With 'Suffragette', I View World film fest opens on powerful note

After its successful run in New York, I View World, an international film festival that provides new ways of looking at human rights cinema through the lens of gender, marginalities and contemporary culture, had its opening night in the national capital here on Wednesday with the screening of British film "Suffragette".

Taking place at the British Council here, the opening night of the film fest saw celebrities like Shweta Tripathi, Radhika Apte, Monica Dogra, Arpita Chatterjee, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Onir among others, gracing the red carpet.

The event began on a powerful note with a special screening of director Sarah Gavron's historical period drama film "Suffragette", which unravels an inspiring story of women rights.

Interestingly, Tannishtha, who worked with Gavron on the film "Brick Lane", presented a note from the director for the attendees, as she could not be present for the screening.

"Suffragette" was inspired by the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to fight for equality and for their right to vote in Britain.

The film stars Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw, and Meryl Streep.

In the note, read out by Tannishtha, Gavron wrote: "It took a long time... A 100 years for this story to come out. It took 10 years for this film..."

"In Britian, the story was not widely known. It felt important to highlight this story," Gavron wrote, adding that even the "film industry is unequal".

"An unusual amount of women took part in this film. It also had real Suffragettes... Equality is for all, not just women," the note further read.

The festival will continue till March 8 and showcase an array of films like Hansal Mehta's "Aligarh", French director Jacques Audiard's "Dheepan", Delhi premiere of Pakistani filmmaker Sarmad Khoosat's critically acclaimed "Manto" along with a retrospective of Mira Nair's feature films "Reluctant Fundamentalist", "Monsoon Wedding", "Mississippi Masala", "The Namesake".

Screening venues include the American Centre, the British Council, PVR and others.

In an effort to take these conversations to a wider cross section of audiences, there are two planned campus initiatives at St. Stephen's College and School of Arts and Aesthetics in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).