All you world cinema connoisseurs, here’s a chance to see what kind of cinema young filmmakers in France are indulging in. The world’s first online French film festival is in India this year and has just started. It lasts a whole month, can be watched on your phone and tab apps for free!
The 5th edition of My French Film Festival (MFFF) 2015 features more than 20 feature, and short films. They can be seen on the video-on-demand platform Halfticket.tv till February 16. The festival is being brought to India by Unifrance, an organisation, managed by the Centre National de la Cinématographie, which promotes French films outside France. Founded in 1949, it participates in around 50 film festivals per year. The films to be shown in India have been selected by a jury of noted Hindi filmmakers Ketan Mehta, Anurag Kashyap, Tigmanshu Dhulia, and Swanand Kirkire. Michel Gondry, director of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind , headed the international jury.
“Today independent cinema has its own problems, especially when it comes to distribution. We all talk of good cinema, but unless you show it to people, how will you make your point?” asks Jagdish Rajpurohit, founder of Halfticket.tv. “We want to bring curated content to the Indian market, and show people a world outside our Hindi cinema.” The idea of offering it online is also that otherwise it becomes cumbersome for people to travel to another city to catch a festival, says Jagdish. “We also want to create a set up in which audience decide what they want to watch.”
Among filmmakers whose films will be screened are Eastern Boys director Robin Campillo and the maker of Respire, Melanie Laurent. Campillo is known for his earlier works like the 2008 French film The Class which he wrote and edited. The film went on to win the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Laurent became known to international audiences for her role as Shoshanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds , and as Alma Dray in Now You See Me . Talking about the line-up, Deborah Benattar, Director – MyFrenchFilmFestival, India, says, “All the films that will be showcased this year – feature or short – have all been made by young, up-and-coming filmmakers from France, so it’s also acting as a jumping board for these filmmakers by taking their films global.”
Jagdish points out, that the culture of consumption in the digital medium today is marked by the “I don’t want to pay for seeing things online” attitude.
But mainly, in a country like India, where you are constantly waiting or videos to “buffer”, will such a festival work? He admits that streaming the films in an online festival is bound to have issues due to internet connection speeds. “But you must also remember that India is the third largest market for YouTube despite such constraints and limitations. India has about 20 lakh internet connections on the desktop; but it also has five crore people using mobile internet, which is faster.” There are two conditions to watch the films free, though. You must login via Facebook on the site, and you need to vote for the first film before you can access the next, because that will decide the viewer’s choice award.
Here’s the feature film line up at MFFF: How I Came to Hate Maths (Comment J’ai Deteste les Maths) - Olivier Peyon; Eastern Boys - Robin Campillo, Hippocrates (Hippocrate) - Thomas Lilti; The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears (L’Etrange Couleur des Larmes de ton Corps) (Belgique) - Helene Cattet & Bruno Forzani; Gazelles (Les Gazelles) - Mona Achache; Miss and the Doctors (Tirez la Langue, Mademoiselle) – Axelle Ropert; Fool Circle (Tristesse Club) – Vincent Mariette; A Place on Earth (Une Place sur la Terre) – Fabienne Godet; Vandal (Vandal) – Helier Cisterne
The heritage film presented out of competition is the 1960 classic Purple Noon (Plein Soleil) directed by Rene Clement (based on the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley) , and which remains a cult classic, with the likes of Martin Scorsese counted as its fan.
The short films selected for the festival include: A Day Out in Paris (La Virée à Paname) – Carine May, Hakim Zouhani; A Town Called Panic: The Christmas Log (La Bûche de Noël) - Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar; Aïssa (Aïssa) - Clément Tréhin-Lalanne; Carefree (Les Insouciants) – Louise de Prémonville; Dip N’ Dance (Dip N’ Dance) – Hugo Cierzniak; Extrasystole (Extrasystole) – Alice Douard; Guy Moquet (Guy Moquet) - Demis Herenger; Molii (Molii) - Hakim Zouhani, Yassine Qnia, Carine May, Mourad Boudaoud; Shadow (Shadow) – Lorenzo Recio; The Return (Le Retour) – Yohann Kouam.
Other films out of competition include An Extraordinary Person (Quelqu’un d’extraordinaire) – Monia Chokri and Hunting the Northern Godard (Chasse au Godard d'Abbittibbi) – Eric Morin. Download the specialised app HALFTICKET TV from the Google Play stores for Android devices; Apple device users can get the app via iTunes from the date of the festival.
For details see >www.halfticket.tv/myfffindia
