PIFF rant [january 20, 2005] [such-a-long-url aka the home page]

disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the fact that I was unable to catch Black Friday.

* Goa did a much better job with its maiden attempt at hosting a film festival, while PIFF in its third year still can't understand that a film festival is about films and not star meets for Kalmadi's friends

* The "brochure" (or schedule) has more TBA slots than anything I've ever seen -- the schedule was also unavailable until the first day (by which time you were expected to have registered) so a lot of friends couldn't decide if they wanted to go or not

* The "brochure" is a set of cheap printouts of a table created in Microsoft Word and then stapled together

* White Noise was directed by Vinta Nanda and not Shonali Bose (the director of Amu)

* It's Throne of Blood not Thorn of Blood

* Also noted was the complete lack of film lover-centric marketing. The Indian film festival last year at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (despite its imbalance in the languages of the films) was an excellent event in comparison (and in general), although movies like DDLJ and WBH2P2 have been easily available locally for a long time.


BTW, Googling for PIFF returns results dominated by Suresh Kalmadi -- talk about statistically sound politics.