Mumbai Academy of Moving Image’s (MAMI) Mumbai Film Festival faces a major shift this year. It will no longer have a title sponsor like its previous editions, which was backed by Jio. Due to limited resources, the festival will take place in a short span of six days this year, from October 19 to 24. However, festival director and filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur feels that nothing has changed. The festival will continue to screen curated films from South Asia and around the world, along with some restored classics. “It was tough for the team to pull off the festival this year but we didn’t want to deny people the celebration of cinema through MAMI. We wanted that tradition to continue,” says Shivendra.He has a connection with MAMI that goes back a long time. His films, Celluloid Man (2012) and Czechmate: In Search of Jiri Menzel (2018), have been screened at the festival earlier. Even before that, Shivendra assisted Gulzar on some of his films. He says that he received two important pieces of advice from the veteran poet, lyricist, and filmmaker. “He told me to enrol in the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and secondly, to get a pass for MAMI,” Shivendra recollects. He feels that the festival was a learning curve for him and many others like him. “I still remember collecting the catalogue from the festival every year. All those catalogues are still with me. I never thought I would be the director of this festival one day,” he smiles. Shivendra reveals that they are finding ways to make the festival sustainable in the long run. He feels that MAMI should become a space where like-minded cinema lovers can come together. “I grew up with that tradition where I would go to MAMI to see some of the greatest filmmakers from around the world. I would watch films which I would have no chance to access otherwise,” he says.Through MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, Shivendra wants to create a worthy platform for independent cinema. “I have always felt that young filmmakers need to be nourished,” he says.“We need to find cinema beyond the popular discourse and celebrate films that are not just made in Mumbai but across the country in different languages that truly represent Indian culture.” In line with this spirit, Shivendra wanted to open the festival with an Indian film and he feels that Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light will set the right tone. “I wanted something that captures the spirit of Mumbai and this was the perfect film,” he says.“I think Payal’s film being an independently produced film is the correct example of what MAMI is going to follow in the years to come,” he concludes.
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