF, he replied that films of the Wadia banner would be shown. To the other question I put him, he replied that Films Division has signed an agreement with the Prasar Bharati Corporation, under which FD documentaries will be shown on the DD Bharati Channel. Mike Pandey added that the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association had also signed a deal with Doordarshan, for regular screenings, which will earn the producer Rs. 2-2.5 lack per showing.

He continued, “Apart from International and National competition, there will be screenings of films in MIFF Prism, Indian Premières, Jury retrospectives, Animation, and award winning films from different countries, Children’s documentary films, North East package, FD and Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) films, homages, special packages from leading international documentary film festivals, like Berlin, Dresden, DokLeipzig from Germany and Leiria, from Portugal.”

Some of the best documentaries of 2015 have made it to MIFF 2016--among them, Mohammed Ali Naqvi and Hemal Trivedi’s “Among the Believers” about the roots of religious extremism in Pakistani madrasas, and Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Look of Silence” -a Danish documentary about Indonesian killings of 1965-66 and Rinku Kalsy’s ‘For the Love of a Man’ – a documentary about the cult of adulation for superstar Rajanikanth in South India.

                                                       Mike Pandey

The International Jury for the Festival comprises prominent documentary makers Don Askarian from Germany,  Jesper Andersen from Denmark, Mathiue Roy of Canada, Siddharth Kak and Gitanjali Rao. Mike Pandey, Uma DaCunha, Biju Dhanapalan, Audrius Stonys (Lithuania) and Jane Yu (Taiwan) are the members of the National Jury.                                                                                                                             

The festival will also have Master classes by the Jury and by some eminent film-makers, Camera and Digital workshops, Producers’ Forum, Panel discussions, Seminar and Open Forum by IDPA, under the MIFF Hub.