BYOFF reinvents itself at 15

This year the festival has reached out to Dalits and tapped crowd-funding

Home theatre: This year, the organisers have opened up the festival to international film-makers in a big way.

The road leading to Pink House hotel, the venue for Puri’s Bring Your Own Film Festival (BYOFF) is lined with fish vendors. It is the Dalit youth of this neighbourhood’s fishing community that the cult festival is reaching out to in its 15th edition — one of the ways the politically conscious festival is trying to reinvent itself and stay relevant.

The organising committee wants to involve the underprivileged youth not just as viewers but also as participants in workshops. “Even if we can inspire five of them, it will enrich cinema,” says Surya Shankar Das, member of BYOFF’s core team.

Bohemian event

BYOFF, held every year during February 21-25 in the so-called hippie, backpacker side of the temple town, has often been referred to as the Woodstock of cinema. It is an informal, bohemian event where anyone can register and screen their films, including home videos and works-in-progress. There are no juries, no selection, and no awards. Films are shown under the sky in the night by the beach.

The founders of BYOFF, film-maker Susant Misra and his friends from the Film and Television Institute (FTII), Gurpal Singh, the late Swagat Sen and others, wanted to eventually organise small BYOFFs across India, to take the ‘indie’ movement to the grassroots. But that was not to be. Instead, with the onslaught of digital technology, which has given indie film-makers alternative avenues such as YouTube, the shine seems to have worn off the BYOFF over the past few years.

The first edition saw the participation of 150 film-makers, says Misra. According to Das, it was down to 40 films last year. There have been times they could not even cover their expenses. “We were sure it would be Die-Off this year,” laughs Puri resident and ardent BYOFF supporter Satya. Understandably, to compensate for the no-sponsorship policy, BYOFF has this year sought crowd-funding, which is likely to take care of 20% of the expense. It has also raised the registration fee from ₹3,500 to ₹5,000 and the screening fee by 20%.

More significantly, the organisers have gone for a reboot of the “poor film-maker’s” festival. They have opened it up to international film-makers in a big way by lifting the requirement that they need to be present at the screenings. So this year, films from Poland, Argentina, Germany, Hungary, Iran and Indonesia are part of the programming, and this is expected to create opportunities for exchange of indie film-making experiences globally.

In addition, some film-makers are making exclusive BYOFF content. Public installations and video art are on the wish list. And collaborative film-making during the festival is also being planned. But BYOFF is clear that will remain the free space that it has been. “Even the most inclusive spaces are exclusionary,” says Das, proud that BYOFF continues to be participatory and spontaneous.