Film Vewing has Become an Individual Experience in Digital Era: Rakesh Sharma

KOCHI:
In the digital age, where anyone can watch movies on mobile and laptop screens, the viewing culture has changed into an individualistic experience rather than a collective one, said acclaimed documentary maker Rakesh Sharma.
Speaking during a ‘Meet the Jury’ session on the concluding day of the SiGNS digital video festival’s tenth edition, the award-winning director of Final Solution said, “During the celluloid era, film making was a collective effort, but with the advent of digitalisation one can make a film or short film provided one has a camera and the technical knowledge to use it.”
“In the celluloid era, a lot of thinking would go before a shot was actually taken as we could not afford wastage of film rolls, but in the digital era this concern no longer exists,” said noted film critic and jury member Premendra Majumdar. “That discipline and planning has thus been lost in the digital era.”
Reputed cinematographer and jury member Fouzia Fathima said it was a pleasure to learn that there are film enthusiasts aplenty who patronise parallel cinema and that the increasing participation for festivals like SiGNS is a sign of changing climate,
“Parallel film makers should put the same effort to the exhibiting and distribution of their works as they do for their production,” she said. “A lot of quality short films and documentaries have not been screened anywhere because of lack of spaces. Audiences and filmmakers should work in tandem to promote and patronise spaces like SiGNS to overcome this crisis.”
The ‘Meet the Jury’ session – held at Ernakulam Town H
all – was moderated by SiGNS 2016 Artistic Director Dr C.S. Venkiteswaran.