Auroville Film Festival '09 Educational Outreach Program

After conceiving the festival, we formed a group to actualize it (all of them listed with gratitude at the end of this souvenir). At the very first meeting, we came to realize that this festival was a wonderful opportunity to create in Auroville a short educational program that would introduce the techniques of film/video making.

Through it's Educational Outreach Program, the Auroville Film Festival proposes to start an interaction with the community which will both educate and create opportunities for an exchange:  An education in using a 'voice' and an opportunity to 'speak out' and 'express', through an artistic and, hopefully, poetic medium.

It was serendipity that brought Saguenail to Auroville in April 09. A citizen of France, Saguenail (Serge Abramovici) is a filmmaker with over 35 films to his credit, with 7 of them winning awards. An academician who has written numerous articles and books on film, he is also a pedagogue and founded 'Filhos de Lumière', an organization created for the sole purpose of imparting filmmaking knowledge and skills.

Very generously he shared his experience and time with us, introducing us to the workshop format he had structured in his years of teaching film. During the 10 day workshops, which were created for participants aged 8 and above, each student made a one-shot film and the group made a collective film. During this process, everybody had a turn to experience all facets of filmmaking including camera, sound, and editing. Most importantly, he trained 13 Aurovilians to facilitate these workshops so that we could continue this wonderful program.

We have run three adult workshops, six school workshops and a workshop for Yatra Arts Foundation. Most of these films will be screened at the festival.

The Auroville Film Festival '09 Outreach Education Program would not have been possible without Saguenail, Sasikant, Uriel, Christoph, Giorgio, Indra, Penny, Surya, Aikya, Srini, Yatra Multimedia and Kolam Computer Centre. The schools that participated were NESS, Aikiyam, Deepanam, Last School , The Learning Community, and Free Progress.

We are working towards making this a continuous educational program available for the schools of Auroville and its bioregion. Uriel, Christoph and Sasikant have formed a proposal to create a training centre for post-production in Auroville and we are presently looking for funds.

Judges

Revathy (Asha Menon) Actor/ Director/Social Activist  
Revathy has done more than 100 films in five Indian languages as an actor.   She has received several awards for her acting like the Film Fare Awards, Film Fans Association awards, Cinema Express awards and Tamilnadu State awards. She was given the National Award for the Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal in the film 'Devar Magan', directed by Bharathan. As a director, she has received the Silver Peacock award at IFFI and her films have won national awards and acclaim.   Revathy is also involved in many social activities involving people with disabilities and women. She is a Trustee of Ability Foundation (working with people with disabilities) and Tanker Kidney Foundation ( working with patients with renal failure).  

Gerard Perrier Reporter/Documentary Filmmaker  
Gerard Perrier is a reporter and a documentarist who has been working with France Televisions in Réunion Island for the last 20 years. He is also the producer for a program call "Archipels" about the south Indian Ocean . He has made many documentary films about minority people in Africa, India and Australia .  

Gowri Ramnarayan Theatre Director/Playwright/Journalist/Singer  
Gowri Ramnarayan, who has her Ph.D in Comparative Aesthetics, is a feature writer with The Hindu, writing on literature, theatre, cinema and Indian classical music. She has written three books and has directed plays like Rural Phantasy , Dark Horse-Walking Down Arun Kotlakar's Lane and The Flame of the Forest . She has also been a vocal accompanist to MS Subbulakshami's concerts.
She is a member of the FIPRESCI Jury, an international association of film critics, and has attended film festivals in London , Venice , Valladolid , Oslo , and Mumbai.

A Note on the Concept

Tout contact implique une action bilatérale. L'homme a appris à agir sur son environnement selon une relation dialectique d'adaptation réciproque. Or, si le travail de transformation, l'activité manuelle et ses extensions, est soumis à la pensée et à la critique, l'œil semble admis comme un organe passif, la vue comme un sens assujetti à l'évidence du visible. Il n'en va pas ainsi. La vision est, avant tout, projection. Le visible est inventé. L'ordre et le sens du monde sont postulés. La neutralité attribuée à l'œil occulte son rôle constructeur. Regarder doit s'apprendre, à travers des opérations d'encadrement, enregistrement, rapprochement, collage, composition, afin de se rendre compte, dans un premier temps de la non-objectivité des images dont nous sommes bombardés et qui informent notre perception, dans un second temps de ce qu'Henri Bergson appelait le «fonctionnement cinématographique de la conscience». Fabriquer des images d'Auroville, les visionner, les analyser, les discuter aura une incidence sur la réalité d'Auroville que ces images auront permis de vérifier. Ou non.

Saguenail

THANKS TO:

The Auroville Film Festival '09 and its Educational Outreach Program have been successful because of funding and contributions from:

Stichting de Zaaier

Patricia and her friends

Tlaloc

Jorgen Husbond

Miniature

Auroville Papers

Aurotraduction

We received valued support of ideas, time and infrastructure from:

Saguenail, Sasikant, Penny, Ramesh Payeri, Marco, Krishna, Christoph, Uriel Deveaud, Kolam Computer Centre, Aurofilm, Auroville Radio, Yatra Multimedia, Auroville TV, AVnet, Chloe, Laurent Sauerwein, Miriam Sevcnikar, Yahalom Emet, Raman, Edoarde Grassi, Divya Goswami, Jonas Allen, Jesse Fox-Allen, Srini, Doris, Giorgio Molinari, Indra, Grace Gitadelila, Jonah, Surya, Aikya, Kaarthikeyan, Olivier Barot, Andris Fridrihsons, Laxmanan, Anandan, Venkatesh, Manikandan, Veerappan, Meena, Suzie, Kripa, Kumar, Arlet, Sia, Roberta Ribotta, Ilva Fabiani, Tlaloc, Claudia Marforio, Marie Demont, Vidya, Etel, Francis, Rod Hemsell, Basile, Clodine, Hemant, Jeremie, Sandar, Ashwin Sekar, Martin Scherfler, Manohar , Susan George, Ranjeet, Deeksha, Adil Writer, Auroville Press, Anand (Sysop), Malini Parthasarathy, Christine, Laurence Apprederis, Mauna, Corinne van Egeraat, Rena Kienberger, Erin, Murugesh, Teamdesign, Nina, The Hindu, Café le Morgan