9th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival

From 4 to 10 December, 2009, Florence will be hosting the 9th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival, established and directed by Selvaggia Velo. The Festival, under the Patronage of the Indian Embassy to Rome, will be held at Odeon, the beautiful 1920s theatre right in the centre of the city, under the aegis of Mediateca Regionale Toscana-Film Commission as part of the Cinquanta Giorni di Cinema Internazionale a Firenze.

Entries to the River to River Digichannel Audience Award will include the latest feature films, short films and documentaries produced by India's movie industry, telling stories and real-life experiences which reflect a multifaceted, colourful and ever-changing society which is playing an increasingly important role in the Western world. Filmmakers, actors and producers will be there to illustrate their films.

Friday 4th December will be the opening night of the Festival, beginning at Museo Marino Marini in Florence with an exhibition curated by Giovanni Aprile on the great Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), who showed his unconventionality in his life and work, upsetting XIX-century India. Later on, at 9 pm, Cinema Odeon will host the Italian preview of the opening film of the Festival, telling the story of painter Raja Ravi Varma: Rang Rasiya (Colours of Passion) by world-known Indian director Ketan Mehta, who will be at the Festival and will meet the audience after the screening of his film.

This year’s retrospective will be devoted to the wistful genius of Guru Dutt (1925-1964), one of the great directors of the Golden Age of Indian cinema, who died prematurely at the age of 39, whose works are often imbued with a feeling of loneliness as well as great appeal. Three of his masterpieces have been selected for the Festival and will be screened in their original 35mm. format, with the support of the Directorate of Film Festivals in New Delhi: the French-style detective movie Aar Paar – This or that (1954), the troubled love story of Mr. and Mrs. 55 (1955), and the autobiographical and poignant Kaagaz ke Phool – Paper Flowers (1959). A documentary about his life, In Search of Guru Dutt by Nasreen Munni Kabir, describing Dutt’s unique, multifaceted personality, will be screened afterwards.

Out of competition will be screened the very latest animation films from the Animation Society of India and the Ahmedabad National Institute of Design as well as a section of student films from India’s major cinema schools.