News

• News archive

Gothenburg and Bangalore are getting closer

News: Mar 07, 2011

The cooperation between the School of Film Directing in Gothenburg and the Suchitra School of Cinema and Dramatic Arts in Bangalore is making great progress. The Gothenburg-Bangalore Film Days – their first joint event – was held in February. Following the mini film festival, the two Schools held their very first workshop together.

For two days the Schools showed student films from Sweden and India. Gothenburg student Anton Källrot presented Topdog, a much appreciated film that sparked both debate and many comments among participants and visitors of all ages.

Skrapsår by Gabriela Pichler and London Transfer by Roozbeh Behtaji also received a great deal of positive attention and stirred up many questions.

Cecilia Parsberg, artist and guest teacher at the School of Film Directing, showed some of her international work in, for example, South Africa and Palestine.

The audience showed a lot of interest in the social dimension and in the artistic and personal questions that the films generate. Anna Eriksson’s presentation of the so-called Doris project and the Doris film triggered a strong reaction from the audience since structural issues are just as hot in India as they are in Sweden.

Several Indian films also attracted attention and provoked a good deal of discussion. One of them was Where Gods Give up Caste by Vinoo Krishnan, a 26-minute visually well-made depiction of some paradoxical and seemingly odd aspects of the caste system.

The film days were concluded with a discussion on the future of film, with an emphasis on what film and learning are in a deeper sense. U.R Anantha Murthy, new chair of the Suchitra Film School board, was part of this discussion. Several participants later said that this meeting was a crucial step in the identification of our shared future ambitions with respect to the development of the Suchitra School of Cinema and Dramatic Arts in Bangalore.

U.R. Anantha Murthy is almost iconic in India and used to be a strong name at the only really prominent film school in India, FTI in Pune. He is one of the country’s top-ranked authors and has served as cultural adviser to India’s central government.

The first workshop
In the week after the film days, Leif Eriksson, Lecturer at the School of Film Directing, held a one-day workshop on sound production for six students from the Suchitra School of Cinema and Dramatic Arts in Bangalore. This was the first joint workshop ever for the two Schools.

Most students at the workshop were short film makers, and they found the workshop to be a great eye-opener since they usually dub their films.

The film days and workshop were part of the cooperation between Region Västra Götaland and Karnataka, one of the four southern states of India. The event was attended by, among others, a large delegation from the University of Gothenburg and decision makers from the Region.

The future
A joint course with students from both Schools is currently being planned. It will begin in November 2011 in Bangalore and end in Gothenburg in February 2012.

BY: Lena Lind Brynstedt