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Pune International Film Festival screenings at FTII go pfft!
Film screenings that were scheduled at FTII have now been shifted to the National Film Archive of India’s (NFAI) Kothrud premises
Films for the Pune International Film Festival (Piff) will not be screened at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) due to technical snags and the ongoing student agitations at the institute, an official said.
Film screenings that were scheduled at FTII have now been shifted to the National Film Archive of India’s (NFAI) Kothrud premises, he added.
The 18th Pune International Film Festival (Piff)) will begin today (Wednesday) with its inauguration at Bal Gandharva auditorium at 5pm. PIFF this year is also celebrating 60 years of FTII as well as that of Maharashtra.
Jabbar Patel, festival director, said, “Piff is a celebration of films and I am not going to come in the way of FTII students fight for their rights and hold a celebration in their campus amidst their agitation. FTII is still part of the Piff and has contributed a lot to the film industry. We have professors as well as alumni as part of this year’s Piff , only no screenings or workshops will be held on the campus.”
Patel added, “We had planned some workshops which now have been shifted to other venues and we had also planned the retrospective screenings in the main auditorium which now has been shifted to NFAI Kothrud auditorium. We have not deleted any of the programmes except shuffled the venues.”
FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola said although films will not be screened at the institute, but its participation through juries and workshops will remain unaffected.
“Our people are there on the jury panel, workshops are happening and some of them are receiving awards so, in a nutshell, FTII has full participation in the festival,” he said.
When asked why the screenings of films are not happening at the institute, he said there are “unavoidable” reasons because of which the screenings were shifted to other places.
Other venues of the festival include National Film Archive of India (NFAI), Inox and PVR at Pavilion Mall, Senapati Bapat road.
(With agency inputs)