Int’l Film Festival of Colombo 2014:

The long-awaited dream come true

By Anuradha Kodagoda

Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world which provides a few hours of escape from the real world while every viewer experiences a different thing and it can also be an insightful reflection on what it means to be human.

To have our own international film festival is a dream of every cinema enthusiast of any country. When you heard the name of city Cannes the first thing that comes to your mind is the Cannes Film Festival and that has given a lot of pride and status for France itself.

The long awaited dream of every cinema enthusiast of the country has now come true with the launch of the International Film Festival of Colombo 2014, the first ever fully-fledged international film festival to be held in Colombo from September 2-7 in association with the Okinawa International Movie Festival in Japan.

The film screenings will be held in four theatres, Regal Cinema, the oldest theatre in the country, established in the first half of the 20th century and this will be the main theatre of the festival. Also at Majestic Cinems (At Ultra), Empire cinema which built the new shopping/liesure complex at Independence Square Arcade and Thararangani Cinema, the theatre under the National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka. In addition to these major theatres, the screening will be at the Goethe Institute theatre as well.

Vision

The International Film Festival of Colombo 2014 is with simple but meaningful vision and mission of positioning the Sri Lankan cinema in a global map which will provide space for the citizens of the country to live as cultured human beings while introducing globally recognised art-house movies which do not come as commercial releases to Sri Lanka and expose local films and filmmakers to the world.

The press conference held recently at the Kingsbury to launch the full-fledged interational film festival Colombo 2014, the festival director and world_acclaimed film director, Asoka Handagama said, “Although Sri Lankan cinema has managed to garner recognition among independent festival audiences the world over, we do not have an effective international film festival of our own.

But our dream of hosting a grand festival is now becoming a reality. It has been five years since the end of the three-decade-long terrorism. What the country needs now is a breathing space to live as cultured human beings. We believe that cinema has the power of exploring the depths of private and social lives of human beings,”

Imprint

Even though the local cinema has over six decades of history it was in 1956 that our cinema was reborn with a truly Sri Lankan identity. It was with Dr. Lester James Piries’s Rekhava, (Silver Line). Rekhava was the only Sri Lankan film which represented Sri Lanka at the Cannes’s film festival in the same year of it produced. However, after 50 years Vimukthi Jayasundara broke the ice and again marked the imprint of Sri Lankan cinema at the Cannes Film Festival by winning the Camera d’Or, one of the main awards of the festival.

In between many of our world-acclaimed filmmakers could feature our cinema in many international film festivals.

However, we could not launch international film festival in Sri Lanka.

By explaining why it is important to have our own international film festival, Asoka Handagama said, “Since cinema is also visual, it has the power of sharing universally the different understandings and interpretations of life belonging to different cultures.

Exposing ourselves to different films made about various societies will help us understand the complexities, as well as simplicities of life around the world. It will help broaden our imagination beyond the existing boundaries. The International Film Festival of Colombo is expected to fill that vacuum in Sri Lankan cinema,”

Main components

The film festival comprises three main components such as film festival, fringe festival and the Indian Ocean competition which the organisers will launch from the next year.

There are more than 70 international and local films to be screened throughout the festival week and there are a few main categories of films to be screened namely, Juliiette Binoche retrospective, Michelangelo Antonioni retrospective, focus on women Spanish directors, official selection, NETPAC movies, Window to Okinawa, Sri Lankan films, Sri Lankan diaspora films, short film corner and children movies.

The Fringe Festival also consists of master classe on cinometography conducted by the well-known Indian cinometographer Rajiv Ravi and there are many film workshops, public seminars, roundtable conferences and exhibitions lined up for the festival week.

Homage will be paid to Dr. Lester James Peries, the father of our cinema, for his immense contribution to showcase Sri Lankan cinema to an international audience.

Besides the festival there are many cultural events organised such as musical nights, dance shows and art exhibitions. Therefore, the benefits of establishing a large-scale international film festival are not confined only to the cinema. The whole country willbenefit from such an annual event.

“Although this festival is initiated by the members of the Film Directors’ Guild, it will be open to everybody. Together we can make this develop to the level of the most reputed international film festival such as Cannes, Berlin or Venice.”

That is the wish of Asoka Handagama on behalf of the Film Directors Guild and also the festival director.