“We are the future of Nepali cinema,” he says as he speaks as the director for this year’s festival at Kathmandu. Poudel, 21, is a film student and believes organizing the international film festival in the capital will inspire young film enthusiasts to make cinema. [break]
The Manhattan Short Film Festival is the world’s first Global Film Festival which takes place in over 200 cities across six continents including venues in all 50 states of the United States. Films from Asia, North and South America, Europe, Australia and Africa are screened throughout these venues at the festival.
This year the fest started on September 25 and will end on October 2, 2011. For Nepal, the dates are October 1 and 2 while the venue is the Film Development Board, Saraswoti Nagar, Chabahil.
“Our mission is to unite audiences from all corners of the globe for one week via the most compelling short films submitted each year,” states the website of the film festival.
In Nepal, Anup is organizing the festival under the banner of Underground Talkies, a group of four young film students of Nepal. The other members are Bhupendra Bhattarai, Pawan Adhikari and Suraj Poudel. Through the group, these young film students strive to hold regular activities related to cinema.
The tale of Anup bringing the festival to Nepal is an interesting one. A cinema fanatic, he was browsing through the Internet, looking for cinema related information. “I don’t recall exactly how I came to this website,” he says adding, “The idea of an international event however was intriguing.”
He then emailed the organizer, asking permission for the fest to be organized in Nepal. “The reply was quick and a positive one,” he says. Last year then, for the first time Kathmandu witnessed the fest at the Russian Centre of Science & Culture, Kamalpokhari.
This is the second year that the group is putting together the festival. This however is not Anup’s first step in the field. He caught the world’s attention when he won the Democracy Video challenge with his film ‘Democracy is Black’ 2010. The competition was organized by the US State Government.
Even earlier, Poudel’s made a fiction film “My Green Home”. It was short-listed in a competition organized by the British Council, and also screened at the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF). This very film also won the first prize in the Asian Development Bank’s Philipines Climate Change Video Competition.
He has also recently worked for the Spanish film “Kathmandu Song’” as the third assistant director. The film tells the story of a Spanish girl in Nepal.
Also, the film “I am Happy” directed by Abhinash Bikram Shah, the creative advisor for the group, has been selected for screening at the Seattle South Film Festival on October 9. The short film is officially selected for Busan International Film Festival, South Korea, in competitive section.
Adding another feather to the groups cap was the victory this year at “Water Video Competition” put together by the Asian Development Bank. Suraj Poudel was declared the winner.
Underground Talkies functions solely through these four young enthusiasts, “We have no organization associated to us,” clarifies Anup adding, “We however received support from Nepal Tourism Board, Film Development Board, and the team of film Highway.”
All excited about the film festival, Anup expects a large gathering of young film makers. “I hope the festival will provoke discourse and lead to further development of cinema in our country,” he says adding, “The state of our films is such that we the youth have to work for its development.”
He says although many young film makers are active in cinema making, there are not enough submissions. “I can’t say if anyone has directly submitted his film to the festival but I have received only one film.” This competition is easy to participate, he says as there is “no particular genre.”
Anup explains if any film maker is interested in sending his films for the festival, he can contact him as he is the country representative for the festival. “The submission fee is waived if the film is submitted through Underground Talkies,” he says.
This year, the festival received 598 entries from 48 countries and 10 short films are selected as finalists.
These are the very films to be screened in the two days of the fest.
Audiences across the globe will watch the 10 finalist films and vote to select the winners.
The results will be out on the festival’s website on Sunday October 2nd at 10:00 pm EST.
The entry to the festival is free.
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