Watch Films to Explore the World
Pico Iyer,
who is one of the world’s best travel writers and who writes for TIME Magazine. He spent many days of his youth at local cultural halls and learning
centers in his city. Here he would watch many of the academy award nominated
foreign films that would be screened at these places. Anurag Kashyap is an Indian
director. As a youngster, he attended the Goa Film Festival where he saw over
55 films over the ten days of the festival. He then started making his own
movies and now is one of Indian Cinema’s biggest directors.
My father was a movie buff.
Every Thursday we would go to the local theatre to watch a different film. This
is where my love for movies started. I then started exploring the world of
movies a little more.
I would buy CD’s and borrow
movies from friends. I tried developing an interest for all kinds of films.
There was so much to learn about the world through movies. People would travel
to the farthest corners of the world and film fascinating stories. All I had to
do was get a CD and enjoy the work of art from my home.
I mainly developed an
interest in documentaries, adventure, science fiction and award winning movies
of different genres. Most of the movies I saw were documentaries or biopics
about the lives of people. But I started watching movies in almost all movie
genres. I also took an introduction to films class in college and understood
the history of cinema and how it has evolved over time.
Film Festivals
In Mumbai, in the month of
September, there was a film festival being organized. It was a five day
festival called the ‘Jagran Film Festival’. They would organize chapters of
this festival at different states all over the country. It was a year long film
festival. Regional Indian Films, World Cinema, Classics and Short Films were
shown at this festival. It ran from 24th September to 29th
September and I would go and watch movies there on most days of the festival.
I always believed a good
movie can take you to a new world and make you think about things you have
never thought about before. Some movies bring out emotions you have never felt
before. On some days I would spend
the whole day watching movies at the festival, while on other days, I would
finish my work in the morning and spend the evening watching movies at the
theatre. The movies were free of cost for the public, but you have to come well
in advance to book your seat for it. In a city like Mumbai, where everyone is
movie fan, even getting there early will not get you a seat. So I had to plan
my days well in advance to ensure I got to see the right film at the right time
at the festival.
Some of the movies I saw at
the festival were:-
a) Panther Panchali – Satyajit Ray
b) Bombay Talkies
c) Children’s Republic
d) Five Short
Films in different languages
e) Ship of Theseus
I would also attend movie
screenings at college festivals and cultural festivals happening around the
city of Mumbai.
How do you keep a record of
the movies you watch?
- Make a ‘Film Challenge List’- How to do it below
- Physical Record - Take an A4 Size Sheet of Paper and draw three vertical lines down the sheet with enough spacing in between to write the names of the film.
- Phone Record – Title the list ‘Film Challenge List’ and as soon as you watch a film somewhere, note it down
- Digital Record – Give it the same title. Then type down all the movies you have noted down in your phone record. Use Evernote, and you will not have to type it all again, as when you take notes on your smartphone, it gets uploaded to your Evernote profile on the website.
Using Films to Learn
a) Check Film Award Lists – Start with the Academy Award
List for Best Film and Best Documentary. You have a detailed list of all the
movies that have won the award from the early 1900’s (nineteen hundred’s). I
would go through the list, read the film description of winning and nominated
movies and then borrow or get CD’s of the movies from friends or the local
video library
b) Find Reliable and Renowned Movie Reviewers on the
internet or in the papers
c) Check online lists for top movies to watch in each
genre.
Internet Movie Links
a) Go through the website openculture.org to find a list
of all the movies available on the internet. Find a good video downloader for
your computer, so you can download these movies from the online video channels
and film archives and watch it on your time
b) Join your local video library – I have found lots of
great movies at a reasonable cost here. I would rent at least one a week
c) Netflix or Local Movie Provider – This will incur an
additional cost, but is a recommended source incase you do not have access to a
good internet connection or video library.
Some movies I love
a) Man on Wire
b) Searching for Sugar Man -
c) Motorcycle Diaries
d) Great Debaters
Let us Learn Together
Tweet @AbhishekShetty_
Sat-chi-nanda
No comments:
Post a Comment