In July 2024, the Bengaluru Film Forum, in collaboration with Goethe Institute, commemorated the birth anniversary of the Indo-German filmmaker Harun Farocki, with a three-day festival.
Harun Farocki was a celebrated filmmaker with an expansive body of work. With a career spanning over five decades, Farocki made intellectually stimulating thematic films on labour, war, and cityscapes in modern, post-industrial environments. His filmmaking style ranged from “fly on the wall” to “observational” to “direct.”
The festival showcased over 15 of his films, many from Goethe’s film archives and a few directly sourced from the Harun Farocki estate in Germany. This is indeed a commendable feat.
Why is it commendable?
Because this kind of initiative requires tremendous effort and, just as importantly, the commitment to bring meaningful films to the forefront—films that make one observe, discern, think, learn, and grow.
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Cinema and community in Namma Bengaluru
Bengaluru, at its heart, holds a special place for the fine arts, especially cinema. With the hoopla around big-budget Bollywood-type cinema and box office performance on one side, alternative and independent features and documentaries have quietly yet consistently found their audience in the city.
This trend has been ongoing since the early 1970s:
- The Suchitra Film Society was set up in Bengaluru. Apart from introducing Bengaluru to many of India’s underrated geniuses and international filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard, Istvan Szabo, and Eric Rohmer through their wonderful films, the Suchitra Film Society has also been hosting the Bengaluru International Film Festival since 2006.
- Other spaces that host films in the city include:
- Alliance Francaise de Bengaluru
- National Gallery of Modern Art
- The Courtyard, and others.
- As far as focused film clubs go, Lahe Lahe is a movie club with the unique feature of a book club where members discuss movies they have watched, although they don’t do screenings.
- The Climate Film Club, started by the Bengaluru Creative Circus (BCC) in collaboration with the Initiative for Climate Action, screens documentaries and feature films on “issues surrounding the climate crisis.”
The difference between watching a movie in a theatre and seeing it within the confines of a film club is the kinship and sense of community that the latter creates. Shared experiences versus individual experiences is the focus of film curation enthusiasts.
With the pandemic and concurrent digitization, many movies are now available at the palm of one’s hand. As a result, regular screenings at many of these places have come to a pause.
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Bengaluru Film Forum
Interestingly enough, the pandemic also birthed another versatile group called Bengaluru Film Forum (BFF). The group is making interesting strides across the city and importantly, bringing the focus back to regular film screenings.
BFF started as a simple film viewing and appreciation group with Vinayak and his friends (Vinayak Bhat is the founder of BFF) on a terrace space. As of 2024, BFF is also a committed film curation group with a 1,000-member community.
Pirated films, expensive Blu-rays, and dodgy downloads limit access to good films. With that in mind, Vinayak’s objective around BFF is cinema itself: to watch, enjoy, debate, and keep alive alternative and independent cinema while also revisiting classics across languages, including many art house ones.
To further take and showcase meaningful cinema to as many people in the city as possible is an equal priority for the former IT professional, Vinayak. He is now an editor with a production house and is the singular, dogged force behind BFF.
“Every viewer is going to get a different thing. That’s the thing about painting, photography, and cinema.” — David Lynch, Filmmaker
BFF takes a measured approach to drawing their audience. While many cinephiles experiment with multiple genres of cinema with ease, Vinayak understands that not every film lover is a cinephile. Keeping that in mind, he provides audiences with access to movies that are simple yet meaningful. He builds it up slowly from there.
Engaging with the audience
Building a sustainable audience is key. This has also been a bit of a challenge but is getting better with time and concerted effort, according to Vinayak.
For instance, a very underrated Malayalam gem, “Vasthuhara,” directed by G. Aravindan, was shown in April 2024 at MAP (Museum of Art & Photography) Gallery in collaboration with Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. The gallery was packed to the rafters with a whopping 150 people in the audience.
Social media platforms continue to play a big role in promoting BFF events, while they also rely on their existing members.
Many of BFF’s film screenings are followed by discussions with experts, filmmakers, etc. For example, the screening of the indie movie “The Brittle Thread/Jhini Bini Chadariya by Ritesh Sharma” at Kappanna Angala in September 2023 was followed by an interactive session with the filmmaker and the cast, who were also present at the screening.
Interactive screenings with the filmmaker lead to better engagement and recall with the audience, making them want to watch other movies by that specific filmmaker. Overall, this initiative supports independent filmmakers, and it’s incredible that BFF has been able to pull off such an effort.
“Bengaluru Film Forum (BFF) has been a recent and increasingly significant presence in the city’s independent film fraternity,” says Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Film Historian, “They have single-handedly discovered new venues for screenings, created new cinephiliac audiences, and brought new emphasis on independent film, both from India and elsewhere. I was especially impressed by the Harun Farocki event they did recently at the Goethe Institute. Equally important is their weekly screening program in cafes and other innovative screening spaces.”
BFF has collaborated with Untitled Arts Foundation, Klayworks Barista, Jyoti Nivas College, Goethe Institute, and MAP for their screenings.
While most of their screenings are free, it would make sense for them to charge a nominal entry fee to cover operational costs in due course.
At many of these screenings, one could expect to be treated to a hot cup of filter coffee or tea and an Indian snack. What more can one ask for?
There is more, and we will slowly get there.
Under the open sky…
The much-loved theatre group “Bardolators of Bengaluru” wowed us with their whimsical and unique take on many Shakespeare plays under the banner of “Shakespeare in the Park,” many of which were performed at the lovely Cubbon Park. This was a first of its kind.
Screening cinema in public spaces is not alien to the West. The Central Park Conservancy Film Festival screens a week’s worth of classics every year at Central Park, New York. This is a free festival, and the movies begin at dusk.
The use of public spaces for film screenings, however, is not a regular activity in urban India. However, it’s not a rare sight in rural India, where watching programmes or movies as a community under a tree, or gathering at a village square or complex, has been happening since the advent of television.
Bengaluru, with its bevy of lush green parks and salubrious weather, can definitely propel such public screenings. BFF seems open to screening movies in public parks—Cubbon Park, Lal Bagh, Mini Forest Park, to start with, perhaps? This, however, would need support from the authorities and citizenry.
BFF has the vision and, importantly, the sustained intent to engage Bengaluru’s audience with meaningful cinema. They have a planned and steady approach to execution, and there has been tangible progress with every passing year. They have screened 105 films so far.
Onward and upward!
BFF can be contacted at https://linktr.ee/Bengalurufilmforum/.
by Alexis Damianos. Pic: ©DimitrisParthimos