Mazumder underscores the need to propagate film culture

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 22 (EMN): The vice president of Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) and Asia-Pacific secretary of International Federation of Film Societies (IFFS), Premendra Mazumder, has underscored the need to propagate film culture in order to knit closer ties among the people in the region.

Mazumder stated this during an official programme to mark the affiliation of Film Association of Nagaland (FAN) with Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) held at RCEMPA in Jotsoma on Wednesday.

Informing about the first film festival, which was organised in 1952 in both Bombay and Delhi in India under the initiative of Jawaharlal Nehru, he narrated how governments in different states started to organise similar events in the following years. Reminding that Nagaland had conducted two film festivals through FAN, in collaboration with the state government, Mazumder informed that Northeast states like Assam and Sikkim have also promoted film festivals through similar events.

While reminding FAN on the need to reach out to the state government to form film policies as one of its demands, he asked the association to simultaneously perform two parallel duties – to support the film fraternity of Nagaland by providing technical support system and to propagate film culture as well as promote better cinema to people in the state through their activities.

In order to promote film culture, he advised the film fraternity to take up the issue with the state government in order to provide courses on mass communication and film making at the college and university levels.

Citing examples on how the government of Kerala, which is eagerly promoting film in their state, Mazumder maintained that FAN will not be able to conduct meaningful events alone privately if the state government is not taking initiative for propagation of film culture or making of good films.

‘The propagation of film culture is part and parcel of the basic necessity of a film society without which making of film alone would lead to nowhere because there will be nobody to appreciate films,’ he said.

Keeping in mind the necessity of a permanent office for the society, movie appreciators and those who can read film as a text including enthusiasts, scholars, writers, film critics, sincere viewers and lovers of cinema etc., he stated that everybody need not mandatorily become filmmakers to promote the film culture.

Describing cinema to be basically a “text,” Mazumder, who has been a film society activist for the last 45 years, said to appreciate any form of art, one first need people to understand the film as a text adding that it is important to seek attention of film lovers before making any movie.

With the coming of the digital platform, he stated it is possible to hold film festival events online without meeting directors or producers in person, while one could also watch films by downloading them through the internet. However, he maintained that such easiness to access films via online has made it “complicated” to appreciate film or cinema- a “difficult form of art,” reasoning that when such accessibility to cinema is made available easily, it becomes difficult to propagate the culture.

“Making films and understanding films are different from each other,” he said, informing how the first school to understand films was established in Kolkata.

Mazumder also narrated how the film society movement, which was first formed by Satyajit Ray in 1947 after which emphasis was given to universities in India to come forward to introduce a curriculum on studying film as a form of art like other western countries.

In order to make a good movie, he emphasised that one needs to understand the grammar of cinema film.

‘Film understanding is totally meant for understanding cinema and not for making film,’ he said and reminded that ‘it is pivotal for those who make films to understand how to appreciate cinema’.

“To understand a good film, you have to watch the film over and over again and frame by frame like any form of novel, poetry or a musical piece,” Mazumder said.

Informing that there are currently 350 film societies all over India under FFSI, he added that there are about 100 film societies in different campuses and universities in the country.

A FAN member, Wabang Moa, while giving an overview about the society, informed that they currently have 56 members with persons from different media related fields till date. He informed that FAN, a registered society since 2018,stated that the society was formed with an intention of ensuring overall improvement in the standard of film making, to enhance the scenario of film and media in the state, to safeguard the interests of genuine and established individuals in the field of producing, directing, cinematography, editing, scriptwriting, acting, sound, lighting and other related activity in the area of filmmaking of Nagaland.

A series of films such as ‘From Khovrino’ (Russia), ‘Goodnight Colombo’ (Sri Lanka), ‘Silence’ (Bangladesh), ‘Karbala Memoirs’ (India) etc. were screened during the day to mark the occasion.