Aurofilm, the oldest cinematic film department of Auroville, was started at the end of the seventies with the late Gérard Carabin, an Aurovilian of French nationality with a passion for cinema. Gérard started to organise the screening of films in the communities (the name we give to the Auroville settlements) of Aspiration, Certitude, Bharat Nivas and Fraternity. In those early days, the available equipment consisted of 16mm film projectors brought by a German Aurovilian, and then a new 16 mm Indian projector was added (Photophone). Film prints were borrowed from cultural centres, embassies and high commissions in India. Aurofilm was also registered in the Federation of Film Society of India. This portable projection equipment was also used sometimes by Aurovilian volunteers for educational documentary film screenings in the surrounding villages.

When SAIIER (Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research, 1983) was created under the inspiration and fantastic energy put in by Sri Kireet Joshi and a dedicated team of Aurovilians around him, it was only natural that Aurofilm joined as one of its activities. With this move, Gérard could equip the service with a set of 2 sturdy portable 35 mm Russian projectors. The choice of film titles could thus be greatly increased - 35 mm being the professional gauge or format for film projection. From that time only could we access the film library of the NFAI, the National Film Archive of India in Pune, with their collection of Indian and worldwide classics (many Bergman, Kurosawa, Antonioni, Eisenstein, some Godard and Truffaut, etc. some rare films like the silent Japanese classics “The Island” and, of course, the Indian masters like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak or G. Aravindan. The NFDC, National Film Development Corporation in Mumbai, was also a great source of rarely seen (because not widely distributed) productions of contemporary Indian Cinema. Thanks to NFDC we could all discover the work of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Gautham Ghose, Aparna Sen, and such great actors like Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Smital Patil, Shabana Azmi and many others… The American companies based in Chennai would occasionally provide Woody Allen films, Terrence Mallick, Akira Kurosawa or some other more commercial but screenable films for our discerning eyes, among their usual action or romantic ones. Gérard was very choosy: no vulgarity or “commercial” compromise was allowed!