A Short Films Festival on 8 MDG’s, New Delhi – September 2010

Filmbooth in association with the United Nations organized a two-day International Short Film Festival on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), called “EIGHT”, on September 17-18, 2010 in New Delhi. MDGs are a time-bound commitment made by 192 member countries of the UN and 23 international organizations to eradicate hunger and poverty amongst the under-developed and developing countries of the world.

The objective of the two day festival, held at the India Islamic Cultural Centre and Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, was to sensitize people about the issues which need immediate attention from the governments, organizations & civil society through the medium of short films.

Famous Bollywood actor Kunal Kapoor inaugurated the festival by launching a Civil Society Report on the MDGs alongwith Amitabh Behar (Convenor, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan). Kunal in his address to the audience accepted the fact that the time is indeed running out. This was followed by a panel discussion attended by eminent personalities like Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Nafisa Ali, Dilip Cherian and Aruna Vasudev. Highlighting the role of cinema & short films, the panel discussed the challenges and possible solutions in fulfilling the promised made in the year 2000.

To communicate the message of the MDGs, short films made on the same theme by renowned international film makers like Mira Nair, Gus Vant Sant, Gael Garcia Bernal, Wim Wenders, etc. were showcased for the audience, with each of these films addressing a particular issue in the storyline.

As a build-up to the festival, Filmbooth also ran an international short film competition which received overwhelming response from all over the world. It received more than 120 entries from over 15 countries including US, UK, Kenya, Serbia, Russia, Puerto Rico, Australia and India. Around 40 short films were shortlisted in light of the theme of the festival and were sent to the Jury which comprised of Anurag Kashyap, Mike Pandey, Bhawana Somaaya, Namrata Joshi, Kuhu Tanvir and Vagish Shah. Best films were selected on the basis of collective scores and were awarded Swatch watches at the end of the event – a gentle reminder of how we have limited time at our disposal on the MDGs.

The festival was also attended by eminent personalities like Prahlad Kakkar, Minar Pimple (Asia Deputy Director, UN Millennium Campaign) and Nisha Agrawal (CEO, Oxfam) who participated in the panel discussion on the second day which specifically dealt with the role played by short films in becoming an effective carrier of a social message.

The audience comprised of the representatives of various UN agencies working in India, Media agencies, NGO’s such as Khushi and Vidya & Child, Filmmakers, Theatre personalities and Young budding filmmakers & the general public.

The overwhelming participation of the youth in the 2 day event confirmed the fact that short films are a powerful medium of expression; for voicing the opinion of professionals and amateurs alike and when it comes to talking to the youth, something which Filmbooth passionately believes in.

Kuhu Tanvir is one of the editors of Wide Screen. She was previously an editor with NDTVMOVIES.com, the web vertical of the Indian news channel, NDTV. She has also worked as a contributor to the Daily Bulletin of the Osian’s Cinefan Festival 2007. Her paper on urban terror in Aamir and Delhi-6 was published in the Sarai Reader 08: Fear. She has also written a chapter titled ‘Cyber Stars: Stardom and the New Media’ for Media, Culture and Identity which will be published in October 2010. Kuhu is one of the contributors to the Directory of World Cinema – Spain, her entry is on Pan’s Labyrinth. Currently, Kuhu is pursuing her M.Phil in cinema studies.Kuhu Tanwir

Bhawana Somaaya has been a film critic for 30 years and has contributed columns to publications like The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, The Pioneer and The Sunday Observer. She is the former editor of Screen and has authored nine books that include biographies of Hema Malini and Amitabh Bachchan. She is on the Advisory Panel of Censor Board of Film Certificate and the film expert with 92.7 Big Fm. Somaaya is currently doing film reviews for BBC Online and is working on three more books on cinema. Bhawana Somaaya

Namrata Joshi is Senior Assistant Editor and film critic with Outlook newsmagazine. She is the winner of India’s National Award for Best Film Critic for 2004. A member of FIPRESCI, the international federation of film critics based in Munich, she has been a member of the Fipresci critics’ jury at the Cairo International Film Festival, November 2009, Moscow International Film Festival, June 2007 and International Film Festival of Kerala, Trivandrum, December 2005. She has been on the selection committee for Indian panorama section at the International Film Festival of India, Goa, 2008. She has also been on the jury for students’ films in the Twilight Film Festival for short films and documentaries, Delhi, 2008 and the features film jury of the first Pravasi Film Festival, January 3-6, 2010. She has written monographs on actresses NUTAN and MUMTAZ for a series WOMEN IN INDIAN FILM edited by Nasreen Munni Kabir for ZUBAAN PUBLISHING, 2008. Namrata Joshi

Vagish Jha is currently the Coordinator, Multi-media Library, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. He is also a Consultant (Media and IEC) for National Institute of Social Defence (NISD) and Executive producer of a radio series, funded by World Bank-National Aids Control Organization (NACO), meant for rural youth of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. He has extensive experience in the field of production, direction and script writing, has contributed content for Doordarshan, Star Plus and Zee TV and has produced numerous radio shows . Vagish K Jha

Anurag Kashyap is a renowned director and screenwriter. In 1999, Kashyap won the Best Screenplay award for Satya at the Star Screen Awards. The next year, his short film Last Train to Mahakali won the Special Jury Award at the same awards. His feature film debut Black Friday won the Grand Jury Prize at the 3rd Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (2005) and was a nominee for the Golden Leopard (Best Film) at the 57th Locarno International Film Festival (2004).Anurag Kashyap

Mike Pandey is a well known wildlife and conservationist film maker. He has won several awards for his work to spread awareness about biodiversity and species conservation. He is a three time recipient of Green Oscars, and he is the first Asian producer / director to have won the award (in 1994). He has over three decades of filmmaking experience and has produced over 600 films and won scores of both national and International awards.Mike Pandey