[Reader-list] SOLIDARITY STATEMENT WITH STUDENTS OF FTII AT IFFI, 2015

Fri Nov 27 01:02:30 CST 2015

Dear All,

Pasted below is the text of a letter which was sent yesterday to the
Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Govt. of India and the Directorate
of Film Festivals, expressing solidarity with the students of FTII and
concern at the recent events at the International Film Festival of India,
currently underway in Goa. The letter has been endorsed by filmmakers, film
scholars, journalists and other well-wishers of cinema in the country.

Regards

****

26 November 2015

To

Shri Arun Jaitley,

Minister for Information & Broadcasting,

Govt. of India

Shri Rajyavardhan Rathore,

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting,

Govt. of India

Shri Sunil Arora,

Secretary,

Ministry of Information & Broadcasting,

Govt. of India

Shri C. Senthil Rajan,

Director,

Directorate of Film Festivals & IFFI

STATEMENT BY FILM COMMUNITY EXPRESSING SOLIDARITY WITH STUDENTS OF THE FILM
AND TELEVISION INSTITUTE OF INDIA (FTII), AND EXPRESSING SERIOUS CONCERN AT
THE RECENT EVENTS AT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF INDIA (IFFI), 2015, GOA

Respected Sirs,

As members of the filmmaking fraternity and well-wishers of cinema in
India, we would like to place on record our solidarity with the students of
the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), and our anguish at the
way they continue to be treated by the Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting and its various departments. How the Directorate of Film
Festivals of India has behaved with these students at the International
Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2015, currently underway in Goa is an example
of this. From ex-students being arrested for exercising their democratic
right to protest and false charges being framed against them, to being
denied entry into the festival despite valid accreditation simply because
they happen to be from FTII, to a student being put in preventive detention
– these are measures that have nothing to do with the objectives that IFFI
was set up for.

This year, the student package of films at IFFI has also been scrapped, the
official reason being given for this is to have more slots available for
repeat screenings of films. However, recent events lead us to believe that
the decision clearly has to do with the 139 days protest that was led by
the FTII students against the current government. The scrapping of the
student package affects film students across the country and not just FTII,
and is an act that is against the interests of the entire student community.

Students from the premier film institute of the country have a right to
attend the International Film Festival of India – to get an opportunity to
watch, interact and have conversations about their practice with the larger
filmmaking community. By making it difficult to attend the festival, the
authorities are in effect preventing the students from exercising their
right to access education. This, to our mind, is the complete antithesis of
what the International Film Festival of India stands for.

It is also condemnable that Section 144 has been imposed around the
festival venue, and delegates at the festival are being unduly harassed for
expressing their solidarity with the students.

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the harsh measures that are being
taken to stifle the participation of the student community at IFFI and
demand that the students from the Film and Television Institute of India be
allowed to participate in the festival, as it is their democratic right to
do so. We also demand the dropping of charges against the two ex-students.
We also demand that all cases filed against FTII students be withdrawn by
the government. We, as a community of filmmakers stand behind the students
of the FTII in their larger struggle.

In solidarity –

(1) Aditya Seth

(2) Amar Kanwar

(3) Amit Madheshiya

(4) Amit Mahanti

(5) Amrita Dasgupta

(6) Amudhan R.P.

(7) Anand Patwardhan

(8) Ani Thomas

(9) Anjali Bhushan

(10) Anjali Panjabi

(11) Anjali Monteiro

(12) Anupama Srinivasan

(13) Aparna Sanyal

(14) Arghya Basu

(15) Asheesh Pandya

(16) Ashim Ahluwalia

(17) Avijit Mukul Kishore

(18) Batul Mukhtiar

(19) Christopher Rego

(20) Daljit Ami

(21) Debalina Majumder

(22) Deepa Dhanraj

(23) Dylan Mohan Gray

(24) Fathima Nizaruddin

(25) Gautam Sonti

(26) Geetha J

(27) Iffat Fatima

(28) Iram Ghufran

(29) Karan Bali

(30) Kavita Joshi

(31) K.P.Jayasankar

(32) Lalit Vachani

(33) Leena Manimekalai

(34) Madhusree Dutta

(35) Merajur Rahman Baruah

(36) Moinak Biswas

(37) Navroze Contractor

(38) Nirmal Chander

(39) Nishtha Jain

(40) Nitin K. Pamnani

(41) Pankaj Butalia

(42) Paromita Vohra

(43) Pinky Brahma Choudhury

(44) Prateek Vats

(45) Priti Chandriani

(46) Priyanka Chhabra

(47) Rahul Roy

(48) Rajula Shah

(49) Rakesh Sharma

(50) Rani

(51) Ranjan De

(52) Ranjani Mazumdar

(53) Rashmi Sawhney

(54) Reena Mohan

(55) Rita Banerji

(56) Ruchika Negi

(57) R.V. Ramani

(58) Saagar Gupta

(59) Saba Dewan

(60) Sabeena Gadihoke

(61) Sabina Kidwai

(62) Sameera Jain

(63) Samina Mishra

(64) Sandhya Kumar

(65) Sanjay Barnela

(66) Sanjay Joshi

(67) Sanjay Kak

(68) Sanju Surendran

(69) Shabani Hassanwalia

(70) Shirley Abraham

(71) Shobhit Jain

(72) Shohini Ghosh

(73) Shoma A. Chatterji

(74) Smriti Nevatia

(75) Sourav Sarangi

(76) Sreemith Sekhar

(77) Sridhar Rangayan

(78) Subasri Krishnan

(79) Sunanda Bhat

(80) Supriyo Sen

(81) Surabhi Sharma

(82) Sushma Veerappa

(83) Tangella Madhavi

(84) Tarun Bhartiya

(85) Usha Rao

(86) Vani Subramanian

(87) Yashodara Udupa

(88) Yousuf Saeed

The following filmmakers have endorsed this letter after it was mailed to
the concerned ministry -

(89) Samreen Farooqui

(90) Haobam Paban Kumar

(91) Chandita Mukherjee

(92) Chetna Kaul

(93) Swati Dandekar

(94) Priya Sen