River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival
9-15 December 2005, Florence, Italy

Once again, the fifth edition of River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival, the festival devoted to independent and parallel Indian cinema, will take place from 9 to 15 December 2005 under the direction of Selvaggia Velo.

The screenings will take place at the cinema Spazio Uno, Via del Sole n.10 in Florence.

The Festival was made possible thanks to the support of: the Cinema Management of the Ministry for Arts and Culture of Rome, the Region Tuscany, the Council Department for Culture of the Town of Florence, the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, the APT, Hotel Roma of Florence, the India Tourism Office of Milan and the patronage of the Embassy of India in Rome.

The 2005 edition of the Festival, which is in steady growth, extends its program to a length of seven days, also thanks to the close collaboration with the Festival dei Popoli of Florence, which will pass the baton to River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival after its conclusion on the 8th of December.
On December 15th the two Florence Festivals together will have a common day of screenings of European directors’ works on India, that will take place at cinema Spazio Uno and at the French Institute of Florence, which will participate to this initiative.
Among the films, we will see: Notes for a Film on India (1967-68) by Pier Paolo Pasolini, thirty years after his death, where the director shoots with a hand-held camera the city of Mumbai in its terribly poor suburbs; and Calcutta (1969) by Louis Malle, a cinematographic portrait of the Indian city where the devotees, the beggars and the streets swarming with people will play the leading role.

Among the features which catch the eye, Amu of the woman director Shonali Bose, the portrait of a young woman who goes back to India to search for the real roots of her family; Kal, debut feature of the young female director Ruchi Narain, which deals with the friendship and love relations of a group of young people in the background of a suicide/homicide; 15 Park Avenue, the last film of the Bengalese director Aparna Sen, who already participated at the 2003 edition of the festival with the very applauded work Mr. and Mrs. Iyer; and Bharatbala’s Hari Om, which will take the audience to a romantic adventure through the Rajasthan. And many more.

The shorts films are especially interesting, like the irreverent Viva Liberty! by Dishad Husain, the macabre 6ft. in 7 min. by Rafael Del Toro, the subtle Cataract by Sainath Choudhury and the curious In Whose Name? by Nandini Sikand.

The Docu Zone will deal with very different subjects and stories: Thomas Wartmann’s Between the Lines, which was already screened at the last Locarno Film Festival, about the eunuchs in India; Alessandro Ferrara and Gianluca Pipitone’s I baffi dei Rajput, about the warriors caste of the Rajput and the importance they attach to moustaches; Nishta Jain’s City of Photos, a very private journey into the Indian photo studios discovering imaginary worlds; Sapana Sakya and Ramyata Limbu’s Daughters of Everest about the first Everest expedition of sherpa women; and then Tina Schmidt’sRagpickers, which tells about the world and life of the ragpickers, the ones who gather rubbish in an Indian city; and also Bahurupia-the art of disguise by Pietro Silvestri, on the ancient

performing Indian art considered the mother of theatre; and Dheeraj Akolkar’s Jyotirgamaya (Lead me to the Light), which deals with a town in Assam, where Father Lukose Cheruvalel helps the most unfortunate children have a better life; and Krishna Das’s Trascendental Feeling of Himalaya, 26 minutes made of images and photograms which depict the Himalaya thanks to an intense soundtrack replacing the role of the first person narrator; and Iqbal Malhotra’s Massoud: Destiny’s Afghan, the story of the Afghan leader told by an Indian director.

Among the guests of this year, for the features section, the young female director of Kal Ruchi Narain and Bharatbala, the director of Hari Om; for the documentaries section will be present Dheeraj Akolkar (Jyotirgamaya), Krishna Das (Trascendental Feeling of Himalaya), Gianluca Pipitone (I baffi dei Rajput), Pietro Silvestri (Bahurupia-the art of disguise) and director Thomas Wartmann (Between the Lines).

The retrospective will be devoted to the director and producer Ismail Merchant, James Ivory’s historic collaborator who died in may of the current year.
The film to be screened are: Shakespeare Wallah (1965) directed by James Ivory and produced by Merchant, the story of a family of Shakespearian actors in India; In Custody (1994) by Merchant, based on a book of Anita Desai, with an exceptional cast: Shabana Azmi, Shashi Kapoor and Om Puri; last but not least, the interesting documentary In Ismail’s Custody (1994) by Derrick Santini, with interviews with Merchant himself and with other European and Indian actors and directors.

Like last year, the Festival will organise a special screeening at the cinema school Immagina, in Borgo Stella 11/r in Florence: Tuesday 13 December at 5.45 pm Pietro Silvestri will present his documentary Bahurupia-the art of disguise.

In each of the three categories (features, short films and documentaries) the audience will vote for its favourite film that will win the Florence Indian Film Festival Digichannel Audience Award: a sample of each winner will be seen on streaming for a maximum of 15 minutes during 2006 on the web site www.digichannel.net.
Furthermore, the most voted film within the three winners will be screened, in the framework of the DigiFestival.net 2005, on December 17th at 8.45 pm at the Spaccio Mulas "Riciclo" in Via Marsuppini 4 in Florence.

Between the screenings don’t miss to taste the specialities of the restaurant India, a real gastronomic paradise of the Maharajas located in Fiesole and Pisa.