The Buddhist film festival will kickstart from September 6. Its director and co-founder Aruna Vasudev tells Divya Kaushik that the line-up includes French, Austrian films and Goutam Ghose’s Impermanence. Classics like Samsara will also be featured
last year it just took her two months to conceptualise and execute first-of-its-kind Buddhist film festival in India. The idea was conceived after a discussion with Suresh Jindal, a well-known filmmaker and practicing Buddhist, to start something unique- a festival that highlights the philosophy of Buddhism. This is how The Inner Path came into existence last year. The international Buddhist film festival started by Aruna Vasudev with Jindal got a huge response not only from the filmmakers but academicians, foreign diplomats and students and immediately after the end of the first edition, the work on the second one started.
This year the festival will begin from September 6 to 10. Along with the screening of over 21 international films, the festival will also feature discourses by eminent Buddhist scholars and philosophers, art exhibition by four photographers and sculptures about humanist spirituality. The festival will begin with the performance by an American band, The Dharma Bums. “Even last year the festival was not only about films, it was coming together of people from various fields and it highlighted the work happening across the world on Buddhism. When Suresh and I realised that we need events to create awareness on Buddhism in the country, we decided to organise this festival which got a great response and this year we have added discourses, musical band performance and much more to the festival. The objective of the festival is to promote an understanding and appreciation of the philosophy of Buddhism through discussions, debates and other related events. The opening performance by the US garage band, that is know for their opening act Nirvana, will be an ideal beginning,” shared Vasudev.
The festival will feature some popular classics like Samsara, Korean film Spring Summer Fall Winter, The Yellow Robe and Goutam Ghose’s Impermanence. Goutam Ghose will be attending the festival too. “These are the films that people wanted to watch again. Some have heard a lot about these films but haven’t got a chance to watch them so this will be a good opportunity. Out of over 22 total films, there are over eight to ten feature films and some documentaries. We are also associated with International Buddhist Film Foundation and five films have come from them. There is a beautiful film about a British nun. There is a beautiful Austrian film on the Bamiyan Buddhas. There are French films as well and this time we are spreading the word in universities so that more people would get a chance to see these amazing works,” said Vasudev.
She shared that there is good work being done by many Indian filmmakers on Buddhism but since most of them don’t have enough funds to promote the films, you will find most of them on Internet. “There are many Tamil films on Buddhism and I am glad that through such wonderful works the awareness has started showing among people and it is visible by the number of guests we have at our festivals. But still Buddhism is not the most favoured topic by many independent filmmakers, but I am hopeful that more good work will be seen in future,” stated Vasudev, the noted author.
The entry to the festival will be open to all and “there are different stalls to attract more people. Since this event is now an annual one we are trying our best to include more people.”