Tag: film festival

Yee, I am a BAFTA member

Guess what? I am officially a BAFTA Connect member! And let me tell you, I am over the moon about it! The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a big deal, and being a part of it means I get to rub elbows with some of the industry’s most creative minds and talented peers. It’s like a dream come true!

It takes me back to the days when I studied film at the University of West London and landed a part-time gig at a film festival.
So, picture this, I’m almost a broke uni student, and I was desperately searching for a part-time job. I was so desperate that I even went to an induction for a waitressing job at a restaurant. They made me buy black pants and a shirt. But on the morning of my 1st day at the restaurant, I got a call from the festival offering me a part-time position. Thank goodness for that, or the restaurant would have been stuck with the world’s worst waiter!

Working at that film festival was a turning point for me.
I started out as an admin person but quickly moved up the ranks and became the festival’s video content creator. I even got to interview some big names in the industry, like famous actors and filmmakers. It was such a blast!

But it wasn’t just about the fun and glamour of meeting celebrities. Working at the film festival allowed me to expand my professional and social network, and even gave me the confidence to talk to new people. I used to be so self-conscious, being dyslexic and all, but working at the festival and attending film events helped me develop communication and leadership skills that I still use today.

And let’s not forget the benefits of having work experience while still in uni. It helped me pay for my college expenses and even gave me a head start in my career after graduation. In fact, I landed an editor and media operator job at a production company in SOHO just two weeks after finishing my degree!

So, if you’re a student, I highly recommend working while you’re at Uni. Even if it’s not in your field of interest, you’ll gain real-life experience and develop transferable skills that will be valuable when you’re ready to enter the workforce. And who knows? You might even end up rubbing elbows with some famous people like I did!

Here are some Pictures from my early days at the film festival.

london​​ Indian film festival 2019 Trailer

Trailer for 2019 london Indian film festival I made. 
The film festival opens on 20th June at picture house Central, with World Premiere of Anubhav Sinha’s hard-hitting Article 15 starring Ayushmann Khurrana and closing night marks the return of Ritesh Batra, the director of The Lunchbox with the premiere of Photograph starring the legendary Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

The film festival celebrates South Asian independent cinema from almost every region in India, and it also hosts Q&As with directors, actors and special guests, including Radhika ApteAnurag Kashyap, Gurinder Chadha and Richie Mehta the director of Netflix series Delhi Crime. 
Make sure you buy your tickets in advance. 
http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk

Bad Lucky Goat: BFI London Film Festival 2017

Bad Lucky Goat is a Colombian coming-of-age comedy set on a Caribbean island where two squabbling siblings must cover their tracks after accidentally killing a bearded goat with their father’s truck.

Bad Lucky Goat is a 1st-time directorial debut of Samir Oliveros and all the actors from the film are non-actors local to the Caribbean island.

It was refreshing to watch a Colombian film that has nothing to do with drug cartel or slums.

Bad Lucky Goat is very energetic, lighthearted and carries some authentic performances.
It’s also a visual treat as the film has some stunning island backdrops.

Credits:
Dir-Scr Samir Oliveros.
Prod Andres Gomez
With Honlenny Huffington, Kiara Howard, Elkin Robinson
Colombia
2017
76min
Sales LUXBOX

Screening:
Sunday 08 October 2017 13:00
Prince Charles Cinema

Kothanodi (The River of Fables) at London film Festival

kothanodi-04

Kothanodi (The River of Fables) was dark, twisted, disturbing and a brilliant attempt by 1st time director Bhaskar Hazarika to bring 4 Assamese folklore to visual medium.
The film has dark undercurrents of traditional folktales, that keeps you on the edge and it has a brilliant blend of reality and magic realism.
The movie was screened at ICA as a part of 2015 London Film festival.
I was really impressed with the film and would like to congratulate the whole team who worked on it for attempting something different and delivering it.
Synopsis by Cary Rajinder Sawhney

The darkest fairytales are often the most compelling, unsettling us by touching on universal fears and desires. It is a feeling that Bhaskar Hazarika mines with the grotesque magical realism of his debut feature. Four traditional folk fables present disturbing, multi-layered tales of the travails of their female protagonists, revealing the underlying patriarchy that drives the woman to the edge of sanity. Senehi is a village wife who plots her stepdaughter’s murder when her husband leaves for work. Her husband Devinath (Adil Hussain) meets a woman who has given birth to a strange vegetable and resolves to help her unearth the mystery. Meanwhile, in another village a rich woman (Seema Biswas) prepares her daughter for marriage to a python, hoping that untold riches will spring from the union. And a mother resolves to save her newborn child from the husband who buried her previous three babies alive somewhere in the jungle.

It’s a bad trailer and doesn’t do the justice to the film, but it gives a taste of the film without ruining the plot.

Director Bhaskar Hazarika
Producers Anurupa Hazarika, Utpala Mukherjee
Screenwriters Bhaskar Hazarika, Arupa Patangia-Kalita
India 2015
115 mins
Production company Metanormal Motion Pictures

Cast
Seema Biswas as Dhoneshwari
Adil Hussain as Devinath
Zerifa Wahid as Senehi
Urmila Mahanta as Keteki
Kopil Bora as Poonai
Asha Bordoloi as Malati
Kasvi Sharma
Monisha Bhuyan
Dr Jayanta Das
Pradhan Deori

 

A photo posted by Parag Sankhe (@paragsankhe) on

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet



The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet is a story of a 10-year-old cartographer who secretly leaves his family’s ranch in Montana where he lives with his cowboy father and scientist mother and travels across the country on board a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute.
This adaptation of the acclaimed Reif Larsen novel ‘The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet’ is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s(Amelie) and the movie stars Helena Bonham Carter, Robert Maillet, Callum Keith Rennie and Kyle Catlett.

I had the opportunity to watch 3D Preview screening of ‘The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet’ at Cine Lumiere, London and it was followed by a Q&A with Helena Bonham-Carter and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
It’s easy to fall in love with this humble and emotionally touching tale of the ingenious, slightly magical story of Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet.
The little boy’s character is something possibly believable real genius. THE YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS T.S. SPIVET Poster
The story is tender but avoids melodrama. It simply is an uplifting, inspiring, entertaining film. The film may at first seem a bit slow paced, but plot keeps moving and you really will become involved all the way throughout the movie. The story is told, mainly, through the eyes of 10-year-old cartographer T.S. Spivet. We are given tremendous insight into how T.S. Spivet sees and relates to the world around him.
The cinematography is brilliant, as you would expect from Jean Pierre Jeunet(Amelie). American landscape was mostly shot in French-speaking Quebec and Alberta, Canada which offers hyper real greener landscapes and blue skies with beautiful details.
The casting is outstanding. From the young child genius subtly powerful performance by Kyle Catlett to a distracted entomologist mom played by Dr. Clair (Helena Bonham Carter), every character feels essential to the story. Some of the characters seem a bit of caricature, especially the stereotypical police officer.
What I liked the most that if the film had slightly magical tone to the story and there was use of animated sequences in TS Spivet, it would give further depth to the 3D, and TS Spivet’s thoughts.
Its a sweet, heart-warming story, which takes you away from the fast and hectic daily life into a almost 1 hr 45 min hour-story, which is nothing but good and charming.
The movie will release around mid June in the UK and it will also have an IMAX release.

 

Production Details:
Production
(France-Canada) A Gaumont (in France)/Weinstein Co. (in U.S.) release of an Epithete Films, Tapioca Films, Filmarto, Gaumont, France 2 Cinema, Cross Creek production, with the participation of OCS, France Televisions. (International sales: Gaumont International, Paris.) Produced by Frederic Brillion, Gilles Legrand, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Suzanne Girard. Executive producers, Francis Boespflug, Tyler Thompson.
Crew
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Screenplay, Jeunet, Guillaume Laurant, based on the novel “The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet” by Reif Larsen; dialogues, Laurant. Camera (color, widescreen, 3D), Thomas Hardmeier; editor, Herve Schneid; music, Denis Sanacore; production designer, Aline Bonetto; costume designer, Madeline Fontaine; sound (Dolby Digital), Jean Umansky; sound design, Selim Azzazi; supervising sound editor, Gerard Hardy; 3D stereographer, Demetri Portelli; visual effects supervisor, Alain Carsoux; 3D engineer, Ben Gervais; assistant director, Christophe Vassort; casting, Lucie Robitaille.
With
Helena Bonham Carter, Judy Davis, Callum Keith Rennie, Kyle Catlett, Niamh Wilson, Jakob Davies, Rick Mercer, Dominique Pinon, Julian Richings, Richard Jutras, Mairtin O’Carrigan, Michel Perron, Dawn Ford, Harry Standjofski, Susan Glover, James Bradford. (English dialogue.)

 

Helena Bonham-Carter and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet at the 3D Preview screening at Cine Lumiere, London.

Helena Bonham-Carter and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) at a preview of their new film THE YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS T.S. SPIVET

RIP Jiah Khan

RIP Jiha Khan

RIP Jiah Khan

I am Shocked and saddened about this incidence

Jiah Khan (British Bollywood actress) allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself. Police claimed that she was heartbroken after a failed relationship with the son of an actor couple, which possibly drove her to take the step at her home last night.

The body of Jiah, 25, was found hanging at her ‘Sagar Sangeet’ residence in Juhu where she lived with her mother and sister who were not present when she ended her life.

25 is not really the age to run out of all the options, can’t imagine what pushed her to the edge.

I had met her twice, first time at London Indian Film Festival and 2nd time for a coffee meet in Soho, London for ‘100 years of Indian cinema’ documentary we were pitching to BBC.

She was very passionate about Indian cinema, and really wanted to go back and work in India, after 3 years gap.

She was brilliant in her debut film ‘Nishabd’ with Amitabh Bachchan, based on the novel Lolita. She had also acted with Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar.

I remember her as a very beautiful, bright and polite girl.

It’s sad to loose young Talent

with Jiah Khan at the 'Delhi Belly' Premiere in London
With Jiah Khan at the ‘Delhi Belly’ Premiere in London

Song from her film ‘Ghajini’ with Aamir Khan

Parag Sankhe Website