4TH MUMBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL JURY (1996)

JURY - MAIN FILM COMPETITION

ALANIS OBOMSAWIN

Alanis Obomsawin was born in New Hampshire and lived on the Odanak reservation northeast of Montreal until she was nine. As a child, her mother's cousin initiated her into the history of the Abenaki nation and taught her many songs and legends. Obomsawin and her parents then left Odanak for Toris Rivieres, where they were the only Native family. When she started making films, she knew they could constitute an extraordinary means of expression for her people, the first Nations. Highly regarded as a speaker, teacher and filmmaker, Obomsawin has spent the past couple of years travelling around the globe to attend festival screenings of Kanehsatake: 270 years of Resistance, a feature length film documenting the 1990 the 1990 Mohawk uprising in Kanehsatake and Oka. To date, this film has won 18 awards as well as international recognition. Obomsawin herself has been honoured with many awards, including the Toronto Women in film and Television's Outstanding Achievement Award in Direction; the Canadian Native Arts Foundation National Aboriginal Achievement Award; and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association - first time to a non-academic. She also received a Fellowship from the Ontario College of Art, an Honorary Doctor of Letters from York University, an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Concordia University. In 1983, she was made a member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her dedication to the well-being of her people and the preservation of the First Nations' cultural heritage through filmmaking and activism.

 

PATRICIO GUZMAN

Patricio Guzman Born in 1941, Santiago, Chile. Studied philosophy, theatre and cinema at the University of Santiago. In 1970, Guzman received his degree in film direction from the Official Cinema School of Madrid. During the period of Allende's government in Chile, Guzman made five feature-length documentaries: The first Year, October Answer and The Battle of Chile I, II and III. At the end of 1973, after having been imprisoned in the National Stadium, he left Chile with all the filmed material. In 1983, he directed a fiction film The Compass Rose. Back in Chile three years later, he made In the Name of God, a film about human rights campaigns by the Catholic church. Between 1987 and 1989, Guzman made five short films about Aztec culture - "Pre-Columbian Mexico" and fur films about the American and Spanish Enlightenment - "The Enlightened Project". From 1989 to 1992 he made the documentary feature film The Southern Cross about native religiosity of the South-American indigenous people. In 1993, Guzman received a scholarship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, USA.

 

SLAMET RAHARDJO DJAROT

Slamet Rahardjo Djarot born in 1949, Serang. West Java. Studied art direction at the Indonesian National Theatre Academy. In 1968, together with Teguh Karya, one of the best stage and film directors in Indonesia, Djarot formed Theatre Popular, which emerged to be a very leading theatre group in the country. Djarot, who started his film career in 1971 in Karya's debut Wajah Seorang Laki-Laki (Ballad of a Man) has played major roles in plays by Gogol, Lorca, Buchner, Brecht and several other productions - both stage and television. His stage direction of The false Hair, based on a Czechoslovakian play by Peter Karvas, was adjuged the best play in a student theatre festival in Jakarta. An Indonesian play and Djarot latest directorial venture Dag Dig Dug has made many critics and audiences aware of richness of contemporary Indonesian theatre. Djarot made his debut film Rembulan Dan Matahari ( The Sun and the Moon) in 1980. A decade later, his Langitku Rumahku (My Sky My Home) fetched him a number of international awards for the best children's film.

 

KAZUO HARA

Kazuo Hara born in 1945, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Studied photography at the Tokyo Academy of Photography. Together with Kobayashi Sachiko, Hara founded Shisso Productions in 1972 for making documentaries. After debuting with Good-bye CP, Hara made Extremely Private Eros, Love Song 1974, a film featureing Takeda Miyuki. Takeda who had a child with Hara, took the baby and left him to live with a black American soldier in Okinawa. Later in Okinawa she gave birth to a racially mixed child. Hara and Kobayashi Sachiko ( Hara's present wife) documented this very private episode in a 110 minute, 16mm independently produced film. Besides receiving tremendous audience response, the film won an award at the International Independent Film Festival in Thonon les Bains, France. In 1975, hara directed a teledoc on women's liberation: Women Now…History Begins Here. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches on (1986) is hara's most sensational work till now. The film is about a Japanese Imperial Army soldier Okuzaki Kenzo, who appeased the death of his fellow soldiers at the end of the Pacific War. Inspite of the recognition the film received in Japan and abroad, major film distributors in Japan refused to show it because of its inherent criticism of the Japanese imperial system and cannibalism among Japanese troops.

 

NARAIN SING THAPA

A child of the mountains, from Pithorgarh in North India. A farmer, soldier and teacher turned filmmaker, Thapa joined Films Division as a Newsreel Cameraman, when the organisation took off in 1948. The movie camera took him around the world and every nook and corner of India. He trekked up to the interiors of Bhutan to make his first documentaries - the Hidden Land and Coronation in the Himalayas. After his dramatic coverage of Dibrugarh floods and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's visit to the Soviet Union, Thapa settled down as a director of documentaries, specialising in films on the Himalayan Valleys, mountains and mountaineering, besides biographies and India's freedom movement. Thapa looks back on his films as good, bad and boring though rich in research and information. What amuses him is his boring films winning more awards then the good ones. Some of his notable films such as Everest; Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan; Jawaharlal Nehru - His Life and Times have had a very limited exposure mainly due to their length. The 1982 Asian sports events held in New Delhi, he shot 60 cameramen in 17 different stadia over 15 days - it's one of the longest films even made. Acknowledging his unique national services through cinema, the government of India honoured him with the coveted Padmashri Award.