[Reader-list] CPI-M turns film critic, kills festival ............

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear All,

A text on outlook about our familiar Kolkata Kommissars doing what  
they do best. (it was forwarded by Rahul Roy on the vikalp list, so  
apologies for cross posting to those on Vikalp)

regards,

Shuddha
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http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080428&fname=Film+%28F% 
29&sid=1

Shot At Sight
CPI-M turns film critic, kills festival ............
Anjali Puri

A West Bengal government famously intolerant of 'discordant'
voices—from protesters in Nandigram to Taslima Nasreen and Tibetan
freedom fighters—has subjected a central government department to an
extraordinary tantrum over the inclusion of a documentary film on the
Singur agitation in a festival of Indian Panorama films.

With graphic footage of lathicharging cops abusing and attacking
villagers, and interviews with peasants, social activists and
economists, Ladly Mukhopadhay's 40-minute film, Whose Land is it
Anyway? is a critique of the Left Front government's acquisition of
1,000 acres of land for a Tata small car factory in Singur, and its
handling of the agitation that followed in 2006-07.

The Left's cultural commissars woke up late to the documentary's
inclusion in the film festival.

The film, cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification in
December '06, was selected for inclusion in the Indian Panorama by an
independent jury of filmmakers. It was screened at the International
Film Festival in Goa last November, along
with other Panorama films and found mention in press reports.

For some reason, these events seem to have escaped the attention of
the Left Front which only appears to have woken up to the film's
inclusion in the prestigious list when it travelled last month to
Nandan, the state government's film centre in Calcutta (and a regular
haunt of film buff-CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya), as part of a festival
of Indian Panorama films.

The Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) in Delhi, a wing of the Union
I&B ministry which organises international and other film festivals,
(including Whose Land...) sent synopses of all the Panorama films to
Nandan, in advance of the Calcutta festival.

Even from a cursory reading of the synopsis, it's pretty clear that
Whose Land... is far from being a paean for the state government's
actions in Singur. However, it appears that this, too, went unnoticed
by the cultural commissars of the Left Front.

It was only after the screening on March 26 that hell broke loose.
Nandan took the extraordinary step of "suspending" the rest of the
festival. And its ceo Nilanjan Chatterjee followed up that very
afternoon with an officious fax demanding explanations from a startled
DFF. His phraseology ("I am directed", etc) suggested that he was
writing at the behest of his political bosses.

In his fax, Nilanjan took the DFF to task for "the content of a film
(that) directly violates the ethical principles of centre-state
relationship". "I am directed to state that it is highly objectionable
to include such a controversial film in the Indian Panorama package,"
he stated. "As such," he continued, "I am directed to request you to
kindly state the reason for the inclusion of such a film in the said
package". And then came the clincher: "I am further directed to inform
you that all the screenings earmarked on 27 March, 2008, will remain
suspended till a satisfactory reply is received from your office."

By the time the DFF replied with a statement narrating the facts of
the case, the threat had been executed. Calcutta audiences were
deprived of watching even Panorama films that did not offend the Left
Front government—as punishment for watching one that did.


Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net