Best of DIFF: Nationwide Free Screenings
The Dharamshala International Film Festival is touring the country again this year, with free screenings of the Best of DIFF at Odd Bird Theatre, India Habitat Centre, and India International Centre across Delhi, and at the Alliance Française de Mumbai, in Mumbai. As part of our outreach initiative to bring the best of independent cinema to communities, we’re thrilled to be screening festival favourites from 2015 in your city, as we count down to the opening night on 3rd November later this year.
Gurvinder Singh’s Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction), evokes the mahaul (atmosphere) of paranoia and fear across Punjab in the wake of the 1984 riots, through two oddly related short stories that narrate the plight of the common man trapped between the excesses of the military on one side, and the movement for a Sikh nation on the other.
The film has been internationally acclaimed at Cannes 2015, Belgrade International Film Festival 2015 (Best Film), while also spotlighting itself at home at the National Film Awards and Mumbai Film Festival 2015.
(Delhi: Odd Bird 20:00, September 22, India International Centre 18:30 October 4)
Bhaskar Hazarika’s Kothanodi (The River of Fables) is an unconventional magically realist adaptation of four stories from the Assamese folktale compendium Buri Ai’r Xadhu (Grandma’s Tales). Set in pre-colonial India with an eye to the contemporary status quo of women issues in Assam, Hazarika pushes and weaves the tales of four mothers through dark, unorthodox pathways, where magic is real, emotions are raw, and horror is visceral.
The film has won the Best Feature Film in Assamese at the National Film Awards India 2016. It has been screened at the Busan International Film Festival 2015, BFI London Film Festival 2015, New York Indian Film Festival 2016, and Jio MAMI, Mumbai Film Festival 2015.
(Delhi: Odd Bird 20:00, September 1, India International Centre 18:30 October 3)
Brian Knappenberger’s The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is an investigative documentary about Aaron Swartz, an internet prodigy and start-up tech millionaire, who fought for the right to social justice and political consciousness within the rising global dominions of technology.
The film has appeared at the Sundance Film festival 2014, SXSW 2014, New Zealand International Film Festival 2014, Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014, Sundance Film Festival 2014, and HotDocs Film Festival 2014. It won Best Short Award and Pare Lorentz Award by the International Documentary Association 2014, and Best Hacker Film at HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth (2014).
(Delhi: Odd Bird 18:00, September 11, India Habitat Centre 19:00 September 23)
(Mumbai: Alliance Francaise 18:30, October 4)
Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence follows the surreal nightmares of The Act of Killing, this time documenting the voices of the victims of the ‘purge’, through the protagonist Adi whose uncomfortable conversations and haunting silences with the local perpetrators- of the 1965-66 violence in Indonesia- mark the return of the repressed and ethical accountability thrown out from the annals of historical violence summoned through cinema.
The film won the Grand Jury Prize, Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) Best Film, Online Critics Prize (Mouse d’Oro) Best Film, Human Rights Nights Award at Venice Film Festival 2015. Its critical acclamation is widespread with the Best World Documentary (Cinephile Prize) at Busan International Film Festival 2014, Best Documentary at Denver Film Festival 2014, the Danish film Academy award (Robert Prize) for Best Documenttary 2015, and the Daish Film Critics’ Award (Bodil Prize) for Best Documentary 2015.
(Delhi: Odd Bird 20:00 September 8, India Habitat Centre 19:00 September 25)
(Mumbai: Alliance Francaise 18:30, October 10)
Tetsuichiro Tsuta’s The Tale of Iya (Iya moogatari: Oku mo hito) is suffused with a dreamy surreality as the modest and humble lives of the local villagers -stuck between tunnel builders and western protesters- take on the curious eternal temperament of nature, surviving through a conflict ridden urbanity and progress.
The film won the Jury prize at the Hong Kong International Film Festival 2014, Special Mention at Green Film Festival, Seoul 2015 and Tokyo International Film Festival 2013, Best Film Award at Pan Asian Film Festival 2014, Aurora Prize at Tromsø International Film Festival 2014, and the Best Film Award at the Pan Asian Film Festival 2014.
(Delhi: Odd Bird 20:00, September 15)
(Mumbai: Alliance Francaise 18:30, October 3)
Catch these best films from DIFF 2015 to get an impression of what might lay in store for you at DIFF 2016 later this year.
Check out the entire DIFF programme here and Register now to immerse yourself in the magic of cinema in the shadow of the majestic Dhauladhars.