Out of focus

The Films Division in Mumbai is trying to resurrect the fading allure of documentary films

For a people so tuned into the marvels of multiplexes and accessibility of DVDs, documentaries lie on the obscure fringes of their entertainment agendas. Which is perhaps why cinema halls have done away with the mandatory showing of documentaries before running the regular films. In an effort to revive documentaries, the Films Division is now putting in money and mettle. From holding film festivals and digitising the existing archive to making them available on the Net and negotiating with mulitplexes, the institute is trying hard to infuse life into the near dead medium.

First formed by the British in 1942, the Information Films of India was rechristened the Films Division in 1948 when Jawahar Lal Nehru felt the need for an official body. Mohan Bhavani took over as its first chief producer and set about the task of churning out documentaries to spread social messages and information. In 1980s, the institution also started making short fiction films for the rural audience. Today, the Mumbai-based institute houses documentary films on 8,000 subjects and has 18 lakh cans of films in its four-storeyed library, some with rare footage as that of the Independence day. “There was no media officially appointed to cover the day in 1947. So the recording was done by private cameramen,” says Kuldeep Sinha, chief producer of the Films Division.

Now, the Division is trying to save such footage by digitising them. “Preserving them in a city like Mumbai with high humidity has been tough. The rolls are beginning to decompose,” says librarian R.G.K Prasad. The process started two years ago and nearly 5,000 documentaries have already been digitised. It will take another six months to complete the job, says Sinha. The second phase of digitisation will be celluloid restoration where the damaged prints will be restored from the negatives of the original rolls. The third phase will comprise restoration of the poor sound recordings, wherein fillms with speeches by Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and others shall be retrieved.

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Holding film festivals is also high on the agenda. “Under a three-tier system, we will hold film festivals in all the state capitals,” says Sinha. In the past year, festivals have been held in the Northeast. “The response was overwhelming as people don’t have multiplexes and cinema halls there,” says Sinha. While one festival has just been organised in Goa, another will be held in J&K next month.

These festivals have three packages. One comprising only award-winning documentaries, another showcasing the best works of the Division and the third has documentary films by local filmmakers. While the 10 distribution offices across the country have been asked to organise festivals in their respective zones, tie-ups with NGOs and social film groups are also being organised. Films Division is also celebrating 150 years of the first war of Independence by distributing a package of documentries.

As for the attempt to make their way back into the theatres, Sinha is talking with the Distributors and Exhibitors Association after the reluctance of the multiplex owners to show the documentaries. This, despite the fact that as per the Cinematographic Act of 1952, it is mandatory for cinema halls to show a 20-minute (maximum) documentary at least once a week.

Yet another plan involves the upgradation of the Films Division website to web television. “It will mean a 24-hour access to documentaries on the Internet,” says Sinha. The docus will be transferred in digital mode by the process called Tele Cine.