Auroville has teamed up with a New Zealand-based video streaming service for hosting the 2022 edition of the Auroville Film Festival(AVFF), as an online event from Tuesday.
The global flavour of the seventh AVFF (January 18-23) will manifest through over 70 films from 18 countries.This edition features films in two categories– the international category of films that develop the theme of ‘human unity’, which contains 35 films from 18 different countries, and the Aurovilian section having 36 films from 14 Aurovilians and residents of the bioregion, including one student.
The films that develop the theme of human unity include award-winning ones like “Barricade” (German/David Klammer) and “Body and Soul” (French/Magali Chapelan), “Aarambh” (Sandeep Kumar Verma), “Amuka” (Congo/Antonio Spano), “The Awakening of the Goddess” (Debjani Mukherjee).
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According to the hosts, the hope that an in-person event could be possible at the Town Hall, as done during previous editions, faded with a renewed spread of COVID-19 cases in the recent weeks. With the support of the Auroville International-U.S.A., the film fete has been shifted to an entirely virtual mode, in partnership with the online video-on-demand entertainment portal, Shift72.
Most films in the Human Unity category and all those made by Aurovilians, can be accessed from around the world. The works of those creators, who have not given worldwide streaming permission, are only available within India.
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As in previous years, all films are made available completely free. To participate, one can visit https://auroville.shift72.com, create an account by clicking on the top right icon, and enter email and password as a one-time measure and log in. Participants can choose their films and click “Buy $0.00” for each film. All “bought” films appear in your Library (top right, under your account symbol)
All films will only be available for streaming from January 18. Participants can buy films until January 23. The chosen films will remain in the library section until February 8. The Auroville musicians have also rallied behind the film festival and will present live streaming concerts, hosts said.
Garnering attention
Meanwhile, Hamilton-based Shift72 said with Omicron cases surging, the platform was seeing an influx in enquiries from global film festivals, seeking alternative formats to deliver their brand of cinema to a locked-in world.
Among the high-patronage marquee events to have switched to an online avenue was the Sundance Film Festival, which had cancelled its in-person program, choosing live streaming.
“Festivals launching in the next 90 days are scrambling to find an online alternative to an in-person festival that may be at risk of low attendance or cancellation due to emerging variants,” said David White, founder and CEO of Shift72 in a release to media.