Film makers announce boycott of MIFF 2004

BY ninan| IN Media Freedom | 15/09/2003

                                                 Press Release

"One hundred and seventy five of the leading documentary filmmakers of the country, having come together under the banner of a campaign against censorship at Miff2004, hereby announce a boycott of the Mumbai International Film Festival to be held in Mumbai in February 2004.

This follows a decision by the organisers of the festival, Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to introduce a clause which requires Indian documentaries entered for the festival to be censored. It should be noted that foreign films entered at the festival do not need to be censored.

Since giving notice to Films Division and the Ministry over a month ago, the Campaign has tried it`s best to keep channels of communications open with them. However, except for one meeting of filmmakers with the Joint Secretary (films) and a few stray remarks by the Minister, there has neither been any progress on this nor any communication to us.

As such, we have no choice but to boycott Miff2004. This is a shame because the festival was meant to promote the best of Indian documentaries and it can hardly claim to do this while it is simultaneously trying to muzzle the voice of the Indian documentary.

It is an accepted practice world-wide that film festivals are arenas of uninhibited and creative _expression. No international festival of repute censors films. It is strange that Miff 2004 now wants to do this while it managed seven previous editions of MIFF without this regulation. It is even stranger that the Minster for Information and Broadcasting, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated the recently concluded PSBT-UNESCO film festival at Delhi where Indian as well as foreign films were screened without censorship certificates (or censorship exemptions), but the same terms cannot be applied to MIFF.

A question was also raised in the Parliament following which many parliamentarians have also protested the Miff regulations to the Ministry. However, the Ministry has not acted even on their representation. As a follow up to the boycott call, we will undertake the following steps:

We will write immediately to leading international filmmakers worldwide asking them not to participate in the festival. Since this is a cause they all support, we see no problem in their supporting the campaign. We will also write to all the international film festivals abroad asking for their support in condemning the Miff action.

We will seek support from different sections of civil society. Women’s groups from all over the country are supporting our campaign and we will release a joint statement of these groups in the coming days. We are also in the process of gathering support from media organisations, civil liberties and democratic rights groups.

We will soon also announce many other measures to promote the screening of documentaries in the country, and to encourage the growth of a healthier culture of public screenings."

Contact: 

Pankaj Butalia and Saba Dewan
91-11-26961065,26854839 26515161, (0)9810395589
with Amar Kanwar - 91-11-26516088,26513556,(0)9810216088
Rahul Roy - 91-11-26515161 & (0)9810395589
Sameera Jain - 91-11-26220224 & (0)9810525985
Sanjay Kak - 91-11-26893893 & (0)9811229952

miff_campaign@rediffmail.com