Asian cinema should be properly recognised: Shabana Azmi

12/11/2007 0 Comments read Arts, Entertainment & Lifestyle

By Neena Bhandari

Gold Coast (Australia), 12.11.2007 (IANS): “Asia Pacific Screen Awards is an idea whose time has come, both politically and culturally. It is only fair that Asian cinema which comprises nearly three-fourths of the world cinema is properly recognised and represented”, says acclaimed actress and activist Shabana Azmi.

Shabana is in Gold Coast, one of the favourite tourist destination for Indians, as president of the international jury for the inaugural Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) being held here.

In an exclusive interview to IANS in the plush Sheraton Mirage, where the awards will be presented on Tuesday, Shabana said, “What has happened with Oscars, assuming the importance that they have over the years, the Oscar awards seems to be the definitive award filmmakers aspire for. We are going to create in the times to come an alternative to that so that Asian cinema gets the recognition it deserves,”

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Australia’s filmi connection with India

15/09/2007 0 Comments read Arts, Entertainment & Lifestyle

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 15.09.2007 (IANS) Book clubs are popular in Australia, but Bollywood Clubs? Yes, they too exist, with more and more Australians cued on to Hindi films.

Curator Rebecca Bower, whose bedside table doesn’t have books but a laptop and Hindi film DVDs, has formed a Bollywood Club where a group of women watch and discuss Indian films.

“I watch a Bollywood film for half hour or so every night to unwind before sleeping,” said the curator of the Bollywood and Australia section of “Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood” exhibition, running at the Powerhouse Museum here. She is learning Hindi so she can turn off the subtitles.
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Women in Australian film & Television

10/08/2004 0 Comments read Arts, Entertainment & Lifestyle, Gender

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 10.08.2004 (WFS): For women in the film and television industry in Australia, it has been a long and arduous struggle to achieve gender equity on and off screen. Much of the changes in the portrayal of women on screen have come about with women filmmakers challenging patriarchal attitudes and making a mark not only in the field of script writing, direction and production, but also technical fields of cinematography, design, sound and editing.

Not long ago, a woman with a professional camera in public would be met with sighs and disbelief. The general notion was that women worked as production secretaries, negative cutters or in the editing, research, makeup and wardrobe sections.

One of the first woman cinematographers, Martha Ansara, recalls how she had cried on the steps of the Sydney Town Hall before shooting a demonstration.” You were made to feel as though you were from Mars. It wasn’t easy to be walking around with a camera on your shoulders”.

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