<nettime> Goa, coping with the pressures of a shiftover of the IFFI from New Delhi

[<fred@bytesforall.org>]

Goa, coping with the pressures of a shiftover of the IFFI from New
Delhi November 22, 2007

Panjim, Goa, Nov 22: Faced with having to cope with the pressures of
shifting its venue from the Indian national capital to the country's
smallest province, the IFFI (International Film Festival of India)
is currently working to win friends and influence people here in the
former Portuguese colony of Goa.

India's attempt -- which started since the IFFI shifted here in
November 2004 -- is aimed at recreating an "Indian Cannes" of sorts,
in this small region, known better for being a holidayer's paradise
and region filled with beaches and an interesting mix of food and
music.

Goa's main problem: it doesn't have much of a film-culture of its own.

Two other problems, at least, also afflict the shifting of the
film-festival here. One is political. Opinion tends to get sharply
polarised here.

When the IFFI first came to Goa in 2004, the supporters of the
right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were its big
fans. Now that that party is in opposition, it is the ruling Congress
which is trying to make the most of the event, while allies and
supporters of the BJP go about criticising the event.

In the meanwhile, Goa is also getting squeezed between the various
Indian regional film industries, a few of whom are for Goa being the
venue of IFFI, and more believe that their own region could play a
better host.

Bollywood -- as the moneyspinning mainly-Hindi, Mumbai (Bombay)-based
film industry from western Indian is known -- appears to be largely
in favour of the festival being hosted in Goa. Regional Indian film
industries from Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) and
Kolkatta (West Bengal) appear not so well disposed to the festival
being sited here.

But the Confederation of Indian Industry, a national level trade body
that sees the money, rather than the entertainment, side of films to
be important, itself largely appears to be supportive of Goa as the
venue.

Government employees, themselves a harried lot having to cope with
this small region's stretched infrastructure, sometimes show their
dislike of having to work on a festival being held in Goa rather than
in New Delhi, a city they are more used to.

Goa, India's smallest state, also has the challenge of coping with
the difficulties of building its infrastructure upto par, raising
money to fend for the festival, and pulling off things without too
much inefficiency amidst the growing number of impatient fans and film
buffs thronging to the festival.

This year the state has attempted to increase the number of seats
available at the festival, and extend screenings to a few more
theatres. Also, the process for applying -- for both delegates and
media -- has been placed online, which speedened up things but also
ran into some technical glitches in a case of some registrations.

Panjim, the Goan state capital, announced that the street
carnival-style fanfare would be minimised during IFFI 2007, which
begins here on Friday, November 23, 2007.

This is seen as important to avoid dislocations and further
traffic-jams in this small state-capital of barely 50,000 inhabitants,
whose population swells to double its size daily because of the influx
of government servants and others.

Meanwhile, the Entertainment Society of Goa, the organisation which is
entrusted with the local preparations for the event by the regional
governmentn announced it would organise a series of competitions in
time for the IFFI.

It said IFFI this year would create "talent platforms" for Goa with
film-related competitions to encourage local participation.

These competitions would include a lyric writing competition (in the
languages of English, Hindi, Konkani, Marathi). Participants would
have to submit a single entry of their original lyrics.

There would also be a multi-lingual film story competition; music
compsition competition; a photo-competition to shoot unknown locations
in scenic Goa for filming; and even a floor-painting competition
depicting film personalities.

By Frederick Noronha fred@bytesforall.org

http://www.filmfestivals.com/cgi-bin/shownews.pl?obj=ShowNews&CfgPath=ffs/filinfo&Cfg=news.cfg&news=general&text_id=31419

PHOTOS FROM THE IFFI:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/sets/72157603268704133/
-- 
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
12000+ downloadable, sharable hi-res photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/






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