Friday, June 18, 2010

when the trees were still real

Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, both avant-garde Danish film makers, announced the Dogme Manifesto in 1995, with the idea to create a stir especially against the Hollywood style film making, and forcing the world to re-imagine the essence of life in film making. According to the Dogme collective, this essence of life was being drained out of films time and over again, and thus the effort to break everything one hates to see in a film. A film would be Dogme 95 certified under the following conditions -

1. Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in. If a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found.
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic.
3. The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden (that is to say that the film takes place here and now).
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The final picture must be transferred to the Academy 35mm film, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, that is, not widescreen. Originally, the requirement was that the film had to be filmed on Academy 35mm film, but the rule was relaxed to allow low-budget productions.
10. The director must not be credited.

ANY BUYERS FOR A DOGME95 FILM? IF NOT YOU COULD TRY THE RE-MODERNIST MANIFESTO.

Stanely Cavell

I do not have any of Cavell's text on PDF format, but here is a link to some conversations on Cavell, Film and Philosophy with the man himself.

New Cinephillia by Moinak Biswas

Moinak Biswas- New Cinephilia

THE 5 OBSTRUCTIONS









THE PERFECT HUMAN by Jorgen Leth

Slavoj Žižek



AND THE LIGHTS GO OUT!

5.30 PM: It is time we begin the event! Lets wait for a bit, we may have others join in.

6.00 PM: Ok lets start now. A round of introductions and we have with us - Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed (Frontline, Writes about films in Hindu occasionally), Paromita (We all know her as Rumpi! An independent film maker), Yashaswini (Yashu, is an independent film maker too. Current area of interest - migration), Ram and Ekta (The most recent couple to get hitched, congrats guys! they collectively founded Maraa - an art-communication-theatre-culture collective in the city), Sherena ( An import from Bollywood who just moved to town), Pritham Kumar (Actor, Lights Designer, Bob the Builder..), Leon (ex Ad guru), Theodore Bhaskaran (voracious writer on Tamil Cinema and a retired civil servant), Ridhi D'Cruz (visual and sound artist), Myself (researcher and film-maker) and our curator for the evening - Lawrence Liang ( a legal researcher who works between Film - Law - Philosophy)

So what do we call this group? Please enter your selection from the names that came up in the poll to your right.