SISFF 2014 - 2015 Aims
By Mandana Ansari
This is the first year that Sahar International Short Film Festival will be held. The festival was conceived with a several aims. First: our ambition is to establish the SISFF festival in the Saddelworth festival and event calendar.
Second aim is, to support independent short filmmakers, and lastly to make audiences familiar with and accustomed to watching and welcoming the world of short film.
Talented filmmakers sometimes if you look at the credit of their films you realise, they are alone in writing, directing, producing, camera and editing their films. Sometimes with no budget or self finance create and produce their own films with the knowledge that their release will not have profit or the public and commercial benefits, not the same as feature movies
Due to this fact, short film has its own restrictions, but these restrictions give them freedom from business to impress and create their artistic content and view. Sometimes some filmmakers think short film is a first step into feature film industry, but I believe the duty of film industry is to recognise short film as its own type. If we look at the television , or cinema we can not find any single TV channel or cinema to emphasize and screen just short films as their own type. As long as industry does not take it seriously we can not expect the ordinary audience to believe and accept it, to spend time and money for it, and the story of producing short filmmakers repeats and repeats and nothing will change without investment in material and culture.
SISFF organizers are alone like short filmmakers. We held it with no budget from anywhere. We asked for support from Oldham Council and local funders but all of them refused us. We booked Millgate Arts Centre with our own money, but could only afford this for one screening day. We are grateful for the help of volunteers from the Saddleworth Players theatre group on the day, and filmmaker Aroop Dwivendi for helping in Laurel and developing our logo. But we have a great dream for the future, which is that one day Short film will be recognized the same as feature film in the film industry by investors and audience.
Short Film in The Modern World
Mandana Ansari
"Cinema as an image medium has the power to involve the audience in itself. When each frame, one after each other narrates the story, the journey begins...
Some of the short films are unconventional, often experimental or projecting a sense of social realism. They express the director's point of view, sometimes using the symbolic content. It focuses on the thoughts, dreams, or motivations of the characters which usually come from under the skin of their societies' story. In the short period of time depending on the demands of the modern world, great ideas can be discussed. This is a SHORT FILM"
The above words are by Mandana Ansari, Film director, creator and Director of the Sahar international short film festival in North Manchester United Kingdom.
This is the edition four of this short film festival. Martin Gleeson, one of the management of Sahar team added:"We do not say that the audience won't be entertained - there are some comedies and dramas in the programme, which the audience will enjoy.
However, some other films have different genres, one of them is anti-war, which viewers can experience the struggles of people living under austere conditions.
So people coming to the festival can expect to be both entertained and educated about the lives of people around the world."
The Fourth edition of Sahar film festival filmmakers opinion about the short film and their motivation for producing it provides below:
Pasang Dawa Sherpa, a Nepalese filmmaker and one of the winners of the 4th edition of the Sahar film festival, in his film: Rattling fan, he exposed a social realism.
Pasang believes "The cinema is always influenced by society’s elements, life, culture, and time. So the audience can directly connect with and get experiences from my viewpoint as a filmmaker.
He emphasized his philosophy about short film: "Sometimes I like to tell strong and poetic elements using my inspiration. Short films also help me to become stronger and clearer in the filmmaking craft."
Identity is another winner film by Juan Carlevaris From Spain
He said: I make short films because I love telling stories and some of them they just need a few minutes to be told. One of the best points about cinema is that we can see ourselves on the screen, a reflection of our lives, and that's a wonderful feeling.
Bus Story is by Jorge Yudice Ruiz - Tomas. They believe: We have a necessity to tell stories. We are storytellers. There are stories that should be told in a tv show with several seasons, others in more than an hour and other stories can be told in 10 minutes. All stories, regardless of their length, have to be told.
- Society has a demand to be fed by stories. Not only because it helps to entertain us in our everyday life, but as an instrument for understanding the society, the human condition and, ultimately, ourselves.
Bangladesh-based filmmaker Ariful Islam, whose film Kukerer Poti (For dog) is in the programme told us, "Our audience knows that the films are independent, and the creative idea has to be revealed in a short time, and this makes the short film format very popular in my country".
Abhishek Anand is from India. "Imagine" is his unconventional surreal art film. His point of view of making a short film is: to create that one moment as a short film where the realization appears in viewer's conscience which sometimes years-long preaching miss generating.
Sometimes the highly qualified philosopher cannot change people's mind but a small child's or street dog's behavior can ignite the change in their mind and heart.
This innovative filmmaker continued about attending audience for short films said: A short film is that innocent child or a selfless unconditionally loving dog that has no selfish intentions running at the back of their mind but the straight message (with love) which is very rare to find in today's calculating world. Hence spending the time and watching them is one of the purest and beautiful moments, one can spend to share and spread the "LOVE".
Peruvian filmmaker Desislava Kadra, whose film Fighting for the Wild premieres at the Festival commented: "Short films are a great way to keep communicating important messages and visions to the world, fast, which is needed in an age where people are always on the go. "
"Antar ViMarsha" one of the premiere screening by Jayanth Kumar, He believes: Short story is an execution of a small voice into tons of strange thoughts.
A message which keeps the audience thinking for the very long term.
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Meysam Hasanzadeh with "Happy birthday" a short film with horror genre from the Contemporary Iranian Cinema: "Thank you to the Sahar International Short Film Festival for giving a platform to new filmmakers like us. In this world of minimalism and rushing around, people need art to separate themselves from their repetitive world. A short film can provide this liberation and take them to another world."
More details about the films are available online on Facebook
Contact by email saharfilmfestival@gmail.com