Film club ‘Brief Encounters’ to screen documentary on partition this weekend in the city

Director Kaushal Oza interacting with the audience after the screening of ‘Afterglow’ in June this year. Image credit: Brief Encounters Instagram account (@briefencountersfilmclub)

"For us the whole idea was to bring some really brilliant short films, which remain unwatched, to the public. Very few people are aware of such films, which are recognised internationally too," says Dhanashree Diwane, co-founder of Mumbai-based Brief Encounters Film Club.

Started in May this year, Brief Encounters is the brainchild of Aparajita Roy Sinha, who had successfully pioneered a similar project in Hyderabad and wished to bring together groups of passionate filmmakers and film enthusiasts, who were scattered in different parts of Mumbai city, especially in and around Bandra and Versova.

Thrilled by the idea of having an active film club in the maximum city, which will enable people to regularly indulge in new and uncommon cinematic experiences, Diwane and Anca Florescu Abraham and Aradhana Nagpal joined Sinha to make it happen. The film club opened with Hyderabad-based filmmaker Pranav Ingle's ‘Occupied', one of the six-part series of short films on young Palestinian artists, who decode their life choices and art in a war-ridden country.

With an objective to initiate dialogues over social, political and cultural experiences through films and also confront the issues that concern us as a society, every screening is followed by an interactive session with the director, writer and actors among those associated with the film. This, Diwane states, has enabled filmmakers to share a part of their journey and process of filmmaking to a live audience, which is generally a difficult prospect when the film has been released on an OTT platform.

Additionally, for an independent filmmaker, the club provides an opportunity to present their creation to an audience, which appreciates cinema and is curious about the undiscovered knowledge and insight that every film has the potential to provide. "From a filmmaker's perspective, they have made these short films completely out of passion and commitment to a cause and topic they are trying to bring to the fore. They want people to watch it. They are getting a chance to speak about their journey and it is something that we would like to do," adds Diwane.

Such conversations, the founders say, have also enabled audiences to engage with people out of their hectic streamlined lives, add to their creative knowledge and sources of entertainment and ultimately find themselves as a part of a thriving film community in the city.

The club's next screening, which is ‘Beyond Partition' a documentary film by Lalit Mohan Joshi, revisits the scars of India-Pakistan partition and its undying impact on both the countries, through the works of filmmakers from India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. Currently, a ticketed event, the founders aspire to invite people to attend free-of-charge in future, when they are able to bring together a considerable number of artists and film buffs on board, who can relate to and add to the idea of ‘Brief Encounters' in the long run.

Next screening: Beyond Partition by Lalit Mohan Joshi
Venue: SAPP, St Andrew's College Campus, Bandra (West)
Date: Sunday, August 28
Time: 5:30 pm
Cost: Rs 350

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