India is leading a steadily growing wildlife film industry among developing countries, say film festival organisers

Three of the six Indian entries that made it to the finals of the biennial Panda Awards at the Wildscreen Wildlife Film Festival, often referred to as the Green Oscars, in Bristol, have bagged awards, including a film by well-known conservationist and wildlife filmmaker Mike Pandey.

Pandey’s film ‘Vanishing Giants’, which documents the plight of the Asian elephant, bagged the award in the news category at the 2004 awards ceremony on October 10. The film highlights the inhumane treatment meted out to captured elephants and their eventual, painful death.

Two other Indian films that won awards at the wildlife and environmental festival were ‘The 18th Elephant’, directed by P Balan of the ANMPU Media Trust, which won in the TVE award category and ‘The Policing Langur’ by Ajay Bedi of Bedi Films, which bagged the newcomer award. The former is a powerful critique of modern man’s mercenary attitude towards nature and his anthropocentric conception of life and development, which has wreaked death and havoc on the life and habitats of other species. The plight of elephants both in the wild and domesticated is used as a powerful example to bring home this message.

Bedi’s film depicts the Indian police’s attempts to use langur monkeys to crack down on destructive and thieving macaques.

The award makes it a trio for Pandey at Wildscreen -- in 1994 he became the first Asian to bag an award for his film ‘Capture at Sarguja’, and later ‘Shores of Silence’. Pandey said the making of the film, which was shot at several locations across India including Ambikapur and Midnapur, was extremely challenging as it required a fine balance of sensitivity and objectivity.

Pandey was also nominated in the filmmakers for conservation category along with experienced filmmakers Richard Brook and Alan Root. Root took the award.

Commenting on Indian documentary making, Pandey said: “ India is a developing country and for the message to reach out to the masses, film is the best medium. The potential is large and our country is being recognised for the quality and content of its films.”

In fact, the presence of six films at the finals of the Panda Awards this year marked an end to years of American and European dominance. Film festival organisers say India is leading a steadily growing wildlife film industry among developing countries.

Other entries from developing countries included films from Colombia , Costa Rica , Iran , Puerto Rico , Vietnam and Zimbabwe . Films from these countries are more hard-hitting than those from elsewhere, says Harriet Nimmo, chief executive of the Wildscreen charity in Bristol .

Source: www.sanctuaryasia.com, October 13, 2004
               www.wildscreen.org, October 2004
               PTI, October 3, 2004