DIFF 2017: Four-day international film festival concludes with Rima Das' Village Rockstars

The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) 2017 came to an end on Sunday.

The festival, which opened with the acclaimed Mukti Bhawan, wrapped up an impressive line up which included Konkana Sen Sharma’s A Death In The Gunj  and Amit V Masurkar’s Newton.  The closing film was Rima Das’ Village Rockstars.

The highlights of the festival were the Indian premiere of Out of this World (USA), a newly restored version of the 1954 film by journalist and writer Lowell Thomas’ fascinating journey to Tibet in 1949. “I think my father will be very happy. We have talked about it (film) earlier and he knew that we were going to do the project and he was very excited," said Anne Thomas, the daughter of the now deceased filmmaker who presented the film, as reported by The Tibet Post.

The festival also screened two award-winning documentaries, Machines  by Rahul Jain, which has won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Excellence in Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson (USA).

The festival, in keeping with its focus on experimental and independent cinema, gave a platform to screen feature films such as Ralang Road  by Karma Takapa, a film set in Sikkim, which had premiered at this year’s prestigious Karlovy Cary Film Festival; and Puspendra Singh’s Aswathamma,  an official selection in the Busan International Film Festival this year.

Actor-director Konkana Sen Sharma, who presented her directorial debut A Death In The Gunj, spoke at a panel discussion titled ‘The State of Independents.’ News18 quotes her as saying, “There are films which don’t follow a very typical kind of a formula, and there are also films, which are showing different kinds of peoples but so many Indian films don’t get the funding, the visibility and the eyeballs that they deserve. And that’s because audiences just lap up the same kind of film again and again. So the makers also keep making the same films again and again.”

She was very enthusiastic about the festival and its venue  “It is my first time at Dharamshala and it was magical. I love Tibetan food, the mountains and independent cinema and I am so excited to be here,” she said, as reported by The   New Indian Express . Noted actor Adil Hussain also conducted a Masterclass, which saw the actor speak about his process and journey as an actor.

The festival, which was started by the filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing SOnam in 2012, has grown to become a film extravaganza nestled in the beautiful Himalayas. The New Indian Express quotes its  founder Ritu Sarin as saying, “The biggest change is the way the festival has grown from being a small local event to a national one. Today, DIFF has become one of the more important venues in India for the new generation of Indian independent filmmakers to come and showcase their film."