The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune on Monday kicked off a 24-day-long Online Film Appreciation Course. This first-ever online Film Appreciation Course of FTII, which is being organized jointly with the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), will conclude on 11 July 2020.
Inaugurating the course via Google Meet, FTII Director Bhupendra Kainthola said: “After the 11th of July, when this course ends, the participants will change the way they look at cinema, forever. The way the participants saw films before the 15th of June and the way they see films after the 11th of July – there would be a sea change. The course will completely change the perspectives of the participants.”
50 participants from 15 states of the country, and the other two – one from Ohio, USA, and one from Vrsovice, Czechia – are attending the course, informed Mr. Kainthola.
National Film Archive of India (NFAI) director Prakash Magdum said that the course is an exciting journey for FTII and NFAI, as the two institutions are organizing the course online for the first time.
Mr. Magdum said: “For more than 40 years, we have been conducting this Film Appreciation Course, one of the best and flagship courses, of these two institutions in the summer. In these four weeks, participants will get to learn much about the entire audio-visual experience.”
“Though, this course couldn’t be considered as the regular Summer Film Appreciation course. But here, we are, at least, trying to replace that with some kind of a virtual experience, and I am sure that everyone will have a lot of things to take away from this course,” assured Mr. Magdum
Ms. Arunaraje Patil, an alumna of FTII Pune who has won 5 National Awards, is the course director of this online course. Her films include Shaque, Gehrayee, Situm, Rihaee, Tum, Keh do na, and her latest Marathi-language film, Firebrand, released in 2019 was produced by Priyanka Chopra. She is a critically acclaimed filmmaker, and the first trained woman technician to have graduated from the prestigious FTII, Pune.
