Over the years, I have repeatedly chosen to turn down invites from independent filmmakers to view their work. My reason was always the same: watching films on request creates undue, unsaid obligations which I was not ready to accept; I didn’t want to be in a situation where I would have to directly tell a director my opinion of their work. This would be especially hard if the filmmaker was someone I knew on a personal level—either in real life or in the virtual world.
More films get made now than at any point in history, but increasingly fewer productions monopolize our attention and discourse. Film festivals, for their part, have their own inclinations, biases and constraints, which encourage another kind of aesthetic homogenization.
As it is, it must be hard for young filmmakers—autodidacts, but also film school products—who have had little success at commercial distribution or with festivals to find an audience for their work, let alone be critically recognized. I now realize that my refusal only closes one more avenue for them to enter into however modest a circulation in the cultural economy.
In order to address this, I’d like to devote a section of this website titled Curator’s Corner to showcase filmmakers who haven’t had enough opportunities to have their works shown or discussed. I don’t have a fixed idea of what shape such a section should take; it may be short notes on the films, interview with the director, links for viewing or a combination thereof. The work, to be sure, must be of interest to me, and I will not be writing on every film submitted; the value of the undertaking, after all, lies in discernment. But the objective is curatorial rather than critical, with one film or filmmaker/group of filmmakers presented roughly every month.
To this end, I’d like to invite interested filmmakers to get in touch with me at justanotheremailid@gmail.com with links to their work. I would not be interested in projects conceived as web series, promotional material or production pitches. Everyone is welcome to reach out, but at the moment, I want to give preference to filmmakers who
- are based in South Asia, especially India
- have already made a few films
- haven’t already had considerable success in the festival/commercial circuit
Below are the filmmakers and the films so far presented under the section.
Filmmakers
Films
Searcher (Divya Sachar, 2022)
Cocrunda 0.5mg (Agrima, 2021)
The Seventh Art 