Awareness needed to make people react to documentaries: Jahnu Barua

Making a strong pitch for the documentary films in the country, Noted Filmmaker Jahnu Barua said that with the advent of technical ease there is a spurt in short film making, however, due to lack of awareness and outlets people are not getting to see most of the output. A lot of ground needs to be covered to propagate documentary film viewing in India, he said.  Shri Barua, who is the president of Indian Documentary Producer’s Association, was talking to media at the association’s press conference at IFFI-Goa, 2009, today.

Shri Barua disclosed that the association is emphasizing the concept of documentary as education to generate interest among youth. In this connection many educational institutions are being contacted and are being provided technical support for promoting documentary film viewing. A Guwahati College will hold documentary film festival from 17th to 19th December, Shri Baru said. In a reply to a question on market for documentary, Shri Barua said that lot of activities are taking place in the avenues like Film Bazaar of IFFI but he lamented the lack of interest by the Indian buyers.

The vice president of the Association Shri Ramesh Tekwani underlined the growing market for content in emerging platforms like mobile phones. However, he was emphatic that with out a viable plan for financial return the movement will not reach the desired level. He expressed concern that Indian television channels have not developed a viable system of commissioning documentaries. Due to its fragmented nature it is increasingly difficult to measure the economic contribution of documentaries in the content market, Shri Tekwani said.

The association’s Goa coordinator Shri Gurudas Kamat said that there is rise in Goa’s participation in the short film centre of IFFI and association is undertaking a special drive to increase the membership of Goan filmmakers in the association. He also informed that technical seminars on various aspects of film-making are also being organized in the educational institutes in the state.