Veteran Argentine director Fernando Solanas opened up about art and the difficulties he faced during the initial stages of career during the G. Aravindan memorial seminar at Nila theatre, organised as part of the 14th International Film Festival of Kerala on Wednesday.
Solanas described the struggle of producing his first two films. Censorship imposed by the Argentinian government in the late 60s prevented filmmakers from working freely.
Directors did not have enough freedom to make films true to their own vision. It was extremely hard to book screens for projecting films. To overcome this, directors would show films at labour party offices and in the privacy of their homes.
Life of commoners
Solanas mentioned that he tried to depict the life of common people through his films. Audience were so keen to watch films that they even travelled up to 400-500 km, said the director, who will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the closing ceremony of the festival on Friday.
Director Sunny Joseph shared his memories on the pioneer of parallel cinema, G. Aravindan. A tribute to Solanas, Only Lights Will Be Seen (Ini Velicham Maathram), written by C.S. Venkiteswaran was released at the function. The first copy was handed over to Solanas by director Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
Kerala Chalachithra Academy Vice Chairperson Beena Paul presided.
