You know your film judging team is being treated like business class when your welcome kit includes a ‘polar fleece’ blanket to keep you warm in air-conditioned theatres while watching movies back-to-back all week
Illustration/Uday Mohite
You know your film judging team is being treated like business class when your welcome kit includes a ‘polar fleece’ blanket to keep you warm in air-conditioned theatres while watching movies back-to-back all week. In-house gossip reveals that the Singapore Film Festival supplies its jury members with Tiger Balm during screenings. Ah, the untold perks of loving film! I’m currently on the Nominations Council of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) in Brisbane, Australia, which honours the best films from 70 Asia-Pacific nations, including India. It’s an Oscar-style procedure: the Nominations Council selects a list of nominees in various film categories, from which the International Jury — which includes Shyam Benegal this year — chooses the winners. The Council includes the chairman Kim Hong-Joon, Korean film veteran, and Maxine Williamson, Film Director, APSA and the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival. It’s APSA’s 10th anniversary this year, and my fourth time on the council.
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Previous Indian APSA winners include Gangs of Wasseypur (Jury Grand Prize) and The Lunchbox (Jury Grand Prize and Best Screenplay). Earlier Indian APSA Nominees include Om Shanti Om (Best Film), Manoj Bajpayee (Best Actor, Gangs of Wasseypur) and Atul Kulkarni (Best Actor, Natarang), Vidya Balan (Best Actress, The Dirty Picture), Killa (Best Youth Feature), Bidesia in Bambai (Best Documentary) and Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya (Best Animated Feature). They also have an Asia Pacific Screen Lab, where I am Script Advisor this year.
In Mumbai, the warning at the start of a film goes, “Dhumrapan padega mehenga (smoking is injurious),” with that wretched sponge squeezing out carbon. In Brisbane, the warning goes: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are advised that this film may contain images of dead persons,” as it may cause offence, distress or grief to indigenous people.
At our council film screenings, I am constantly reminded how much we take for granted in India. Igor Gouskov, specialist in ex-USSR cinema and fellow council member, tells me Russian filmmakers complain they are not allowed to make films based on reality, but the state is happy to support spectacular fantasies. This Russian has been living in Paris for years, and his Russo-Franco-English mash-up is my daily elixir. Samples: Angelina Jolie sent private inspector for Brad Pitt. The love reglement in India is very tough, no? I commanded breakfast 15 minutes ago. This film won the Oscar for Best Strange Language. I am not at all convicted by this film. The Road Movie is a film fully ‘registrated’ from the car, and ‘preparated’ from dashboard camera clips. You get the picture.
It’s springtime now in Brisbane. Elegant jacarandas, mauve and yellow tabebuias and rusty shield bearers line avenues with discreet colonial bungalows around the New Farm Cinemas, where our screenings are held. People soak up the spring in this city that hugs the Brisbane River — families dawdle by the riverbank, babies doze in prams, kids skate, people jog and swim. As you sit at an outdoor riverfront restaurant, two creatures will sidle up: the white Australian ibis, an elegant bird with a white body, and black head and long curved beak, and the Australian water dragon, an exotic lizard that looks like it escaped from a video game. Anytime you’re bored, you can take the free ferry that tootles along the Brisbane River all day, gliding under its many bridges, including Story Bridge and Kurilpa Bridge, named after the aboriginal word for ‘place for water rats.’ I feel lucky to have visited a city that’s falling off the bottom of the planet. As the Aussies would say, “Good on ya, mate!”
Meenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival, award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshishedde@gmail.com
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