The seventh edition of the Urban Lens Film Festival will be held online, from December 1 to 6. The international film festival that brings together filmmakers, academics and urban practitioners for conversations on cinema and the urban experience, is held in association with The Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and the Danish Cultural Institute. The festival is curated by Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) Media Lab. In six years, it has presented films from 35 countries and 30 languages.
This year, the festival will feature films from 17 countries in 18 languages. There will be a special package called ‘Works of Art are Landscapes of the Mind’, curated by renowned editor and vice chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, Bina Paul.
The films from around the world also include a few from India — Hun Hunshi Hunshilal by Sanjiv Shah, Eeb Allay Ooo! by Prateek Vats, Somewhere Nowhere by Reema Kaur and Shashank Walia among them. Sanjiv Shah's film first released in 1992 but was subsequently out of circulation for years. In addition to these films, an Indo-Poland film Two Autumns in Wyszogrod, directed by Amit Mahanti and Ruchika Negi, will have its world premiere at the festival.
There will be two panel discussions titled 'Reflections on Cinematography' and 'The Many Cinemas of North-East India'. The first will feature cinematographers Fowzia Fathima, Maheen Mirza, Priya Seth and Savita Singh who will speak about their craft and of being women who work in a largely male-dominated field. Professor Sabeen Gadhoke, academic and former cinematographer, will be in conversation with the women. The second discussion on films from North East India will include directors Bhaskar Hazarika, Haobam Paban Kumar, Rajni Basumatary, Wanphrang K Diengdoh and Yapangnari Longkumer. Film critic Namrata Joshi will be in conversation with the filmmakers.
The festival will also include two master classes, led by Malayalam filmmaker Anjali Menon and independent director Dibakar Banerjee respectively. Anjali will be in conversation with award-winning journalist Smitha Nair while Dibakar will be talking to Ranjani Mazumdar, researcher.
The online festival will be hosted here.
Watch: Rajeev Ravi speak at the Urban Lens Fest 2017