All Things Considered

Well, The Bangalore Rooftop film festival happened indoors. But who cared – It soo rocked !! Cussing Bangalore traffic (Now that is a surprise!) the squad of Thejesh, Kiran ,  Bikram & I reached about an hour late (But this long trip brought a lot good travel info about Sikkim) with the projector.. In about 15 minutes, the 35-40 of us were good to go ! 

No introductory speeches. No film festival welcome crap. No ice breaking. No ice. All we had to do was find a cosy corner and a pillow. The fest started with poll taking of films to watch (Also poll-taking: People who want veg pizza please put up your hands. Some of us smart people put both hands up J  ).  

The first to come was Sudhish Kamath’s ‘That Four Letter Word’. That felt like the days that followed after final year at college. That felt like watching the world go by in Eastman color.The film had a lot of color-saturated shots – which I really liked. No, I didn’t bother to analyze whether it resembled a painting or a poster. 

Pawan’s movies followed – Really notable was the film on spastic children (Budget Rs 250/-). Delivering it by the way of contrast really worked for me. Look forward to seeing more films from you, Pawan ! (And will be more than glad to add bucks 200) 

Then were shorts from Vatsap (Correction made, Thanks Vatsap) & then Gautham (Birukku - Kannada). And the movie on IITians by Rabi Kisku (Silicon Jungle). This is when the worst thing happened.. I started drifting in and out of my sleep.. I remember Kiran saying ‘Good morning’ to me twice. Sad it had to happen during  the screening of a film by Christopher Nolan - ‘Following’ (Shot before Christopher Nolan became Christopher Nolan). 

Run Lola Run has been on my ‘To watch’ list for a very long time and was extremely glad when it came up on screen. Fast-paced, power film & off went my sleep. Lola runs at a different place in every reality sequence. Managing logical continuity must have been one hell of a headache while making the film. 

The last to come was ‘Touching the Void’. It is a documentary about the only successful summit to Siula Grande on the Andes(Peru). A single-handed mountain rescue & an unbelievable survival effort under torturous of conditions. I guess finally the only thing that makes a difference is the will to survive. Wonder how the book is like? This docu reminded me of a book I read last year – ‘Into thin air’*.  

And with that, we came to the end of the film festival. A few group pictures**. Dismantle equipments. Pack cameras. Byes, Thanks.  I didn’t expect that a movie fest with a bunch of strangers would turn out be so enjoyable. I could not have asked for more out of a film fest. 

However, just one question keeps gnawing me: When is the next one? J 

Thank you notes: For a great initiative – Hrish Thota. For the amazing setting for the night. I just entered this place that cool evening & felt at home instantly J – Mikhail. For DVDs – Vinay (Catch flix). To the Independent film makers for the films you shared. To fellow participants for the snacks, the interesting discussions however irrelevant they were and in general for awesome time. 

*Into Thin Air: Imagine  storm. Now imagine storm at 29000 feet above sea level. On May 10, 1996 , a group of people summited Mt. Everest and were stranded there due to a storm. The book is a personal account written by a journalist (Jon Krauker) who survived the disaster. The book attracted controversy when it came out first – both from a few fellow climbers who did’nt agree with Krauker on the events that transpired & from the international community on the rules of the Everest climbing game.

**  My BRTFF pictures ( You can also look by the tag BRTFF)