Amit Dutta (born 1977 in Jammu) is an Indian experimental filmmaker and writer. He is considered to be one of the most significant contemporary practitioners of experimental cinema, [1] [2] [3] known for his distinctive style of filmmaking rooted in field-research and personal symbolism resulting in images that are visually rich and acoustically stimulating. [4] His works mostly deal with subjects of art history, ethno-anthropology, and cultural inheritance through cinema. [5]
Amit Dutta graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune in 2004. [6] He has taught at the National Institute of Design (NID), [7] Ahmedabad. In 2015, he joined the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla as a Tagore fellow. [8]
Amit Dutta began his career making several short experimental films which critics described as "without precedents except probably for a distant echo of Sergey Parajanov's avant-garde play with childhood memories, making the director probably the most singular and idiosyncratic in the world." His montages are considered as baffling the eye and the urge to interpret, being interwoven with a complex labyrinth of allusions from historical reminiscences, fairytales, children's stories, texture etc. [9]
Kramasha (To Be Continued), an experimental short film made in 2007, earned considerable acclaim from film scholars and critics and was considered to be a defining achievement in experimental cinema. After winning many national and international awards, it was included in the list of thousand best films of all times compiled by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum [10] [11] who also described the film as "a dazzling, virtuoso piece of mise en scene in 35-millimeter, full of uncanny imagery about the way the narrator imagines the past of his village and his family." [12] It was also voted as one of the best films in the Senses of Cinema poll in 2007. [13]
The FIPRESCI Jury while giving it the critic's prize in 2007 at the Oberhausen Film Festival in remarked, "Now that 35-millimeter appears to be a format whose pleasures are being overlooked or forgotten, especially in the realm of short films, the sensual pleasures of Amit Dutta's 22-minute To Be Continued (Kramasha) seem all the more precious..." [14]
The Jury at the MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival) while giving it the Golden Conch for the Best Film of the Festival in 2008 wrote about the film: "In the manner music keeps you quietly enthralled with a resonating sense of things without a need to necessarily reduce the experience to a verbalization of meanings, Kramasha offers a world of images and sounds that made us smell and touch the lush of nature amid a mysterious index of hallucinations. Like a dream that we may fail to understand but that reaches deep recesses of our unconscious and touches familiar chords, Amit Dutta's Kramasha weaves a powerful narrative that blends legends, myths and nostalgia into a film that allows us to recall our own early experiences." [15]
The Man's Woman and Other Stories, a triptych of three separate short-stories received the Jury's Special Mention award of the Orizzonti [New Horizons] section of the 66th Venice Film Festival with the note that the film "opens a window on a new form of film-making on many levels". Jury-member and film-artist Bady Minck wrote that the director "creates images which are poetic and unsettling at the same time. They oscillate between the fantastic and the concrete, imagination and present-day reality". [16]
Barbara Wurm, writing in the Senses of Cinema magazine states that the director "celebrates neo-expressionist cinematography and demonstrates outstanding skills in merging the tempus and the mode of narration, a very sophisticated plot wandering from reality to possibility and back being the result: Aadmi ki aurat aur anya kahaniya (The Man's Woman and Other Stories)” [17]
In an article for the Film Comment, Nicolas Rapold says, " The Man's Woman and Other Stories renders three short stories with such exquisite gemlike color and composition and feel for rhythm that their subject matter fades into the background." [18]
In Sonchidi, two travelers journey in the quest for a flying craft that they believe would help them cross the cycle of births. The Rotterdam film festival described it as an "intriguing philosophical piece which evokes many memories, challenges various interpretations. Truly cinematic, a connoisseur's piece." [19] [20]
Since 2007, he has collaborated with the art historian Eberhard Fischer, researching in the Kangra Valley of Himachal Pradesh and eventually directed the feature film Nainsukh in 2010. The film is based on the biography of an 18th-century master painter of the same name belonging to the region. It premiered at the 67th Venice Film Festival, was presented in the 'World Cinema Spotlight' section [21] of the San Francisco Film Festival, was showcased in MoMA, New York and travelled widely to many festivals including Rotterdam, Beijing and Vancouver Film Festivals among others.
The 'Film Comment' magazine had rated "Nainsukh" as one of the top ten films of the 67th Venice Film Festival. [22] The Ferroni Brigade group of film critics had nominated it as one of the best films of the 67th Venice film festival. [23] Film critics at the "Senses of Cinema's poll have twice voted it among the best films (2010 [24] and 2017 [25] ). In 2024, The NewYorker listed "Nainsukh" among the best bio-pics ever made. [26]
Nainsukh has received a great deal of appreciation from film critics and art-historians, Milo Beach stated, "I think that this will do more for public interest in Indian painting that all the many scholarly essays." [27]
Nainsukh has been widely discussed by critics for its unique formal qualities which evade categorisations. The film is said to be balancing between documentary approach and playful plot, developing its own visual language by interpreting as well as questioning Indian art history and one of its greatest artists. [28] While deeply rooted in Indian tradition and philosophy, [29] the film is also seen by eminent critic Olaf Moller as a "thought-provoking investigation into the slippery, ever-changing nature of realism, its representation in the arts. A true masterpiece of Indian modernism". [30]
With no considerable dialogue, the almost silent film is considered to create "a hypnotic fusion of imagery and sound that conjures up a lost age". [31] George Heymont of Huffington Post also observes the lack of dialogue and calls the film "visually stunning and acoustically stimulating that its beauty can often take the viewer's breath away" [32] The film contains meticulous recreations of Nainsukh's miniatures through compositions set amidst the ruins of the Jasrota palace where the artist was retained. Galina Stoletneya remarks that "By harmoniously juxtaposing the gorgeous visuals with outstanding sound design, the filmmaker produces a unique work of art—a living painting itself—that stands on its own" [33]
Max Goldberg of San Francisco Film Society observes that the film pays close attention to the finesse of Naisukh's brushwork and his observant images of the patron's more informal moments like smoking and beard-trimming. He adds that "When the filmmaker reconstructs one of Nainsukh's more complexly staged scenes—as in the hunting of a tiger clutching its human prey—his cinematic technique of isolating different elements of a single scene evokes the dynamic register of imagination and realism animating the artist's deceptively flat pictures". [34]
After graduating from the film school in 2004, he spent many months interviewing painters from the Gond tribal community of Madhya Pradesh, who had migrated to the city of Bhopal following the success and untimely demise of one pioneering young Gond artist ‘Jangarh Singh Shyam’. It resulted in a film 'Jangarh Film-One', which revolves around his absence amidst his legacy in the contemporary art practice of his kin.
He also made a feature-length documentary Ramkhind, a meditative observation of the everyday life of the people in a Warli village, which has produced some of the finest contemporary painters in its distinctive folk idiom.
Since Nainsukh in 2010, Dutta's area of interest has focused more specifically towards the art-historical and cultural aspects of the Kangra Valley and the surrounding area, most of his recent work being based in the same region. [35]
In the years 2011–12, Dutta recorded extensive conversations with another eminent Indian art-historian B.N.Goswamy, an authority on Pahari Art, for the production of an archive of his works in twenty volumes. Created during the archiving process are two shorts: 'The Museum of Imagination' and 'Field-trip'.
'The Museum of Imagination, A Portrait in Absentia', is an abstract portrait of the art-historian. This film was first shown at the Rome Film Festival and then Rotterdam and Oberhausen Film Festivals subsequently. Rotterdam called it an extraordinary, intriguing and unconventional portrait. [36]
Andrea Picard, Chief Curator of "Wavelengths", the Toronto International Film Festival's celebrated avant-garde section, and a columnist for Cinema Scope magazine wrote about the film that "Dutta continues his exploration of Indian art history and culture...The quietude in the film – the quest to understand the silences as much as the conversation – speaks volumes about the weight of art and creativity... While the film exudes precision and grace, its admiration and respect for its subject is awakened outward, never venerated into stasis. Studying art is a way of seeing the world; the film's official subtitle, "portrait in absentia" suggests infinitude as Dutta's discerning eye alludes to the images that will forever remain lodged in our memory spurring us on as a life force". [37]
Dutta's films have been screened at various museums and film festivals, including:
Dutta's films have received a number of national and international awards including the Golden Conch and Best Film of the Festival Award at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), [73] Gold Mikaldi at Bilbao (Spain), [74] the FIPRESCI, International Film critic's award in the 53rd Oberhausen Film Festival [75] (Germany), the John Abraham National Award (Federation of Film Societies of India, Keralam), [76] the main prize of the International Jury at the 70th International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen (Germany), [77] and four times the National award of India. [78] [79] [80] Kramasha became one of the entries in Jonathan Rosenbaum's list of thousand best films in the Afterword of the second edition of his collection 'Essential Cinema'. [81] 'The Man's Woman and Other Stories' won the Jury's special prize (Orrizonti-2009) in the 66th Venice Film Festival. [82] [58] [83] [84] He received the Hubert Bal Award of the Rotterdam International Film Festival for his screenplay The Invisible One in 2012. [85] The Ferroni Brigade group of film critics had named him among the Best New Filmmakers of the Decade in 2011. [86] In 2013, he was invited by the Venice Film Festival to make a short film for its 70th anniversary on the theme of the 'Future of Cinema'. [35] In October 2013, he was conferred the title of honor, 'Dogra Ratna', for his contribution in the fields of Art and Culture. [87] In 2015, he received CNAP award for his project on the History of Chess, by the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, France. [88] Same year he was awarded the Tagore fellowship at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study IIAS, Shimla, [89] where he wrote his first book. [90] In 2024, The NewYorker listed "Nainsukh" among the best bio-pics ever made. [26] Many of his films regularly been voted by film-critics as among the best in the years in the 'Senses of Cinema' world polls. [91]
Dutta's 2024 animated film Rhythm of a Flower had its world premiere at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024, where it competed in the South Asia Competition and won the Golden Gateway Award. The film is a biopic based on the life of Indian classical singer Kumar Gandharva. [92]
In March 2015, at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the 37th edition of Cinéma du Réel conducted a major retrospective of 14 of his features and short-films, curated by eminent curator and film-critic Marie-Pierre Duhamel Muller entitled “Amit Dutta: Through the Looking Glass,” [93] followed by a round table conference dedicated to discussing his work where using excerpts from Amit Dutta's films, the participants went over the different stages of his filmography and artistic path. [94]
Marie-Pierre Duhamel in her introduction to the retrospective writes:
“Amit Dutta explores the expressive dimensions of cinema as a time machine. He builds up a universe for the spectator where research feeds the imaginary, where the arts, history and mythology form part of landscapes and gestures and where knowledge enchants reality.” [95] and that his body of work evokes “the philosophical majesty of the image.” [96]
Dutta's films have been compiled and screened as comprehensive retrospectives at several points in his career. The 56th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen curated the director's profile in 2010 with seven of his short-films. [97] Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh, had organized the Cinema and Art festival showcasing a selection of both his short films and feature films hosted at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, in March 2014. [98] In June 2015, the 8th International Documentary and Short film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) screened a retrospective of ten of his films hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy at Thiruvananthapuram. [99]
Retrospectives (selected list):
2001 | Ramkhind 90 min [125] [126] |
2007 | Kramasha (To Be Continued) 22min [127] [128] |
2008 | Jangarh Film Ek (Jangarh Film One) 20 min [129] |
2009 | Aadmi Ki Aurat Aur Anya Kahaniyan (The Man's Woman and Other Stories) 70 min [61] [130] |
2010 | Nainsukh 75 min [131] [132] |
2011 | Sonchidi (The Golden Bird) 55min [133] |
2012 | The Museum of Imagination20 min [134] |
2013 | Field-Trip20 min [135] |
2013 | Saatvin Sair (The Seventh Walk) 75 min [136] |
2014 | Gitagovinda35 min [137] |
2015 | Chitrashala (House of Paintings) 20 min [57] |
2015 | Lal Bhi Udhaas Ho Sakta Hai (Even Red Can Be Sad) 60 min [138] |
2016 | Scenes from a Sketchbook21 min [139] |
2017 | The Unknown Craftsman 89 min [140] [141] |
2019 | Notes on Guler55 min [142] |
2020 | Wittgenstein Plays Chess with Marcel Duchamp, or How Not to Do Philosophy [143] 17 min |
2022 | Mother Who Will Weave Now? [144] [145] |
2023 | Blueprint of a Pleasure Machine [146] [147] |
2024 | Many Interrupted Dreams of Mr. Hemmady [148] |
2024 | Rhythm of a Flower [67] |
Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet were a duo of French filmmakers who made two dozen films between 1963 and 2006. Their films are noted for their rigorous, intellectually stimulating style and radical, communist politics. While both were French, they worked mostly in Germany and Italy. From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979) and Sicilia! (1999) are among the duo's best regarded works.
Anjan Dutt is an Indian film director, actor, and singer-songwriter known for his work in the Bengali alternative music genre anyodharar gaan. As an actor, Dutta began his career in Bengali cinema in the Mrinal Sen film Chaalchitra, for which he won the best newcomer actor award at the Venice Film Festival. He acted in Aparna Sen's hit film, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. In 2018 he featured in Swapnasandhani's new play Taraye Taraye, as Vincent van Gogh, under the direction of Kaushik Sen.
Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, PAR is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a feature film, Russian Ark (2002), filmed in a single unedited shot, and Faust (2011), which was honoured with the Golden Lion, the highest prize for the best film at the Venice Film Festival.
Adoor Gopalakrishnan is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer and is regarded as one of the most notable and renowned filmmakers in India. With the release of his first feature film Swayamvaram (1972), Gopalakrishnan pioneered the new wave in Malayalam cinema during the 1970s. In a career spanning over five decades, Gopalakrishnan has made only 12 feature films to date. His films are made in the Malayalam language and often depict the society and culture of his native state Kerala. Nearly all of his films premiered at Venice, Cannes and Toronto International Film Festival. Along with Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, Gopalakrishnan is one of the most recognized Indian film directors in world cinema.
Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema.
Otar Iosseliani was a Georgian film director, known for movies such as Falling Leaves, Pastorale and Favorites of the Moon. Iosseliani received a lifetime achievement honor – the CineMerit Award at the Munich International Film Festival in 2011 for his career accomplishments.
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, founded in 1954, is one of the oldest short film festivals in the world. Held in Oberhausen, it is one of the major international platforms for the short form. The festival holds an International Competition, a German Competition, an International Children's and Youth Film Competition, the MuVi Award for best German music video, and, since 2009, the NRW Competition for productions from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Lior Shamriz is a writer, producer, and film director. They reside in Santa Cruz, California.
The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festival's hostess. The opening film of the festival was Baarìa by Giuseppe Tornatore and the closing film was Chengdu, I Love You by Fruit Chan and Cui Jian.
Mark Cousins is an English-born, Northern Irish director and writer. A prolific documentarian, among his best-known works is the 15-hour 2011 documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey.
Vipin Vijay is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He received his post-graduate degree in filmmaking from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute SRFTI, Calcutta. He received the Charles Wallace Arts Award for research at the British Film Institute, London, 2003. Vipin is the recipient of "The Sanskriti Award" (2007) for social & cultural achievement. His works are made under independent codes and defy any categorisation eluding all traditional genre definitions and merge experimental film, documentary, essay, fiction all into one.
Eberhard Fischer is a German art historian, ethnologist and author based in Switzerland. He is a former Director and the incumbent President of Rietberg Society, Switzerland. Fischer was honored by the Government of India, in 2012, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
Hu Wei is a Chinese filmmaker.
Nainsukh was an Indian painter. He was the younger son of the painter Pandit Seu and, like his older brother Manaku of Guler, was an important practitioner of Pahari painting, and has been called "one of the most original and brilliant of Indian painters".
Jangarh Singh Shyam (1962–2001) was a pioneering contemporary Indian artist credited with being the creator of a new school of Indian art called Jangarh Kalam. His work has been exhibited widely the world over including Bhopal, Delhi, Tokyo and New York. His most notable exhibitions include the Magiciens de la terre in Paris (1989) and Other Masters curated by Jyotindra Jain at the Crafts Museum, New Delhi (1998). His 1988 piece Landscape with Spider sold for $31,250 at Sotheby's, New York, in 2010—a first for an adivasi artist. Jangarh had also painted the interiors of the Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, the Vidhan Bhavan, and the dome of Bhopal's Bharat Bhavan—one of the most prestigious museums of tribal and contemporary Indian art. He was among the first Gond artists to use paper and canvas for his paintings, thereby inaugurating what is now known as Jangarh Kalam.
Nainsukh is a 2010 film directed by Amit Dutta based on the life and works of Nainsukh, an 18th-century Indian miniature painter. The film contains meticulous recreations of Nainsukh's paintings through compositions set amidst the ruins and environs of the Jasrota palace where the artist was retained.
Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo, is a Rwandan filmmaker. He has made several critically acclaimed short films including, The Liberators, Versus and I Got My Things And Left.
Rajee Samarasinghe is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and visual artist. His work explores a wide array of topics including the Sri Lankan Civil War, his family, and the deconstruction of documentary and narrative film.
Kramasha is a short experimental film directed by Amit Dutta. Released in 2007, the film won two National Film Awards in 2007 and received recognition at various international film festivals.
The MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024 took place between 19 and 24 October 2024 in Mumbai, India. It was the first edition of the festival under interim festival director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, following the departure of Anupama Chopra from the festival director position. It was also the first edition of the festival since 2014 to not have a title sponsor.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)