FTII students mobilise support of filmmakers, plan parallel Film Fest
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 22 November 2015 23:55 IST
The protesting students of FTII have chalked out a plan of action to involve the whole film fraternity and viewers at IFFI in support of their demands, including a two-day parallel Film Festival.
The Students’ Association FTII managed to get two eminent film personalities for their press conference – former chairman of FTII Saeed Mirza and Dhritiman Chaterjee, actor of a film ‘36 Chowranghee Lane’.
Both of them have condemned the manner in which the protesting students have been terrorised in the campus of 46th International Film Festival of India in Goa.
The FTII students had a 139-day long strike from 12 June to 29 October, protesting against the political appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the institute's director.
After calling off the strike, they have been protesting through different creative mediums.
“I have never witnessed such kind of harassment meted out to film students. It’s high time the whole film fraternity comes forward fearlessly to support the just cause the students have taken up”, said Saeed Mirza, who produced several rebellion films.
Riddhiman Chaterjee, actor of the famous film ’36 Chowranghee Lane’, termed the 46th IFFI as a police state which he has never witnessed in the last 30 years of his experience at several international film festivals all over the world.
Prateek Vats, the winner of President’s Rajat Kamal award in 2010 for his Best Short Fiction Film ‘Kal 15 August Dukan Bandh Hai’, appealed to the whole film fraternity to participate in several creative actions planned by the FTII students.
The students have released a booklet (click here) on 38 filmmakers, who have returned their respective national awards in protest of political appointment for the post of the FTII director.
They have also released a T Shirt with a slogan “Save FTII, Protest is on’, while appealing to buy the T Shirts and wear it in the IFFI campus.
And they are also organising a Film Festival at the Institute of Piedade in Panaji, on 24 and 25 November, from 11 am to 1 pm and 5 to 7 pm, said Kislay Gonzalvez, the ex-student of FTII who was arrested for shouting slogans at IFFI inaugural.
The FTII students plan to screen total 10 short films they have produced, including on India’s eminent film makers, who have returned their national awards.
The reporter got Dhritiman Chaterji's name wrong.