A film festival that explores urban lives through different lenses

Movie buffs are in for a treat as the fifth edition of the Urban Lens Film Festival is all set to be held in Bengaluru this week. Starting today, the four-day film festival will witness film screenings from across the globe, discussions by filmmakers and a public lecture on Malayalam cinema.
The film festival, organised by Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) in collaboration with Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, will bring different kinds of films — fiction and non-fiction, experimental and animation — under one roof.Subasri Krishnan, who is a part of the film festival, says, “We are bringing different kinds of films that are not accessible in a movie theatre easily, and films from countries like Brazil, Iran, Mozambique, South Asia and more in one space. We are attempting to draw the larger public in Bengaluru towards films and conversations revolving around it.”
Some of the films screening at the festival are Rangbhoomi and Pushkar Puran by filmmaker Kamal Swaroop, As Time Goes by in Shanghai and Pink Taxi by Uli Gaulke, Ek Aur Inquilab Aaya by Uma Chakravarti, Portrait of a City by Chidanand Dasgupta, Jamnapaar by Abhinava Bhattacharya, and Bismaar Ghar by Shreyas, among others.
Subasri says that audiences will be exposed to different cultures and filmmaking techniques through the festival. “Some of the filmmakers will be present at the festival and audiences will get a chance to hear them talk about the making of their respective films, and will also get a chance to engage with them during a Q&A session,” says Subasri, adding, “One of the main reasons for conducting this film festival is to look at how filmmakers view the city through cinema and what we can learn about the city through films. The idea is to look at the city through different lenses, hence the name Urban Lens.”
Twenty-eight films from 11 countries will be screened at the film festival, including some by Bengaluru filmmakers. In addition to this, there will also be conversations around the idea of cinematic practice with filmmakers and editors, such as Jabeen Merchant and Sameera Jain, and a public lecture around Malayalam cinema and the city by film scholar and curator Ratheesh Radhakrishnan.