Wednesday, July 2, 2008

10th Madurai Film Festival 2008

Dear Friends

Greetings from Marupakkam, a media action group based in Madurai involved in organizing regular film screenings, film festivals and video workshops. We also make documentaries.

As you all know very well, we have been organizing an annual documentary film festival in and around Madurai since 1998. We are happy to inform you that our next edition i.e. 10TH MADURAI INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY AND SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2008 will take place on 26-30 November 2008.

The idea behind the festival is to create a platform for documentary and short filmmakers to reach out to audiences of Madurai and in turn to facilitate an international film festival for our audience.

The MADURAI INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY AND SHORT FILM FESTIVAL is being organized by Marupakkam, in association with educational institutions, voluntary organizations, film societies, theatre groups, cultural groups and other likeminded individuals of Madurai. The screenings will take place in colleges, villages and various auditoriums.

The festival is a non-competitive one with no entry fee. There is no specific theme for our festival. Any film that is produced anywhere in the world during the last 24 months (approximately) in any language, in any format, in any style is welcome. The films that are not in Tamil should have English sub-titles. The screening format is DVD. Kindly allow us to keep the DVD’s for our further non-commercial screenings in and around Madurai. Ours is a non-funded festival, completely organized with donations and volunteer support.

The festival will have following sections: 1) INTERNATIONAL 2) REST OF INDIA – films made outside Tamilnadu 3) FILMS FROM TAMILNADU 4) UNDER CONSTRUCTION - films distributed by Magic Lantern foundation, New Delhi 5) RETROSPECTIVE 6) SPECIAL PACKAGE – documentaries and short films from Kerala.

We are happy to inform you that senior filmmakers Anand Patwardhan and Deepa Dhanraj have agreed for their retrospective (5 films each) as part of our 10TH MADURAI INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY AND SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2008. As our previous festivals Magic Lantern Foundation, New Delhi has also agreed to share 10 films from their Under Construction package. Our special package – a new addition, will feature 10 films from Kerala. Sarat Chandran of Third Eye Communications, Kochi has agreed to help us to curate the package. There will be a seminar on Tamil documentaries as part of our festival. R.R.Srinivasan of Kaanchani Thiraipada Iyakkam, Tirunelveli has agreed to coordinate the proceedings.

Interested film makers are requested to send their entries under first 3 sections only. The last date to send the entry is 15 September 2008. Our selection committee comprising of senior filmmakers, writers, artists, activists, film students and fans will announce their recommendation on the list of films to be screened, on 15 October 2008. We will screen only the films as per the recommendations.

Entries can be sent to: Marupakkam, A 9/4 K.K.Nagar, Madurai 625020, India. Ph: 91-9344479353; 91-452-2523992; E mail: marupakkam@rediffmail.com

Entries should have following materials: 2 DVD copies of the film, a CD with synopsis, filmography and stills, and a set of hard copy comprising synopsis, filmography and posters if any.

Please visit http://www.maduraifilmfest.blogspot.com/ for regular updates and further details.

In solidarity
Amudhan R.P.
Coordinator,
10TH MADURAI INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY AND SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2008