Friends of Cinema organises an event called ‘Kalpana’ in which short films, each no longer than 20 minutes, are screened between 6.30pm and 8pm on the second Saturday of the month at the NCPA.
A group of Bachelor in Mass Media (BMM) students with a passion for film-making is putting summer vacations to good use. Under the initiative, Friends of Cinema, the students are screening their short films made during course work at the NCPA.
“During our three years in degree college, as a part of our project work, we made a lot of short films. However, we could not get an opportunity to show them to the public. That is why decided to form a group which promotes the screening of short films,” said Prajakta Kakade, a 21-year-old BMM student of Khalsa College.
Friends of Cinema organises an event called ‘Kalpana’ in which short films, each no longer than 20 minutes, are screened between 6.30pm and 8pm on the second Saturday of the month at the NCPA. “It is free, and anyone with an interest in cinema and film-making is invited as the theatre has a seating capacity of 140,” said Kakade.
After the screening, Friends of Cinema holds a discussion on the films. “We invite professors and experts to give a talk on ‘Understanding Cinema’, which is a subject in the second year of BMM,” said Kakade. The first event saw several short films being screened in the presence of an assorted audience comprising young students, debutant film-makers, teachers, professors etc.
Pravesh Vishwanath, who teaches the ‘Understanding Cinema’ course at Khalsa College, Anusha Ramanathan, a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and social activist Harish Iyer, an eminent jury at various film festivals, are the permanent guests of honour at Kalpana. Friends of Cinema also plans to invite faculty from other colleges in the future.
“A film is a part of the film-maker’s imagination. That is why we decided to name the event Kalpana,” explained Limin Mathew, a 22-year-old student of Khalsa college. “I made a couple of films during college. Though the films were appreciated, I never really got an audience to show the film to. We also happened to meet several other students from various colleges at a festival for short films, where I heard the same refrain,” Mathew said.
“All of us complained about the lack of opportunity to showcase short films to an audience. So we decided to come together and organise screenings of popular films in the short film circuit in Mumbai,” said Mathew, adding that the summer vacations turned out to be the perfect time for it, as students had a lot of free time on their hands.
The biggest problem for the group was finding sponsors. “Fortunately, we found willing supporters in FX School, Andheri, and Bank of Maharashtra. NCPA too wanted to promote short films, and agreed to arrange for free screenings,” said Kakade.
“I hope they accommodate more films next time and get more local movies. At a time when Bollywood is getting increasingly repetitive and is playing it safe all the time, short films are a good way to explore the unpredictable elements,” said Pavitra Tupurani, a student who attended the screening.
Friends of Cinema has a presence on Facebook, has received entries from Hyderabad and Bangalore, and now plans to start associations in other cities as well.
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