The best of Asian cinema including a focus on korea and a special tribute to the talented Smita Patil will be the highlights of cinefan, the second Cinemaya Asian film festival, being held in the capital this year from September 10.
Being organised by the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) in collaboration with the Delhi government, cinefan will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Shiela Dixit and will continue till September 17. The films will be screened at the India Habitat Centre, and the French Culture Centre. More than 30 feature and short films are to be screened at the festival, which will be attended by eminent filmmakers from all over Asia and India.
NETPAC president and eminent film critic Aruna Vasudev, who is also the founder editor of India's only film journal devoted to Asian Cinema Cinemaya, told UNI that a special section at the festival will be the 'Carte Blache' organised by cinematheque of Paris with five silent films with some Asian character, including the classics 'Broken Blossoms' by D W Griffiths and 'The Thief of Baghdad'. Artist M F Hussain's feature film 'Gajagamini' inspired by actress Madhuri Dixit is expected to be shown in a special screening.
With the institutionalizing of this fete, Delhi joins the select band of cities in the country which now have their own annual festivals: Calcutta, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mumbai. But unlike the fetes in the other three cities, the Delhi festival will be devoted to films from Asian countries in keeping with the objectives for which NETPAC was established ten years ago following an intiative by Ms Vasudev. Bureau Report