For a certain niche group of cinephiles ever since the release of a film called "Shakespeare Wallah" in 1965, the "Merchant-Ivory" label has become synonymous with high-class rarified taste in cinema in some way associated with India ("A Passage to India", "Heat and Dust"), or, in the later collaborations of this producer-director team, with ultra refined literary adaptations set in Victorian England such as "The Remains of the Day", and "Howard's end". To be brutally frank, since "Merchant-Ivor...
THE NEW INDIAN "PARALLEL" CINEMAAn Interview with Ruchi NarainYoung Bombay director Ruchi Narain has been a guest of the River to River Festival introducing her debut feature "KAL - Yesterday and Tomorrow", a ground-breaking exercise in style representative of the "Beyond Bollywood" new wave of "parallel" Indian cinema. The film itself, employing mostly unknown new actors, is a kind of contemporary thriller in a rapid-fire multi-media style focussing on the lives of the well-heeled style-consc...
Jorgen Leth interview by Wendy Dent Festival dei Popoli, Florence 7 December 2005WD: This festival was very unique in that it expanded my definitions of what documentary is and this is what stunned me about your films, is they were staged and it really broadened my idea of what documentary is but made me wonder where is the line, where is the definition? Once you start to have actors and you make a comment about society, but even drama is a comment on humanity so I am wondering what you feel abo...
Florence -- Firenze -- the city of Dante, Michelangelo, Botticelli's Venus ... and also of the first and only film festival in Europe dedicated exclusively to Indian film! Officially called the "RIVER TO RIVER INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF FLORENCE, director Selvaggia Velo, explains that this appellation refers to the holy river Ganges in India and the local waterway, the Arno, which flows through this exquisite Tuscan city into the Tyrrhenian Sea near Pisa. So – how did such a festival get started ...
Florence -- Firenze -- the city of Dante, Michelangelo, Botticelli's Venus ... and also of the first and only film festival in Europe dedicated exclusively to Indian film! Officially called the "RIVER TO RIVER INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF FLORENCE, director Selvaggia Velo, explains that this appelation refers to the holy river Ganges in India and the local waterway, the Arno, which flows through this exquiste Tuscan city into the Tyrrhenian sea near Pisa. How did such a festival get started here? -...
River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival9-15 December 2005, Florence, ItalyOnce again, the fifth edition of River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival, the festival devoted to independent and parallel Indian cinema, will take place from 9 to 15 December 2005 under the direction of Selvaggia Velo.The screenings will take place at the cinema Spazio Uno, Via del Sole n.10 in Florence.The Festival was made possible thanks to the support of: the Cinema Management of the Ministry for Arts and...
BORDERLANDS – TERRE DI CONFINEInternational Film Competition Bolzano 28-29 May 2004The purpose of the Festival is to promote peace and mutual understanding amongst different peoples through works of film that address history, situation, life and problems of peoples or individuals who live in “borderlands”. In this context the concept “borderlands” identifies places in which different languages, civilisations or ethnic groups either meet or clash, in any possible way.Fourteen films part...
Respect: Joe Mantegna will be honored at "The Sixth Annual Los Angeles Italian Film Awards" (LAIFAFEST 2004), which will be held on April 20-24, 2004, at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood. Mr. Mantegna will be presented with the LAIFA 2004 Life Time Achievement, festival Director Luigi Campanile announced today.Chicago native Joe Mantegna has a strong background in both theater and film. After making his Broadway debut in Stephen Schwartz's musical of Studs Terkel's Working, Joe was awarded ...
River to River. Florence Indian Film FestivalFrom December 10-14, 2003 the third edition of the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival, the only European film festival entirely dedicated to cinema both from and about India, will arrive in Florence. The festival is organized by Luca Marziali and Selvaggia Velo of bdjMEDIA.Screenings will take place at the Spazio Uno Cinema in Via del Sole, 10, Florence - Italy. PRESS RELEASE N.3River to River. Florence Indian Film FestivalFrom December 10-1...
