By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Mussoorie, 29 Dec: The Mussoorie Film Festival screened 20 short films, five feature length documentaries and five feature length films, in addition to holding four workshops and masterclasses on topics such as film appreciation, Navarasa in acting, screen writing, and documentary film making.
The film festival was attended by many dignitaries like Shridhar Katti, President Uttarakhand Hotel Association, Poonam Chand, Additional Director, UTDB, Sandeep Sahni, President, Uttarakhand Hotel Association, Dr Lokesh Ohri, Author and Anthropologist, Zamiruddin Ali Shah, ex-Vice Chancellor, AMU, Mohammed Ali Shah, actor, many filmmakers and artistes such as Shubdharshini Singh, Director of Ek Tha Rusty, a Doordarshan serial based on the stories of Ruskin Bond, Anirban Datta, Cinematographer and Professor, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Sanyukta Sharma, Rakesh Pant, founder, Trek the Himalaya, Gopala Krishna, film maker and festival founder, and Martin Hossein Fazeli, a Canadian filmmaker.
The festival took place with the support of Department of Information and Public Relations, Uttarakhand, and the Uttarakhand Film Development Council. The festival also had the support of the local community, especially businesses like Brentwood and Savoy, who offered their venues.
The final day started with an online masterclass on making social issue documentaries conducted by Martin Fazeli, an award-winning Canadian filmmaker. Around 20 participants attended the two-hour masterclass from all parts of India and abroad to learn from the award-winning film maker as he shared his experiences and learnings.
Next was a section of five short films, which were selected and screened on the basis of their artistic merit. These included films like Kamathipura (directed by Ayushmann Pandey), Window Shopping (directed by Soumitra Bagchi), Lost Fragment (directed by Anant Jain and Pranjal Acharya), Black Hole (directed by Pradyuman Patil) and Grasscutter (directed by Kabir Dave).
Grasscutter was shot in Landour, Mussoorie, in the month of August as part of a film making programme organised by Gopal Krishna, founder of the Himalayan Film School, based in Mussoorie.
Three short documentaries produced by ALT EFF based on environmental and sustainability issues were then screened.
The festival had an enthusiastic response from the local citizens and community of Mussoorie town. The festival director, Gopala Krishna, shared that the next edition of the festival will be bigger and grander, with participation from all parts of the country, and that he intends to build the festival as one of the pre-eminent film festivals in India by the third edition.
