After attending ‘Platform Busan’ in 2019 Busan International Film Festival, South Korea, a new feather has been added to the crown of 26 years old filmmaker Diganta Dey. This Coochbehar born independent filmmaker cum critic has been selected for the famous Kyoto Filmmakers Lab 2020 in Japan.
This internationally acclaimed lab is organised by the Kyoto HISTORICA international film festival committee led by heavyweights of Japan like Kyoto Prefectural Government, the Museum of Kyoto, Shochiku studio, Ritsumeikan University and so on. It is in collaboration with the 33rd Tokyo International Film Festival executive committee and Istituto Italiano di Cultura -Osaka.
The main program consists of 3 parts. One is Hands-on JIDAIGEKI and two others are Masters Session online and offline. Generally, Kyoto invites all its participants to Japan and provides airfare but this year due to COVID 19, the international participants are not allowed to travel there.
They will attend the online master class instead. As a perk of this prestigious filmmakers lab, all the participants who have passed the high cut off will be trained to present their projects like cinema and VR projects in Biennale College Cinema program.
The entire presentation will be premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. Diganta, who is presently residing in Hyderabad due to work purpose, responded to our queries and expressed his immense joy. He also said, “Unfortunately India, the largest film producing country is yet to hold any lab of this kind where film personalities and enthusiasts can interact and share their ideas“.
According to records, last year, from 110 countries 1733 applications were received by the Kyoto Lab organizers but from them only 40 got selection based upon their merits. This year, there were no exceptions with strict selection cut offs.
Diganta, till now, has produced and directed four short films along with one short documentary. All of his works have been praised internationally and have received several awards. Recently, this young Bengali director worked in his first feature documentary ‘Mental Manifesto’.
His other short films are streaming on various popular national and international OTT platforms like Amazon Prime Video (UK,US), Mx Player and so on. He was a little upset for his work being affected due to pandemic but the selection bring his smile back.
Apart from direction, he contributes as a Film Critic in prestigious FIPRESCI INDIA E-Cine Journal on a regular basis. Kyoto Filmmakers Lab will be held from 3-8 November 2020.