If the Kalpanirjhar short fiction film festival has lasted 15 years and appears to be getting more popular, it is because it has provided a viable platform for the growing number of aspiring filmmakers. Digital technology has produced an explosion not just of numbers but also of ideas.
The festival has laid down standards that help the audience compare the work done in India with entries received from different parts of the world — from Busan in Asia to selections from Berlin and Italy. In the process, one can see how the language of short fiction films has acquired new directions and dimensions and has resulted in a sharing of common human experiences.
After the assault of big productions at the Kolkata film festival and the sustained excitement on the Nandan campus, the experience of a smaller and meaningful festival should have been both relaxing and invigorating. The very essence of a genre that thrives on technical skills, on the one hand, and social and human concerns, on the other, generates an excitement of its own. The organisers presented a large selection from the many more entries that they had received only to indicate that these films have the advantage of looking at supposedly minor human experiences that often have a larger universal relevance.
In most of the films, it was clear that the short film category compelled the filmmakers to concentrate on simple — though by no means simplistic —statements. Even a two-minute film like the Spanish entry, 82 Years, left a trail of honest introspection. The room is half-lit with candles as the man who has reached the average age of life expectancy in his country wonders whether it is necessary to merely wait for death. A thought that is equally provocative strikes a man in France who changes his old refrigerator for a new one. The result is what the filmmaker calls Fridgemania. The protagonist unwittingly throws himself into a new world of consumer chaos that is made worse by a daughter who belongs to the new generation of upwardly mobile professionals with whom there is a clear generation gap. An ordinary event turns into a human reality in the space of 20 minutes. In Egypt, a schoolgirl living with her father discovers to her despair that the experience of growing up, both physically and mentally, is not something she can share with him. This is so personal and specific that the maker of Wintry Spring — ironically a male — finds that 15 minutes is more than enough to make his statement.
This is what has made the short film category so relevant as to throw up new opportunities on festival circuits. Some festivals have sections for short fiction emerging from film schools. Others concentrate wholly on this form with the objective of scouting for talent that can be groomed. One such festival is Busan. It hosts one of the biggest festivals in Asia and has also thrown up a cinematic culture of its own that includes films on intensely personal issues best expressed in a shorter format. A young man with an anti-establishment drive in his veins grows up into a mature and sensible citizen. He learns to accept personal responsibilities but is soon confronted with an image of his own past in the form of his angry young son. The film, Silence of the Dogs, deals with a problem that extends from Korea to countries in Asia and the West. Somewhat less provocative was The Regular Hire — also from Korea. It dealt with young people having to sell their conscience in a fiercely competitive consumer society. Perhaps the idea could have acquired powerful implications in a feature film. The short film has an appeal that survives longer in the mind.
The festival has sustained the attraction of drawing packages from interesting sources. From Italy there came a selection that included Black Comedy. In the space of 15 minutes, the director blurs the line between reality and fiction as it examines the lives of a couple who are engaged in the theatre. As usual, large packages were received from Germany largely on account of the support that the Max Mueller Bhavan lends to the Kalpanirjhar Foundation. These include short fiction work from Berlinale that display a good deal of experiment as in Out of Season. It is structurally inventive as it explores shifting moral codes in contemporary society but with the artistic discipline of the chosen form.
What is most encouraging is that short fiction on the screen is gradually being taken more seriously in India not only in film schools where diploma films have to be made but in general where intelligent minds are expressing themselves. Often stories with contemporary statements are told through animation as in Story of Dhobola. But there is an exciting variety of ideas — from children robbed of their innocence in Toy to the cross-border tragedy of young lives in Red Ribbon. Aparna Sen and Gautam Ghose struck the right notes at the opening and closing ceremonies when they said that the future of Indian cinema lay in the hands of some of these young directors with assured techniques and fresh approaches to topical issues. To that extent, Kalpanirjhar continues to perform a vital role.