Discovering Smaller Film Festivals

Everyone wants to go a prestigious film festivals (or at least movie fans surely do). Who wouldn’t want to be in Sundance, Toronto, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Pusan et al? However, a recent blog entry pointed out convincingly the beauty of those so-called “second tier” festivals. Truly, as it says, everyone who is anyone is in Pusan and by this time, most of them has had their fair share of trading and the same group is now planning their AFM trip but little attention is paid to these smaller festivals.

One festival that I am interested in is the Jeonju International Film Festival which features a lot of interesting and some really exciting programmes. For example, this year there is a retrospective on Ritwik Ghatak, an Indian film director that I have not heard of until now (ashamedly so!). And because of this awareness, I get to know that Channel 4 is featuring a Ritwik Ghatak retro too. Because of these good people, my movie horizon is now expanded by as much as that but unfortunately I don’t think I can get any of his movies in Kuala Lumpur. But it is all very exciting just to know what is waiting for me out there. If luck is on my side, I may even get to do a Ritwik Ghatak retro on my channel as well ;-)

More on Ritwik Ghatak:

From the Harvard Film Archive

Some reviews from my most respected film geek: the one and only Aquarello