Dharamshala film festival from October 24

NEW DELHI: About 30 documentaries, shorts and features from India and world cinema are slated for screenings at the second Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) from October 24-27.
Notable among these are Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s provocative Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, Polish filmmaker Jacek Borcuch’s Sundance award-winning feature, Lasting, Australian director Kate Shortland’s moving post-World War II drama, Lore (it’s the official entry for 2013 Oscars), British artist Shezad Dawood’s debut sci-fi feature, Piercing Brightness and Japanese cult director Takanori Tsujimoto’s martial arts extravaganza, Bushido Man.
DIFF 2013’s special emphasis is on ‘Indie’ films. “There’ll also be some music, master classes, seminars and open air screenings in Dharamshala,” said festival directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, both renowned documentary filmmakers.
Indian documentaries such as Nishtha Jain’s Gulabi Gang, Amit Virmani’s Menstrual Man and Anand Patwardhan’s Jai Bhim Comrade are other attractions.
Apart from a representation of new Indian Indie wave from Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s Fandry and Q’s Tasher Desh, there’ll be a sidebar of best recent short films from India, curated by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni.
Another sidebar includes a series of films made by leading international artists curated in collaboration with Vienna-based Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation.
The festival will also host acclaimed Indian and international filmmakers and industry professionals who will be interacting with the audience through Q & A sessions, panel discussions and film-making master-classes.
The DIFF announcement culminated with a panel discussion on Indian Indie Cinema: Coming of Age on the burgeoning new independent film scene in India with filmmaker Hansal Mehta, Umesh Kulkarni, Ritu Sarin and film critic Saibal Chatterjee.