Open Frame 2003

August 21-27 2003 India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

FESTIVAL REPORT
PSBTs five-day celebration of the documentary faithfully reflected its major theme that of broadcasting and diversity. With over fifty productions screened over five intensive days the best of public service broadcasting in India was on display. With nine forum discussions and seminars, the festival also provided a space for healthy and informed debate about the future of public service broadcasting as well as bringing filmmakers together and face to face with their audiences. In dealing with sensitive issues, the recent controversies over censorship and government demands that all films obtain a censor certificate, the festival was a bridge between aesthetic and diverse representations of reality in the documentary form and the process of film making and its attendant problems. PSBTs position on the controversial issue of censor certificates was appreciated by many. In particular, three themes stood out. In keeping with broadcasting and diversity many films touched upon issues related to the marginalised in society whether indigenous tribal communities, rural agricultural communities, the young culturally marginalised in cities or womens struggles to create their own spaces. Linked to this, were several representations of different forms of violence and conflict. At one level, there were films that directly dealt with violent episodes such as communal riots, genocide, harsh dictatorships or brutal state repression. At another level, films dealt with the violence of separation when countries divide or of recovery when natural calamities strike. At yet another level, films dealt with peoples struggles to survive in adverse conditions. In all, the representations were diverse and ranged from a homosexual jazz musicians struggle to find his identity to an artists contribution to the process of healing in the aftermath of violence to journeys of personal self-discovery. Some films told simple stories and through their simplicity, reflected complex phenomena. Other films had many levels and presented complex themes in their different aspects. The theme of broadcasting and diversity was also well illustrated with fifteen foreign films that depicted different contexts and realities. While these films also discussed similar themes of marginality, conflict and peoples struggles, they added colour and richness to the festivals screenings and verve to the discussions. While many of these films dealt with communities and social contexts rather different from India, the stories were strikingly similar to many being told by Indian filmmakers. This interplay of foreign films with Indian documentaries best illustrated an over riding theme - that while contexts and nations may differ, a basic humanity unites people across the globe. For

instance, as one filmmaker put it, the story he told was not of violence affecting any one civilisation. Violence and discrimination exists everywhere though their form may slightly differ. Using the case of genocide in Rwanda, he hoped to make a comment about violence and its basic inhumanity anywhere in the world. The different forum discussions and seminars added the much needed participatory element to the festival. Audiences were able to engage with the films on show, voice their feelings and opinions and were able to experience the film in interactions with the filmmakers. The festival also provided a forum for filmmakers to take note of new work and exchange ideas, information about technologies and experiences. There was considerable audience participation in all the discussions and very few screenings went by without comment. The audiences were large and varied though it was felt that the numbers were less than the last festival in August 2002. Yet with the future of public service broadcasting uncertain, filmmakers and viewers can take heart from the participation in the festival be it students and young people, film professionals or just interested and concerned citizens. The festival was not without snippets of humour. There was laughter and tears and many of the stories carried with them a message of hope. As someone put it, as long as there are stories to tell, there will be people to tell them. Day 1 The film festival began on Thursday morning at 9:30 am with the film Agaria by Nandan Saxena. Part of the Best of Doordarshan series, this film tells the tale of the Agaria tribe in Madhya Pradesh, renowned for their skills in iron extraction and blacksmith work, who are faced with alienation from their forests, loss of livelihood as a result of indifferent policies by both the British Government of India and the post-Independence Government of India, as well as the demise of traditional symbiotic relationships with the forests and fellow Munda, Gond and Baiga tribals. This is a story of how the Industrial Revolution is destroying a way of life not directly but indirectly, by passing it by. The next film, Eminent Cartoonists of India by Sanku, is on famous cartoonist Abu Abraham. This film attempts to draw out the cartoonists different facets as a cartoonist, as a member of the Rajya Sabha, as a political columnist. He bemoans the low pay given to cartoonists and the shift away from an art form that can also be potent political commentary. It reveals a cartoonist who is as much an artist as a self-aware and well-informed political commentator and social critic. Lijjat Sisterhood tells the fascinating story of a successful womens cooperative the pappad manufacturers, Lijjat. As a child, Jyotiben watched her neighbour roll pappad and convinced her mother to go to the factory. She herself began to roll pappad early in 1971 after a tragedy forced her to earn an income to run the household. This inspiring

film reveals the inner workings of a cooperative that firmly upholds principles inspired by Vinoba Bhave - dignity of labour, ownership and self-reliance. Significantly it shows how a completely womens cooperative can and does work from the buses that pick up pappad rollers to the all-women Board of Control that makes the business decisions. The first foreign film of the festival came from Bolivia. Vest Made of Money by Patricio Luna is a simple yet complex film that tells a seemingly innocuous tale about the death of a man and his acquaintance who robs his grave to take his money. The filmmaker tries to depict, and comment on, indigenous ways of life and knowledge systems. Viewed in this perspective, this film is no longer a simple tale of theft but a complex tale about indigenous knowledge dissemination. The long film The Bee, the Bear and the Kuruba by Vinod Raja is another in a series of films on threats to indigenous ways of life and tribal communities. Different segments of the film are linked by a series of beautiful origin myths told by a Kuruba tribal centering on a bear and on their human ancestors Ajja and Ajri. The systematic alienation of the Kuruba from the forest was purportedly to protect the forest from them. The film depicts a little known non-violent protest by the Kuruba against the state to regain access to the forests and force a more even-handed policy towards indigenous peoples. After a break for lunch, the first film screened in the afternoon was Forging a New Identity by Sabia Khan. The filmmaker depicts the struggle that many Muslims face in India today to find an identity. Following the journeys of Ramesh Menon and Sakina Yusuf Khan, this film covers a broad spectrum of people within the Muslim community from teachers to businessmen to sports personalities. Themes such as the need for an education system that combines the best of the old madrasa system and modern schooling system as well as questions of who has the right to speak for so diverse a community, found place in this film. The discussion that followed the film saw a variety of reactions from the audience. A viewer questioned the films approach to the tradition versus modernity debate which she felt was too stereotypical and did not emphasise the constant dialogue between the two. It was also felt that the issues of resistance to a particular kind of modernity as well as the distinction between perception and reality were not developed enough. Sabia responded by pointing to the limits of the documentary form - that in so short a film, it was very difficult to attempt an answer to many of these questions. The second film in the afternoon session was titled Diya in the Dargah by Trisha Das. This film follows the filmmakers own personal journey to Ahmedabad to make sense of the breakdown in communal relations and the subsequent riots of early 2002. She interviews a Hindu mujawar of a Muslim dargah and astonished to see this cross-faith situation, she tries to understand how a Hindu came to look after a famous dargah and his struggle to continue to do so in the face of extreme tension between religious groups. She challenges the audience to begin a process of introspection of our own ideas about religion and tolerance.

Trisha was away but wanted the audience to react to her film. The documentary was in general very well received and some felt that the media needed to intervene more often in this way. One member of the audience felt however that it would have been more useful to look at the media impact on the riots and the significance of the fact that these were the first riots ever to be telecast on national television. One viewer felt that the documentary was too well scripted and that real voices were missing. Another UNESCO film, S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine completed the afternoon session with powerful images and terrible truths. The filmmaker, Rithy Panh, interviewed soldiers in the notorious death squad under Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the late 1970s. Using a series of documents that reveal the names of prisoners, their age and sex as well as how they died, he interrogates ex-soldiers and with often grisly detail, these men reveal how they arrested, tortured and finally killed hundreds of innocents including women and children. They attempted to justify their actions on the grounds that they were merely following orders. An intense and disturbing film, it silently yet noisily reflects the very real role of very real people in a very ugly strike against humanity. The formal inauguration of Open Frame 2003 followed the afternoon session. The festival was officially declared open by the Honourable Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mr. Ravi Shanker Prasad. Also addressing the gathering were Mr. Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of PSBT, Ms Rosa Gonzalez representing UNESCO, Mr. K. S. Sarma, CEO of Prasar Bharati and Mr. Rajiv Mehrotra, Managing Trustee of PSBT. Mr. Kiran Karnik, Ms. Sharmila Tagore and Mr. Mrinal Sen, all trustees of PSBT, were also present on the occasion. Mr. Mehrotra began the proceedings by addressing the recent controversy over the government directive that all films be granted censorship certificates before public screenings. Mr. Mehrotra took the stand that it was unfair to expect filmmakers to ensure the procurement of censorship certificates for their films as it is a lengthy, difficult and discouraging project. He also commented on the importance and the need for public service broadcasting but once again cited government apathy in the manner in which PSBTs Sunday evening slot had been pushed to a less popular Saturday morning slot. Mr. Gopalakrishnan welcomed the Minister and also stressed the importance of public service broadcasting in our current context. He pointed with some delight, to the youthfulness of many of the filmmakers at the festival as well as the large number of women filmmakers also present. Ms Gonzalez also welcomed the Minister and all those present at the festival and renewed UNESCOs commitment to public service broadcasting and independent documentary film making on issues with contemporary resonance. Mr. Prasad responded in his address, to issues raised by Mr. Mehrotra. He felt that on the issue of censorship it was unrealistic to expect censorship to be removed altogether. However he acknowledged the problems faced by filmmakers in this regard and promised to look into the matter. On the issue of the change of PSBTs slot on

Doordarshan, Mr. Prasad pointed out that there were market forces at work and that even public service documentaries would have to compete. Mr Sharma rounded off the inauguration by thanking Mr. Prasad as well as the other trustees and audience for their presence. He too made a mention of problems faced by both filmmakers and also Prasar Bharati. He pointed out that to date, Doordarshan alone broadcast several events and programmes that were not commercially remunerative and that often resulted in considerable financial loss for Prasar Bharati. In that sense, Doordarshan remains the main provider of space for public service broadcasting in India. He ended with a list of entertaining quotations on television concluding a fiery and interesting inauguration. The first of the evening sessions two films linked by the theme Television and History was Walls by Ashoke Viswanathan which touched on the sensitive issue of communal riots in Ahmedabad in 1969, the biggest spate of rioting since the Partition of India. The film looks literally at a wall built in a neighbourhood separating communities in Ahmedabad after the 1969 riots, and metaphorically, at the walls between communities as a result of communal tension. The second film in this segment was Rwanda in Memory by Paris-based filmmaker Samba Felix Ndiaye. A group of African intellectuals get together in Kigali and discuss their curious silence during the terrible genocide in Rwanda four years after it had ended. A raw film with often lyrical prose and beautiful tales told by the writers and intellectuals, it seeks to make a statement about the moment of violence and the way it is remembered. In the first of the film festivals nine forum discussions, Sabeena Gadihoke moderated a discussion on Building the Collective Memory of Society Through Film with discussants Sabia Khan and Samba Felix Ndiaye. In her opening comments, Sabeena raised the issue of the limited scope of documentaries. Therefore, representing and talking about violence or actually confronting the perpetrators as well as victims of violence in any meaningful way is difficult within the limited parameters of a film. The real challenge for filmmakers, then, is how to interrogate memory with the form of realism and documentary. How does one confront the living truth, and memory and forgetting? The two films in this segment also, she felt, highlight the difference between the visual and the archival. In the former, oral testimonies take precedence where a purely archival reconstruction of a moment of violence would result in a rather different take on that moment of history. Felix felt that violence was not unique to any one civilisation but cuts across boundaries of community, ethnicity or religion. A member of the audience questioned Felix about a specific blank bit in the film to which Felix responded by saying that that sequence was a graphic clip of the slaughter of a cow. Noting that the cow was sacred in India, he chose to blot it out. Sabia questioned the role of the media in difficult, violent situations and where that role begins and ends. She asked Felix how he felt the media could take the process of

healing forward. Felix replied that by making the immense time commitment to make this film was his major contribution to that process of healing. The intellectuals who took part did not need the publicity but chose to be part of the film anyway. But that there was still a long way to go in the healing process is evident from the fact that even in France, no broadcaster wanted to screen this film because of the French governments complicity in the genocide. Further, he felt that he had no idea what genocide was till he went to Africa and saw it in terms a human phenomenon rather than a regional one. Discrimination of all kinds cuts across boundaries. A filmmaker in the audience made the point that while Walls fascinated him in terms of the story it told, he felt it was too hurried an effort at representing a complicated phenomenon. On the other hand, in Felixs film, the pace was slower. Felix responded by saying that there will always be a part of reality that escapes the filmmaker. The important thing is to make the film. Day 2 The day began with Earth Matters by Mike Pandey as part of the Best of Doordarshan series. In a sequence of well organised and well produced snippets, Pandey captures the plight of the giant sea turtle off the coast of Orissa, the whale shark in the Arabian Sea and global warming. Packed with shocking statistics and sharp footage, Earth Matters started the second day of the film festival with a bang. The next film, Usha Alburquerques Seeds of Life, continued the theme of environment by looking at Vandana Shivas crusade against Green Revolution-inspired farming practices. This film portrays the distress rapidly spreading in the agricultural sector leading to a dramatic rise in farmer suicides even in a previously agriculturally rich state like Punjab. The filmmaker takes us into the Navdanya farm in Dehradun that stands testament to Shivas belief that organic farming is viable and that bio-diversity can exist in the farm sector. Ushas assistant, Amrita was questioned afterward about why there was no real government voice in the film. She replied that they had tried very hard to get an input from the government but the spokesperson for the Agricultural Department was too new to the job. Instead they took inputs from government-run agricultural research agencies to make up for the gap. The next two films were grouped in a segment on Television and Education. The first of these, Forever Sunshine by Rahul Ranadive, tells the inspiring story of one mans crusade to bring real change through the spread of education in Ladakh. Sonam Wangchuk not only got through the education system in Ladakh but then returned after completing an engineering degree to transform education in Ladakh to help students pass their higher secondary exams. The result was the founding of the Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh or SECMOL which provides a platform for the community, parents and students to voice their needs for the first time. SECMOL

uses the Village Education Committees already established by the government to create a network of parents, teachers and students in this inhospitable terrain. In Assouma Adjikes The Dilemma of Eya from Togo, a village girl, Eya, is pulled out of school where she is doing very well, by her father to join a cultic nunnery in order to bring better fortune to her family. After she returns home, she runs away to the nearest town to raise money to go back to school. Having gone through much tribulation to earn very little, the film ends with Eya sitting despairingly on a beach. Combining superstition, attitudes towards womens education as well as the exploitation of unorganised female labour in towns, this fictional film provided an insight into a very different culture but that is faced with very similar problems to those in India. The forum discussion on Television, Tradition and Social Development was moderated by Divya Raina and the panelists were Sonam Wangchuk and filmmakers Rahul Ranadive and Assouma Adjike. Divya observed that both films had to do with disenchantment and disillusionment but where Rahuls film shows the positive channeling of that frustration, Adjikes film was much more despairing. Adjike responded that Eyas position represented the position of women in Togo where laws are equitable to both men and women but women continue to have a difficult time. The village in which she shot the film had five convents and Eyas dilemma was a very typical one in that she could not avoid joining the cultic convent. She runs away to break traditional chains only to be exploited in the town. When asked how the film was received in Togo, Adjike responded that her film was vehemently opposed by various cultic communities. But after the screening of the film, a woman minister in the Togo government gathered a group of priests together to convince them of the unfairness of some cultic practices to women. In that sense, the film had triggered an attempt at change in attitudes towards women. A member of the audience asked Sonam whether his educational model could be a model for other communities in the country. He responded that Indias current educational system is modeled on the British system but it should have been taken from Scandinavia where there is no distinction between public and private schools. The result is an ever-increasing rural-urban divide and disparate education with some schools getting more attention and better resources. Rahul chipped in to add that the success of Sonams efforts in Ladakh also had much to do with the nature of Ladakhi society which is not highly stratified and where there is no emphasis on religious education. When asked whether the Scandinavian model of education could be applied to a non-welfare state, Sonam pointed to the example of Bhutan where even the monarch's children went to government schools. Sonam added that it really was up to people to change government priorities and that if today, the government is trying to send men to the moon then that is because the people of India are prouder of that kind of achievement than in making changes in education. In response to another question about his approach to education and his involving of the whole community, Sonam stated that in his view, it was much better to raise the ocean by an inch than a pond by a metre.

The first film after lunch was titled Some Roots Grow Upwards by Kavita Joshi and Malati Rao. It looks at Manipuri theatre personality Ratan Thiyam's path breaking work in Manipur in the 'theatre of roots' movement. With some striking visuals, the film attempts to situate his work in a political context and the way in which he makes comments on contemporary society through his work. Ratan Thiyam himself makes no bones about his attempt to mix the political and the artistic. In 2001, he returned his Padmashree as a gesture of protest against government actions in the north east. The immense turmoil in Manipur with fighting on the streets of Imphal resulted in a spurt of creativity in theatre. His is an attempt to take up the challenge of healing through art. Following this film, the next three films were grouped together in a segment on the theme 'Development and Television'. Temples of Water by Abhinandan Sekhri and Prashant Sarin traces the journey of a former dacoit whose life mission is to spread awareness on water harvesting in Rajastan. The Tarun Bharat Sangh works with village communities to promote self-reliance and water harvesting through more traditional methods to avoid the ravages of drought. The film portrays the struggle for water in this drought-prone state and the solutions provided by him to save every drop. With his emphasis on village participation, a sense of ownership is created over the process of water harvesting. This film tells an important story of change at the village level coming through the initiative of a former dacoit and villagers themselves. The UNESCO film Ochre and Water by Joelle Chesselet tells the tale of the Himba tribe and their epic seven year battle to prevent the construction of a dam project on their river in northern Namibia. With stunning visuals of this nomadic tribe, this film powerfully portrays an aspect of the development debate - where do indigenous peoples figure in development schemes that are purportedly undertaken to benefit society? In this connection, how do indigenous peoples who live nomadic lives protest their forced alienation from the land, water and natural resources of their ancestors? In Aftershocks: A Rough Guide to Democracy , filmmaker Rakesh Sharma closely examines a village in Gujarat that is being exploited by a big, cash - rich public sector corporation for the purpose of lignite mining and power generation. This is a tragic story of exploitation, of villagers being made to sign away their village land under false pretenses, of giant corporations riding roughshod over rural folk, of lies and unfulfilled promises and of total neglect from the government. The filmmaker details a conspiracy to shift a village out of its current coal rich land to poorer land far away from their fields in which the government, local officials and corporation personnel are all implicated. In the forum discussion that followed this intense session of films, Shailaja Bajpai moderated the debate on 'Interrogating Development through Television'. In her opening comments, she noted a certain trajectory in the films with regard to interrogating development but thought that 'television' should be replaced with 'video' as television, she felt, is not interrogating anything in a meaningful way. Also she felt that the films reopened an old debate. For instance, ten years ago, if anyone questioned the Narmada dam project, they were by implication seen as being against Gujarat's interests, Madhya Pradesh's interests and the interests of the nation as a whole. Now,

this perhaps has undergone a change. She started by asking Joelle, if the dam was built after all as had been proposed in northern Namibia. Joelle replied that there already existed a kind of interface between development, people and culture and that the dam scheme plans were made public through various media. In the end, after local NGOs got into the act and once the anti-dam movement got wind of it, the World Commission on Dams conducted a very fair feasibility study and found that the dam was not viable. Shailaja felt that Joelle's comments as well as the films themselves raised the issue of tradition versus modernity for in Temples of Water, the emphasis was on unmechanised technologies and traditional water management techniques rather than big modern development projects which had failed the people. Prashant disagreed and felt that this had nothing to do with tradition or modernity nor with any rural-urban divide but rather with positive mobilisation of people. On the question of the impact of these films and where they were shown, Prashant responded that their film was seen by other villages on television and these villagers were filled with hope that they too could do the same and save water. Rakesh said that he was not able to show this film in Gujarat but that many had responded very positively to it elsewhere. Joelle's film was shown in many different places and it triggered discussions on the empowerment of people. Shailaja raised the question of whether there is space for films of dissent and whether documentaries could fairly interrogate development. Abhinandan felt that such an interrogation was indeed possible in PSBT's slot and that there was even space for a whole channel such as the National Geographic to do these films on a much larger scale. Joelle also felt that there is space for such films. She pointed out that in the 1960s, this dam project would probably have sailed through but that now, it was not possible to construct a dam without considerable public debate. Rakesh felt that he could not share Abhinandan's enthusiasm and felt that an Indian documentary channel was not possible because of funding and viewership. Abhinandan responded that perhaps this was because while their films were both good, Joelle's was outstanding and if more such outstanding films were produced, then people would watch them. Rakesh felt that it was the money that made the difference to which Joelle reacted that it was not money but a lot of time that made this film special. It took them seven years to make it with tremendous funding difficulties but in the end, the time they spent won out. On the funding question, Rakesh pointed out that he started his film because it needed to be shot at that moment or the story would have been lost. He got funding only much later. The other filmmakers agreed that the idea always is to make the film. The search for funding often has to wait. The last film of the evening was from South Korea - Snow Falling on the Mountains by Lee Jae Heon. This UNESCO film was as poignant as it was visually stunning with landscape shots of the mountains. A man defects from North Korea to the south in the hope of finding freedom. Instead, he finds the bonds of materialism too much to bear and retreats to the mountains to live a quiet and simple life. He gets married and with his wife, makes a home in difficult conditions. The film tells a simple tale of love between husband and wife and a sense of betrayal felt by a man who left everything

behind to find freedom but is disappointed that that freedom comes at the price of bondage to material wealth. In the forum on 'Going Beyond the Character to Portray the Aspirations of the Whole Community', Manjrika Sewak, the moderator, brought up the issue of identity and how far identities have been shaped by the 'national' in North and South Korea. The filmmaker Lee Jae Heon felt strongly that at the end of the day, Korea was one and that Koreans were a united people. No one he felt, whether from the north or the south wanted anything but a united Korea. A member of the audience asked Lee to talk a little about his experience in making the film and shooting in the mountains. He responded that he stayed in the mountains for ten days to convince the main character to make the film and then another ten days to make the couple comfortable in front of the camera. Another member of the audience asked him why he had titled the documentary so. Lee felt that it was important not to be direct or blatant in his approach to the film and that the title was chosen keeping the need for subtlety in mind. He felt that the title tied in well with what he wanted to portray in the film - about the film's philosophy and the chief protagonist's anti-materialism and also about enjoying the simple things in life in being at one with nature. On the subject of the screening of the film in South Korea, Lee said that most people found the film deeply moving and renewed their personal calls for unity. Manjrika brought up the related question of whether after fifty years apart, North Koreans and South Koreans could see themselves just as Koreans cutting across a boundary that a generation of Koreans had grown up with. Lee acknowledged that this would pose a difficult issue in the event of unification but that the desire for unity among a people with a shared history more than a thousand years old, would prevail. Day 3 The Saturday session began at 9:30 am with Sadgati by the late Satyajit Rai as part of the Best of Doordarshan series. A classic and simple film about a village chamar named Dukhi who goes to the village pujari or priest to get an auspicious date for his daughter's marriage, it represents a caste-ridden and prejudiced society in which a mans acriptive identity determines his life. The pujari exploits Dukhi and makes him perform hard labour in the course of which he collapses and dies near the village well. It falls on the pujari to remove this untouchable's body which he does by tying a rope to his leg and dragging the body to a garbage dump outside the village. A tale of callousness and pain, this masterful film set the tone for the day. The Storytellers by Gargi Sen looks at the work of Geeta Dharmarajan and her publishing endeavour Katha, which publishes stories and novels in regional languages. Katha, in fact, triggered the translation boom in the 1990s. The filmmaker discovers to her own surprise that Katha is much more than stories in print but also a kind of education movement using novel means and unearthing the story teller in all of us. But above all else Katha seeks to showcase wonderful literary traditions in vernacular languages at a time when it is it is predicted that in fifty years, 95 percent of the world's languages will have died.

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In the visually rich Sharira, Chandralekha's Exploration in Dance , filmmaker Ein Lall looks at the work of well known choreographer Chandralekha. The film has several extensive shots of performances by Chandralekha's troupe. These are linked with interviews with the master herself in which she provides expositions of her philosophy of dance. The next film The Brickmaster by Priya Krishnaswamy films the life and work of Laurie Baker, master architect and ecological housing guru. The architect extols the virtues of the simple and common brick and its tremendous versatility. He likens the composition of a brick wall to a dance performance in which there may be several dancers who are all dressed the same way but who each have an important role to play in the overall composition. The film highlights the characteristics of Laurie Baker's work - simplicity, eco-friendly, cost effective and aesthetically pleasing. After a short lunch break, a UNESCO film from China, The Snake Boy, by Michelle Chen was screened as part of a segment on Breaking Taboos in Contemporary Societies. In this very sensitive portrayal, the filmmaker tells the story of Coco, a famous gay jazz singer in the racy and colourful nightlife of 1990s Shanghai. This portrayal tracks Coco's journey as he walks the tightrope of discovering his sexuality. The film looks at the story of one man but through it tells the story of a society which can accept and indeed glorify someone like Coco for what he is. In the forum discussion on 'Do Public Broadcasters Dare to Shock?' moderator Abhilasha Kumari began by questioning the notion of 'taboo. She pointed out that one question that was raised constantly in the film was whether Coco was a man or a woman. She felt it important to ask why this question preoccupied so many people. If viewed in terms of discourses, can we think in terms of public broadcasting as legitimising particular discourses on say, sexuality or poverty? When she asked Michelle why she made this film, Michelle responded that she saw him as a man with a story and that it had nothing to do with any potential shock value owing to his homosexuality. She also said that she had known Coco for years before she made the film on him. At dinner one time, he mentioned that he was from the countryside and she felt it strange that she had not realised this till then and decided to investigate further using this film. Abhilasha raised the issue of how much could be questioned through public broadcasting and if certain themes were not broached then was that due to personal limits or narrow mindsets? A member of the audience chipped in with his personal experience of attempting to make a film on painter Bhupen Kakkar in which he was not allowed to shoot paintings with nudes. Abhilasha added that films could only have meanings in certain contexts and asked Michelle how far China had mixed traditional and modernist discourses. Michelle responded that this kind of tradition-modernity debate was new to China and was still in the process of being fleshed out. But on the subject of Coco, his story shows a society that is changing and the struggle of a 'traditional', 'rural' man moving into something quite different in a city. In a lively discussion, the audience went back and forth between

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a number of potentially explosive issues such as whether the resource crunch prevented meaningful films from being made in India or the constant negotiation with the censorship board or reluctance to test the limits of public endurance on sensitive subjects. Michelle mentioned that her own film was not broadcast publicly in China but that she got a lot private screenings done through bar owners and theatre owners. A student of journalism in the audience asked her what sort of films she would make in the future and whether that decision would be made on the basis of what the audience liked or what appealed to her. She replied simply that she wanted to make a film that appealed to her emotionally and artistically. A filmmaker in the audience made the important point that such films must find space in public broadcasting and that it was up to the viewer to make of such films as he or she will. Perhaps somewhere down the line, a film like this would touch someone enough to make them question long-held beliefs. Following this forum discussion, the next three films were bracketed under 'Women and Film'. In the first film, Femme Taxi, a Sidi Bel Abbes by Hadjadj Belcacem, a mother of three, Soumicha is forced to earn a living after the death of her husband. She becomes the first female taxi driver in her town, Sidi Bel Abbes in Algeria. Through her work in a job reserved for men, she highlights the problems women face in an unfree and patriarchal society. The next film, Ladies Special by Nidhi Tuli, is an account of women traveling by the Ladies Special Train in Mumbai in which a local train is reserved for women. In a revealing depiction, it tells of women who are otherwise identified first as mothers, wives and daughters now being just women. The Ladies Special therefore provides them with a vital space in their lives to be themselves, to joke, laugh, gossip or share troubles. In Taller than the Mountains , filmmaker Farooq Beg from Pakistan attempts to illustrate the links between the state and mountain women who play a vital role in the conservation and sustainable development of three main mountain regions in Pakistan. It looks at three mountain communities and the roles that women play in the conservation of distinct eco-systems. It documents the hardships and challenges faced by these women in difficult natural and societal conditions. In the forum discussion on 'Film: Creating a Space for Women?', moderator Ranjini Majumdar opened with a few general points about women in film and about making films about women as well as the space for women in the media. The audience response to the films was overwhelming. The other panelists, filmmakers Nidhi Tuli and Farooq Beg and writer Namita Gokhale also added to a vibrant discussion. In several male reactions, there was surprise expressed with regard to Nidhi's film about the Ladies Special. They felt that till they saw this film, they had not realised how uncomfortable it was for some women to travel in mixed public transport as well as other familial and work spaces. With regard to the film from Algeria, the audience speculated on Algerian society, political events and contexts. One viewer felt that

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political events had been manipulated in the film. In reactions to Farooq's film, some in the audience felt that it was too well mannered and too politically correct. To this Farooq replied that he had not felt this but added that the film was funded by the Aga Khan Foundation and there were some limitations that come with funding also which may be evident in some view points expressed in the film. While this session saw much audience participation, there was no one conclusion. It was felt perhaps that there needs to be a more spontaneous projection of women in film. In the evening segment of the day, the first film was United Colours of Bollywood by Sanjeev Sivan. This film argues that Bollywood is perhaps the one space in media where there is no discrimination on the basis of religion and that is stands for communal harmony. In a context where so much violence in society springs purportedly from religious difference, the filmmaker tries to paint Bollywood in the light of secularism. Malegaon ke Sholay by Nitin Sukhija tells the interesting tale of Malegaon, a small Maharashtrian town, so inspired by Bollywood films that it takes up the project of film making. Malegaon's films are shot on shaadi wala cameras and are raw and rough. But despite all the struggles, this small community takes the initiative and makes films that often deal with very local peasant and community problems. The final film of the evening A Night of Prophecy by Amar Kanwar, was about poetry and its forms of expression. Looking at poetry in Mahatrashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland and Kashmir, the film links poetry and expression with cycles of conflict and change. In the end, the poetry of different regions becomes one with the same galaxy of meanings and symbols, and aspirations and hopes being expressed. Day 4 The Best of Doordarshan series once again began the day at 9:30 am. This time, two films, Romance on Wheels and Hamlet of Mountain Monarch by Mridul Gupta and A. Anwar respectively looked at stories linked to our heritage. In Romance on Wheels, the tale is that of the famous toy train in Darjeeling. When it was discontinued, it marked the end of an era. In Hamlet of Mountain Monarch, the story is of the nearly extinct Nilgiri Tahr and its newfound abode in the rich and dense forests of Kerala. The Sunday morning session also saw a seminar on Networked and Diversified Publics; Media Strategies in the Contemporary World that was conducted in partnership with Sarai: the New Media Initiative with discussants Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Ravi Vasudevan and Lawrence Liang. The discussion started off with a take on the notion of public domain and the changes that the last ten years have seen vis--vis the media with the advent of cable television and big television news networks. From watching Doordarshan to suddenly being exposed to entirely new forms of music, ideas and cultures via television, the relationship between state, civil society and the public has undergone significant changes. This raises the question of independent spaces in the media as well and whether these are indeed independent. The principled stand taken by

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PSBT vis--vis censorship was commended and the call for a protected space for freedom of expression reiterated. It was felt that the key issue of control and censorship only arose when there is a situation of diversity as never before. It was felt that the fact that both feminists and right-wing politicians call for censorship has exposed a certain dearth of institutional creativity. Further the media boom in many ways has created spaces that cannot be controlled to a significant degree. For example, as never before, music is widely available with the transition in technology from LPs to cassettes. This has virtually democratised music accessibility and an entire generation has grown up listening to a diversity of musical forms. Similarly, though not necessarily apparent, the production of documentaries has also increased enormously. Various information networks and modes of information dissemination in early modern times in India were also discussed. In this connection, newsletters, kissas and other kinds of news networks were seen as providing much needed information dissemination. The public spaces were sarais where travelers met and exchanged information and ideas. But in general, information was communicated in one direction from the elite to the people. But through the British period, information networks continued to grow and evolve with the emergence of the modern press. However the role and influence of oral sources such as gossip and rumour did not decline. The nation was, for the first time, imagined via the new press. The oral was also now finding legitimacy and justification by being published in print. But using different technologies which exist side by side, a certain Hindi public domain was constituted. Censorship resulted in diverse kinds of creativity in the Hindi and Urdu public domains where now writers used complex symbols and twisted languages to get around the censors. There was also a profound change with the emergence of mass print production. Some other languages, even dialects of Hindi were not so privileged. With the new technology, especially computers, books in different languages can now be produced. In other countries such as Turkey, local languages have been crushed by the government but not so in India. Technology enabled the awakening of many dormant publics. In the context of PSBT, there is a space emerging for documentaries in regional languages and dialects. In essence, there is a diversity of media forms available and a diversity of languages and forms of communication such as music. With a greater availability and diversity of media, censorship has become an important tool for the powers that be to exert control where it is really not possible to do so. In the end, it was felt that the public must be allowed to access to this diversity whether linguistic, artistic or musical and the public must have the right to choose from this ever increasing pool. As a part of the only segment in this festival for children, a UNESCO film from Iran by Amir Hassan Nedaei called The Truth and the Wind was screened next. A young boy in a village in Iran seeks to bring back an old teacher who had taught his own teacher and other elders in the village to bring some joy into their lives and remind them of their

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childhood. This moving story involves several children and the film is largely through their eyes. In the forum discussion that followed on 'The Challenge of Directing with Children', Peter Lee Wright, the moderator, opened the discussion by asking the filmmaker how he had found children who acted so naturally in front of the camera. Amir replied that the children were not acting but merely living their lives. He also did take some time to get to know them to make them more comfortable. He wanted to expand on the theme of grown ups being childish and children acting grown up. Peter then asked the other discussant, filmmaker Radhika Kaul Batra whether children found a voice in Indian film to which she responded that while there had been some attempts in the Indian context, children had been straitjacketed. No attempts are really made in India to make films for children. Peter pointed out that in Britain, many films and television programmes targeted children. In Indian newspapers, for example, he hardly found any mention of children. A member of the audience asked Amir whether during the writing of the script he had listened to children to put together the dialogue. Amir said that he felt able to write from a child's perspective having a daughter of his own. Radhika felt that the biggest challenge for filmmakers is to prevent the dumbing down of children and letting them be who they are rather than feeding them lines. Peter asked Amir whether he felt there was any difference in directing a child actor and a child to which he responded that he felt that most children were children first and not actors and they think that what is going on before the camera is real life. Unlike grownups, children do not bring their own mindsets and understanding of reality to their work Radhika also pointed out that it was important to learn from children as much as it is for children to learn from them. The next film after lunch was The Vote by Pankaj Rishi Kumar. This film explores the Indian electoral system at the local level and the manner in which the Great Indian Election represents the malleability of democratic ideals. The process of the canvassing and the vote itself is presented as laughable with people showing utter disdain for the electoral process and democracy. The filmmaker follows the election trail of a candidate in Siyana district in rural Uttar Pradesh. Using this one small example, the filmmaker makes a comment on the macrocosm of Indian democracy. The questions from the audience following the film were lively and pointed. Several members of the audience asked Pankaj why he had not looked at the casting of the vote itself and the phenomenon of false voting. He responded that the actual event of the casting of the vote could not be filmed as the media is barred from access to this process. Another viewer felt that Pankaj's film could have said more as he felt that many films had already made statements similar to Pankaj's in this genre. Pankaj replied that he made the film in his own way and about something that he felt needed to be shown. The next segment of films dealt with 'Television and Conflict' and the first in this series was Nongdi Tarak Khidare by Ningthouja Lancha. In this poignant film, a woman loses her husband after a premonition in which she sees him crucified. The result is that she has to leave her village with her young family because they feel unable to live in so

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tense and volatile an area racked by Naga-Kuki ethnic conflict. This is a story of ethnic strife which takes some lives but changes the lives of all the living irrevocably. The next film, from Lebanon, Sinbad in Baghdad, by Hady Zaccak employs a fictional character with undeniable universal appeal to paint different portraits of Baghdad before and during America's war on Iraq. The film looks at a young student who decides to go and see for herself what is happening in Baghdad and decides to be a human shield. It traces her conflict with her mother who is unhappy with her decision. Sinbad, the fictional character, takes on three avatars - the 'mythical', 'Saddamic' and 'American' all aspects of Baghdad. In Yeh Gulistan Hamara, filmmaker Fareeda Mehta looks at communities living in isolation in India. In this segregated atmosphere, ideas, values and culture are not exchanged or nor do they intermingle. Her film looks at Ujjain and the communal divides that exist there following the riots. These divides did not spring up over night but were the result of long term indoctrination and isolation. Nizar Hassan's film Invasion powerfully trains the camera on an Israeli soldier who operated a bulldozer in the now infamous Israeli invasion of Jenin, as he watches a video of the aftermath of that invasion. The filmmaker shows the devastation and the seemingly irreparable fissures caused between two warring communities and the pain it causes ordinary people who merely try and live their lives. In the forum discussion on 'Television and Conflict: A Tool for Understanding' that followed, moderator Amar Kanwar threw the floor open to the audience early on. Questions were first addressed to Nizar who was asked how he met the driver of the bulldozer. Nizar replied that he taught film and one of his students mentioned that he knew a bulldozer driver. He felt that he was in the end able only to show 20 -30 per cent of the pain that the invasion of Jenin caused. He was very careful to find a soldier with whom he could avoid turning the 'destroyer into a victim' and whom he could make responsible for his actions. In response to a query on how he managed to get an Israeli in front of the camera, Nizar made it clear that he showed him rough cuts and that neither he nor anyone else he had ever featured in a film had asked him to change a thing. Nizar was prodded about his statement regarding victims and was asked if really felt that soldiers could never be victims. Nizar said that he did not personally believe that there is no choice for Israeli soldiers. He didn't believe that anyone was born evil but that the culture of war turned humans into evil. In reaction to Fareedas film, a member of the audience questioned her choice of Ujjain for the film as it had a good record of communal harmony. Fareeda responded with the counter question of why not Ujjain where she felt that ideas spawning violence had resulted in the escalation to actual violence. Amar asked her how she felt working with PSBT and Doordarshan on so sensitive a topic to which she replied that this film was made for television and for PSBT and not for herself and that this entailed keeping to a particular structure in terms of time and television restrictions. Her conclusions about minds being captured by communal ideas would not have been different but she would

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have spent more time on the film and extended its duration. In answer to a question on whether it is important to be diplomatic about communal issues, Fareeda answered that it is very important to understand the subtext in any situation and that she didnt think it was necessarily a good thing to cover or talk about a riot at the height of tensions and emotions. It is better to look at processes rather than try and explain explosive moments. Moving on to Hady's film, he was asked whether he used original music for the film to which he replied that he used original music for the three different moods of Sinbad the voyage, the counterpart and the war. He was asked also to elaborate a little on the 'mystic', 'Saddamic' and 'American' Baghdad. Hady explained that that the marvelous, mystical Baghdad was represented in the sailor Sinbad. The Saddamic Baghdad was a Baghdad at war with distinct evil overtones. The American Baghdad was adventurous and represented through the young girl who wanted to save Iraq and offer herself up as a human shield in Baghdad. Amar asked Hady why he chose Sinbad. Hady responded that Baghdad always conjured up images of adventure and mysticism and therefore of Sindbad. With respect to Ningthouja's film also the questions came fast and furiously. In reaction to a question from the audience he said that his film was fictional but could just as easily be a real story as it had all the elements of love, tragedy, external conflict and inner conflict in a time of tension and inter-tribal strife. He was asked which language he used and he felt that language was a secondary issue as he wanted audiences to experience the film but as it was important for Manipuris to understand it, he used Manipuri. He was also asked as to why he chose to use the cross for the woman's vision of her husband and whether it had something to so with Christianity and its spread in this region. He responded that this was not a statement on Christianity at all as both Nagas and Kukis were Christians - he merely wanted to show the intensity of feeling. Ningthouja was also questioned incessantly on the political stance of the film to which he replied the he felt he had the right to make the film as he wished and that he was not a politician but saw no point in towing a middle-of-the-road position. After this riveting session, the film Hawa Mahal by Vipin Vijay was screened. An abstract film with many striking visuals and an intense soundtrack, it tracks the evolution of radio in India. Laced with many radio clippings and different, colourful but abstract shots, this film did not merely trace the history of the radio but also challenged the audience to interpret its sound. The question and answer session that followed was fiery with many in the audience taking different positions on the film. He was asked about the sound and whether the radio clippings were real to which he responded that the clippings were put together in a studio. In the end, this film drew a variety of reactions with some appreciating the film and others criticising it. In the last film on the day, Girl Song, filmmaker Vasudha Joshi looks at Anjum Katyal, singer and composer from Calcutta. With some great music and interesting

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conversations between three generations of women from one family, grandmother, mother and daughter, this film was a feel good one with Katyal singing her own compositions. Day 5 In the last two films on the 'Best of Doordarshan' series, Ishwarna Kangsanu by Arambam Somerendro and My SoilMy Passion by A. Anwar started off the last day of film screenings. Ishwarna Kangsanu examined ethnic conflict in Manipur and its effects on society. My Soil My Passion looked at Kerala and its rich heritage. The Ahmedabad Initiative by Satya Prakash focuses on the Self-employed Women's Association or SEWA in Ahmedabad and its founder Ela Ramesh Bhatt. It raised several important points such as the fact that women contribute two-thirds of the country's GDP but that this is a little acknowledged fact. Having set up the first all women's trade union in the unorganised textile sector, Ela Ramesh Bhatt is often referred to as the revolutionary in a cotton sari. In the next film Equal but Different by Ines Dussel from Argentina, the filmmaker depicts unchanging social attitudes towards poverty and discrimination. Using a series of powerful images both past and present, this short film raises questions about how far social attitudes actually change towards the marginalised in society. In When Four Friends Meet, filmmaker Rahul Roy investigates the kinds of life experiences that four males share when they meet up. About childhood friends, this film looks at their attitudes to sex and girls, work and dreams, failures and successes. The four young men share their secrets and bare their souls in front of the camera. The film also highlights issues that are important to them and as the film progresses each of the four boys comes into his own. After this film the audience reacted with lively interest and questioned the filmmaker on why he chose boys from this particular background and whether he felt the story would have been different had he chosen boys from different backgrounds. Rahul felt that at a basic level, experiences of sexuality cut across class lines and that he himself had held similar beliefs about sexuality at that age. He felt that it was only later that life opens up in different ways for different people but that many early experiences might be similar. Another member of the audience asked Rahul why he did not include any womens voices to which Rahul responded that he felt more adept with the boys and had chosen to make the film about them. Harvesting Baby Girls by K. N. T. Sastry was a film that covered the topical issue of the trafficking of female infants by tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh. It tells a terrible tale of poverty, marginality and desperation in which the ultimate victims are little baby girls often sold off for as little as five hundred rupees. It highlights the illegal trade in children by adoption agencies and the utter despair that prompts it.

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The Peruvian film, Choropampa, the Price of Gold by Ernesto Cabellos, depicts the fight between a big mining corporation and a little village that has the misfortune of being close to a mercury mine. A devastating mercury spill leads to horrible health problems and even death in the village. In yet another story of big corporate apathy and their exploitation of rural folk, this film looks at the civil resistance on the part of the villagers and their fight to get compensation. In Aside by Mario Handler, the theme of marginality is taken to a different level with an exploration of the lives of young people roughing it out on the street. These cultural outcasts struggle to survive in a so-called knowledge society that has left them far behind. The filmmaker goes into the home of a young prostitute, into a juvenile remand home and into urban slums to reveal the despair, the pain and the hardships of living on the margin. The last film in this segment, Circles in the Sand, by Miriam Chandy Menacherry looks at the lives of ferris wheel operators on Juhu beach and their search for Bollywood stardom. This short film looks at an activist theatre movement that works with many of the operators and others living in their locality. The forum discussion on Seeking Justice: Giving a Voice to Marginality was moderated by Shohini Ghosh. In her opening comments, she explored the documentary form which she felt was very important and could provide the space and time to go into issues in depth. One common thread in the four films she felt was the fact that the filmmakers did not belong to any of the communities that they filmed. She asked the filmmakers for their views on this and how they chose their subject material. Mario reasoned that in his case, he had not bothered to try and identify with his subjects' circumstances. He was seen as rich and his subjects knew that he was a university professor. He did not play any of this down. He was also always careful to ask for permission from his subjects before he filmed. Miriam felt quite self aware, of being on the outside as well as the filmmaker. She felt that the protagonist in her film was also mostly acting in front of the camera - he refused to let them into his home and was clearly putting on an act. Ernesto was careful to get into the community to obtain their trust. He also provided them with VHS copies of all the video footage. In K. N. T. Sastry's case, the problem was that of language for which he used an interpreter. Mario's main aim in shooting this film was to record a case of 'cultural marginality'. He had been warned not to head into the slums alone nor to take the prostitute in the film to his house. But he felt it important to improvise and go into the slums himself to get a feel for life there. At one point when he was filming three young inmates of the remand home, one of the boys asked another how many times he had stabbed a man. It only hit him then that he was filming three young killers which was a chilling moment for him. In response to questions from the audience, he said that he did not have a structure in mind before he began the film and that he did not have clear dividing lines between characters as this film was shot over a long period of time and many changed in appearance. In response to a question from the audience on the issue of privacy and

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whether he felt that he crossed that a little too often, he felt that he had drawn a line and that he actually had much more footage of a very personal and private nature. In fact, he gave second hand, cheaper cameras to several characters to film whatever they felt like. He actually left out much of what was filmed by these young people because he felt that it crossed that line. When asked if he had changed anything for the camera, he replied that he had not changed a thing. On the question of his characters opening up to him, he replied that he didn't want them to talk to him but just to live in front of his camera. On his film, Ernesto gave a little background to his work in response to an audience question. He said that most of the village's problems came from negligence as the corporation did not abide by international safety norms for mercury mining and transport. The health hazards posed are therefore long term ones and the compensation offered by the corporation, inadequate. He lived in a town nearby while filming and had nearly 80 hours of footage over two years. K. N. T. Sastry also provided a backdrop to his film. In 1998, the Chief Minister visited this area and a Kannada reporter broke this story. The expose explained the nexus between politicians and adoption agencies with fancy names. Justice for these little girls is also hard to come by with poor government norms and in some cases, the government actually supporting the sale of girls abroad rather than to Indian couples as the money from abroad is much more. In the last session of the film festival, Ranu Sharmas film Our Own Eyes, explored the process of homogenisation in urban spaces and culture. It juxtaposes this process of homogenisation in urban areas with its simultaneous celebration of differences and resistance to the process. After the film, Ranu was questioned on her use of darkness and light. She felt that darkness could be a way of seeing and that some of the use of darkness was intentional. She added that she hoped to say something about finding a home and identity in a city in which the dominant discourse is one of anonymity and to explore life and homes in small localities. In Blooming Pei Mei by Nutan Manmohan, a young girl of Chinese origin returns to Kolkata to meet with the Chinese immigrant community and identify her roots. She finds to her surprise and delight, a community with a vibrant culture and spirit. As she walks the streets of a Chinese immigrant neighbourhood, she is struck by the diversity of food shops and scenes from everyday life, in a sense reflecting the diversity that the existence of this community lends to India. In the brief question and answer session that followed, Nutan was asked about the Chinese immigrant community's position during the Chinese aggression in 1962 to which she replied that the community was devastated and faced an uncertain future. When asked why she did not cover other Chinese communities in other parts of India, she said that she did not have the time and resources to do so and therefore focused on

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Kolkata. She was also asked if Jessica, who narrated the tale was given a script or whether she wrote her own. Nutan revealed that it was a mix of both. The Workshop (26th and 27th August 2003) The workshop conducted by Peter Lee Wright, was attended by more than a hundred participants ranging from students to filmmakers to writers. Over two packed days, Peter covered a variety of topics and through power point presentations provided tangible ways in which to go about the business of shaping an idea for a film, writing a proposal, finding the funding, writing a script and going on a shoot as well as marketing and advertising strategies. Peter began by using John Griersons comment on the form of documentary film making documentary is the creative use of actuality. He explored different forms of documentaries as they are categorised in England. In highly interactive sessions in which he showed a diverse range of clips from documentaries, he asked the participants whether they would have liked to make any of the documentaries that he screened and if so, which one and why. By keeping the participants involved, he generated healthy discussion and real participation. In particular, he linked much of what he discussed with film making in India and participants were able to discuss the kinds of documentaries shown in India as well as funding opportunities. He was able to get experienced participants to talk about how they went about film making in India. In the afternoon session on 26 August, he listed the different aspects of putting together a workable and attractive proposal. Logically going down the list, he combined his personal experiences both as a filmmaker and as a funder. He also divided the participants into several groups and gave them articles on the basis of which they had to come up with proposals for the next day. Problems faced by some filmmakers were raised for debate such as the degree of acceptable intervention by the funding agency in a filmmakers script or shoot as also the need for improvisation when things do not go as planned. He also explored the process of research and development for a film and listed a number of things to be kept in mind by filmmakers when they approach a subject or elaborate an idea. These tips ranged from the basic such as thoroughly exploring the subject to listening to music to planning a market strategy and knowing ones audience. The workshop also examined script writing and the treatment of various ideas and subjects. By citing examples and actually showing the participants one such treatment, Peter was able to explain his ideas effectively. Peter showed a long clip from The Stephen Lawrence Story which had been a particularly well received and widely watched documentary and represented many of things that Peter explained in different sessions of the workshop. This included planning shots and scripts while dealing with sensitive subject matter and improvising when the need arose.

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In reactions to the workshop, several participants felt that it was very effective and provided very useful tips and advice which would come in handy later. Two PSBT filmmakers felt that the tips that Peter provided on marketing strategy and developing proposals were very useful for them. They also felt that they might even have done their film quite differently if they were to do it again. Other less experienced participants also felt that Peters logical and organised lay out of different aspects of the documentary film making process was very informative. Experienced filmmakers and novices alike felt that there was much offered in this workshop that they would take back with them.

Feedback In general, PSBTs efforts were appreciated. One respondent felt that the festival was too short and screened too many films in that period. It was also felt that some of the segments in which three or four films were screened back to back were too long and it was difficult for the audience to participate in a forum discussion after the screenings. But it was felt that more opportunities for the documentary film making and filmwatching communities should be provided. One filmmaker felt that he had benefited immensely from watching the foreign films as he felt that the quality and technological proficiency of these films was something that he learnt from. The seminars were particularly commended as they provided lively debate with prominent media personalities and raised important issues. The workshop was also very well received with many calls for more workshops with experts like Peter Lee Wright. Some students felt that the workshop was a little to technical for them but for the most part, participants felt that it had been worth their while to attend.

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The organisation of the festival by the PSBT team and volunteers was praised by all and it was felt that the atmosphere was open and warm and viewers were able to engage with films and discussions with abandon.

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