Anand Patwardhan Anand PatwardhanFilmmakers Anand Patwardhan and Pankaj Kumar have moved the Bombay High Court against the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) after their documentary films were not selected to be screened during the festival that opens on January 28. The petition said that Patwardhan’s documentary Vivek/Reason, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2018, plays out over eight chapters “that document a particular political ideology’s ascendancy in recent times”. Kumar’s film Janani’s Juliet, the petition added, follows the story of Indianostrum, a Puducherry-based theatre group, which is disturbed by a spate of honour killings in India. Calling for records, the court directed the Union government to state what process was followed by the MIFF selection committee while rejecting the three documentary films. The five-day festival, scheduled to begin on January 28, is organised by Films Division of the ministry.

Source: Indian Express January 24, 2020 22:02 UTC