Little Fish Eat Big Fish

Updates: Kolkata Book Fair, 2012

2012-02-08T05:44:00.000+05:30

Just like the previous year, there was a ban on selling DVDs in the Little Magazine Pavilion this year too. Most of the magazines could not put the 3rd Compilation on their table for displaying. The Situation was tough. But as we've overcome the primary and the most important constraint i.e the financial one, these restrictions mean nothing to us. We have successfully distributed 62 copies altogether in this Book Fair. Thanks to the magazines that stood by us. We will need them again in future.

44 + 62 makes it 106. The production cost is almost recovered.

We are now looking forward to make our DVDs available in different towns of West Bengal. So, if you know someone from a local store, someone who can help, please inform us. We won't mind selling our DVDs from a restaurant or a grocery-store but from our point of view book-stores are preferred. Thank you

Web Release: 3rd Compilation: No Budget Films

2012-01-31T20:14:00.000+05:30

3rd Compilation: No Budget Films is now available on the web to buy or rent. Click here to check out

For all the LFEBF films available on Zinemaya go to this link

Thanks for staying with us

Kolkata Book Fair '12: Update

2012-01-28T23:27:00.002+05:30

"3rd Compilation: No Budget Films" is now available at Kolkata Book Fair 2012. Ask for copies at Kaurab (Stall No. 531), Natun Kabita (Stall No. 380), Abhijan Pub (Stall No. 324), Graffiti Kolkata Broadside (Little Mag Pav, table no. 77), গুরুচন্ডা৯ guruchandali (Little Mag Pav, table no.2) and Jari Bobajuddho.

Happy Reading. Happy Viewing.

Updates: Little Magazine Fair, Kolkata, 2012

2012-01-18T18:30:00.002+05:30

The Little Magazine Fair takes place every year in the premises of Rabindra Sadan, Kolkata during the month of January. As we had previously announced on this blog, the 3rd Compilation was released on the eve of 12th January, 2012, the 2nd day of the said fair, and was received with duly warmth. As of now the circulation figure stands at the total 44 on an average of 11 copies a day.

From the stats stated above the fishes can smell that the Kolkata Book Fair (25th Jan. - 5th Feb. 2012) this year is going to be big for them. Now the question is, "Are You Enough Fish Yet!?"

No Budget Films: 3rd Compilation is coming soon!

2012-01-09T19:34:00.001+05:30

2012 is here, the third year since we started our activism for film-making, free of all the accessories associated with cinema. We have experimented, explored, experienced and expanded over time. Our third compilation of five films take our efforts towards independent expression further, as we near the day for a direct to DVD release.
The release is scheduled for the 12th of January, 2012, at the Little Magazine Fair held at Rabindra Sadan, Kolkata.

The five films in a nutshell:

1. Mr. Director (2011)
Bengali, 45:28 min
Dir: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Watch the trailer.
Join on Facebook.
A director lands in serious internal crisis and frustration after he fails to come up with a story for his upcoming film, even the shooting schedule of which has been more or less finalised. He makes two scripts but finally cancels both of them after realising that events are actually being imposed on the storyline and that he will cheat the viewer...

2. Sunday at Galiff Street (2011)
Bengali, 09:30 min
Dir: Arupratan Ghosh
Watch the trailer.
Join on Facebook.
The weekly transformation of one of the busiest roads of the city into a paradise for people interested in buying and/or selling birds and other rare species has been captured in this short documentary.

3. Replica (2012)
Bengali, 26:58 min
Dir: Sriparna Dey
Watch the trailer.
Join on Facebook.
The story revolves around a teenage photographer who stays with his father. The boy is haunted by painting he has never seen in his real life. He is not even sure if it is a painting or not but the image keeps appearing repeatedly like a vision. He feels that someone is trying to communicate with some message that he must receive. While searching for the root of this uncommon phenomenon, the untold history of his own roots gets unfolded to the teenager.

4. Memories of a Dead Township (2012)
Bengali, 28:00 min
Dir: Anamitra Roy
Watch the trailer.
Join on Facebook.
A docu-fiction on childhood memories, the place where the maker had spent 16 valuable years of his life: a deadened estate revisited. A locked-out factory, buildings, architectures, and reminiscences of a life lived like birds...the fourth short film by Anamitra Roy.

5. City (2012)
Bengali, 28:13 min
Dir: Twish Mukherjee
Watch the trailer.
Join on Facebook.
Two college-going boys are very good friends despite their differences. One is a carefree and happy-go-lucky person, while the other is perpetually distressed about his studies, his parents etc. One night, the latter returns home quite late in the night, and gets thrown out of the house. Alone, along the empty roads of the city, he has weird nocturnal experiences that send him back to the drudgery of his hopeless life. On he day of the exam, his friend meets him in the morning and starts brainwashing him again.

Support the no-budget wave: The Forum on Facebook.
The minimum participatory contribution for this year's DVD is:
Rs. 100/- within West Bengal
Rs. 200/- for the rest of India
Rs. 500/- for Bangladesh

Contact us on:
lfebf.kolkata@gmail.com, littlefisheatbigfish@gmail.com
91 9432860086, 91 9883103809, 91 9883504512, 91 9330948167

"For us, film is not an industry, rather an activism.
It is not all about gloss."

No Budget: 3rd Compilation: LFEBF

2012-01-04T14:04:00.003+05:30

The 3rd compilation is going to be launched on the 12th of January this year

The films in the DVD are ---
(click on the films name for FB links)

1. Mr. Director by Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
2. Sunday at Galiff Street by Arupratan Ghosh
3. Replica by Sriparna Dey
4. Memories of a Dead Township by Anamitra Roy
5. City by Twish Mukherjee

Out of the five, four films have been shot and directed by old Little Fishes and Twish Mukherjee, a new little fish, is contributing for the first time in this compilation. Four out of the five films have already geared up the promotions.

The Trailers:

Mr. Director (2012)

Sunday at Galiff Street (2012)

Replica (2012)

City (2012)

Memories of a Dead Township (2012)

Stay tuned
A Big THANK YOU

Featured Member: Joel Currier

2012-01-02T22:33:00.007+05:30

[ Joel Currier, popularly known as Screamingjay, is a film-buff from Canada. He has been associated with the torrent archives like 'Karagarga' and 'Pass the Popcorn'. He always stands by our initiatives in terms of promotion. As a forum, we are featuring this friend / member from overseas to express our gratification.

The address of Joel's Art blog is http://joelcuerrier.blogspot.com/ ]

Joel Currier

LFEBF: Tell us, what made you interested in films?

Joël: first film that made a huge impression on me was 2001 A Space Odyssey. I was 14 or so and that's when I started collecting movies and started wanting to register in a creative field in college

I went to cinema first, but I already knew more than they were teaching me

so I switched to literature

Another question?

LFEBF: Tell your story...just the story

Joël: I've collected movies ever since... and books, records, even magazines and pictures of paintings. I'm a pack rat of everything related to culture in general. To create a museum in my home, of world culture

I've discovered my favorite movie around 15-16... and that is "Underground" by Emir Kusturica. It's hard for me to decide of a better movie for me since. It's just such a fascinating exposé of modern history

I've discovered many of my great passions through P2P... like screwball comedies and film noir. Would never have seen that many classic movies without these accesses I had to sites like Karagarga and before that, to Direct Connect hubs like the Grand Hub for Everything that released TCM encodes by the dozen while this channel was not available in

Canada

I have around 25000 movies, tv series, shorts, documentaries now, which is more than I will ever have time to watch in all my life. But I don't find this to be the point of my obsession. It is more to have access to all movies, at any time, and watch the full filmography of an actor, a writer, a director or a filmographer if I want to

LFEBF: Now, why do you stand by unknown filmmakers like us

Joël: I am always curious about new things happening in the world cinema, to see what people are coming up with. The last half-century of cinema have seen the birth of cinema for most the rest of the world. That is to say, you use to have powerhouses like the US, France, UK, Russia, Germany, Italy and so fourth... doing much/most of the cinema. Then since the end of world war 2 and the beginning of the breakup of the Hollywood studios through anti-trust laws. When Orson Welles left Hollywood in 1958, everything went downhill for them... and it haven't totally recovered its past glory every since. Sure, it does make some good movies still, but not in such a large volume ever since. But the downfall of Hollywood opened the gate for the rest of the world to make better cinema. Also helped in large part by European festivals promoting cinema from lesser known regions. Now too with modern technology, many aspiring filmmakers can just get together, invest some of their money and make a movie, which open the possibilities for millions to go ahead and make their movies. Sadly, in

America

, it seem those cheaper means of production have lead to a flood of very poor, very unartful horror movies. But I'm sure we will see our Citizen Kane of "budget filmmaking". There was a few very successful zero-budget movies through the years, that have made stars of their directors. Like "Clerks" and "El Mariatchi", both produced with mediocre budgets and that went on to become cult movies and turned their directors into successful career from that point on. I'm sure we will always see people like that make it on a shoestring.

Replica (2012)

2011-12-09T23:01:00.003+05:30

Sriparna Dey has started shooting her forthcoming film Replica (2012). The story revolves around a teenage photographer who stays with his father. The boy (played by Twish Mukherjee) is haunted by a painting he has never seen in his real life. He is not even sure whether it's a painting or not but the image keeps on appearing repeatedly like a vision. He feels that someone is trying to communicate with some message that he must receive. While searching the root of this uncommon phenomenon the untold history of his root gets unfolded to the teenager.

Fresh Good News

2011-11-30T19:49:00.000+05:30

Today Season Two: No Budget Film (2011) released on Karagarga
The URL is here for KG members : Click Here

and Finally Five No Budget Films (2010) is released on Public tracker The Pirate Bay
Click Here to download

Mr. Director (2012) - Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

2011-11-09T20:44:00.002+05:30

Campaign started for Snigdhendu's forthcoming film Mr. Director (2012). The film would be released in the 3rd compilation of LFEBF.

Khyapa Tui Na Jene by Indie FM Bangla

A Formal Post

2011-07-10T15:56:00.001+05:30

Our blog has long been inactive but that must not make you think that the forum has also been inactive like it. We are steadily moving forward to the 3rd release. Sriparna Dey has started writing the screenplay for her 2nd film. Snigdhendu Bhattacharya is developing his own script. Abhishek Bhattacharya is still busy with concept development whereas Arupratan Ghosh has dropped 'Shilpanchal' and taken up a new project. Anamitra Roy is shooting Smriti...Mrito Janopaud aka Memories of a Dead Township and also started the campaign for the film.

Anamitra has also composed the theme music for the film. Click below to listen to it...

Memories of a Dead Township Theme (Flute) by Indie FM Bangla

That's all for today
From now on we'll try to update the blog at least once every month

Thanks for staying with us

Updates: Annual Meet, 2011

2011-03-28T15:51:00.004+05:30

Lenin is jailed!

The spot where we used to meet every year is now ironically fenced with iron bars. It’s locked and no one can get in. It was a popular hang-out for many others. People who missed their buses, drunkards seeking solitude, lovers without enough money to rent a room, prostitutes looking for customers --- everyone waited here.

And now it’s locked! Not a restricted but a no-entry zone! These things happen in Kolkata, in the great silence of the city.

This year we had to find a place in front of the Ochterlony Monument (Shaheed Minar). Arupratan Ghosh, Anamitra Roy, Sriparna Dey, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Maitreyo Bhattacharya, Deborshi Banerjee, Debjit Bagchi, Anirban Paul & Chiranjit Dey Sharma attended the talk. Abhishek Bhattacharya, Twish Mukherjee, Sayak Shome & Ayan Datta could not come due to inevitable circumstances.

Amongst many other things we decided to explore newer forms like unconventional music video this year. We decided to arrange screenings in Kolkata and suburbs before opting out for other states and cities. Moreover, we planned to release the next compilation in December so that we can reach out to more and more venues like literary fairs held at small towns during the month. So the last date of film submission for the forthcoming project is 15th November, 2011.

Arupratan Ghosh has announced his next short film Shilpanchal aka The Industrial Zone. It would be completed by September.

Anamitra Roy is making Smriti...Mrito Janopaud aka Memories of a Dead Township (to be completed in August)

Abhishek Bhattacharya would come up with Portrait of an Actor within proper date and time.

Sriparna Dey, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya and Deborshi Banerjee also placed their thoughts to come up with new films for the project while others are still uncertain.

Talks and thought sharing would be there throughout the whole year.

So long!

Annual Meeting, 2011

2011-03-23T11:52:00.001+05:30

This year's annual meeting will be held on the 25th of March, 5:30 pm onwards at the said venue in Esplanade area. Any and every truthful independent filmmaker from Bengal is welcome.

If you are willing to participate, please come to Esplanade by 5 pm and call us.

Phone no: 91-9883103809, 91-9143251670, 91-9883504512, 91-9432860086

Thanks.

Seasonal Update

2011-03-03T19:54:00.003+05:30

Talk less and work more, that's the new policy. Till date, most of the film-buffs in Kolkata have heard of us in a positive or negative way. We are getting recognition rapidly in other cities across the country too. For instance, now we have a number of friends in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. May be someday, we'd be able to screen our films in small coups in other states.
So, talking less is important because the more you'd talk the more your depression is likely to talk through your voice and that's how we turn our friends into enemies. It's like 'Awww! Look at their attitude!' So, keeping it quite is necessary.
But of course, if someone tries to create hindrances or gets in the way just slap'em! And slap'em hard! Or you might opt to spit on their faces; it's a matter of choice you see!

Starting from January 12, we could distribute 102 copies of our latest production Season Two: No Budget Films (2011) while the first one is still in demand. People are still asking for copies of Five No Budget Films (2010). After the torrent release of the same on Pass the Popcorn and Karagarga the updated distribution figure of the production stands at 299 (150 DVDs + 143 downloads on PTP + 6 Downloads on KG). That's quite good we assume.
Season Two compilation released on internet from Zinemaya.com on the 28th of January, 2011

Meanwhile, Anamitra Roy was featured on Film Courage with David Branin and Karen Worden.
Read the article here.

This year LFEBF attended it's first film festival (21st-25th Feb). We don't like such openings usually and that has been the reason of not attending a single one till date. But this fest was something else in spirit. Bring Your Own Film Festival (BYOFF, 2011) helped us in finding new like-minded friends and making new acquaintances. We met Mr. Surya Shankar Dash who runs a people's video magazine called 'Madhyantara' (Periodical [probably]) and they come up with new editions every six months. They are making films against the state-sponsored violence and oppression on the general people of Orissa. It's a magnificent effort everyone should be aware of.
It was good to know that Mr. Surya was keeping a track of our works for sometime.

We could not screen Memories_Alternate Cut by Abhishek Bhattacharya at BYOFF as no one associated to the film was present there. Basontogatha (Ballad of The Spring) and Chhobi Somporke Du-ek ta Kotha (Two or Three Things about Visuals) received quite an applause while Jotugriho (Secret Footage) was a bit down. It was the closing film of BYOFF and everyone was in a party mood. So the film could not get sufficient peers.

There's a lot more to be done. The annual meeting is going to be held this month. For the new visitors, it's an informal gathering of the Little Fishes to talk about strategy, tactics and taking new resolutions. Anyone willing to participate in our initiatives can attend the discussion. For date, time and venue keep an eye on the blog.

Thanks.

Book Fair Updates on January 29th aka GUILD-CHANDALI

2011-01-29T12:19:00.008+05:30

Friends,

from yesterday we are unable to distribute our copies openly in the Book Fair due to hindrances from the guild. The problem started on the 27th. During the evening some guild officials came to table no. 157 aka Guruchandali. They tried to gather information about the films and the forum etc and instructed not to sale DVDs in the little magazine pavilion. They said that the pavilion is strictly meant for little magazines only and DVDs or such things should be sold from the IT pavilion. Yesterday they came again and threatened that they would be bound to throw Guruchandali out of the corner if the magazine does not stop selling DVDs. "It was there in the conditions. Haven't you read them?"they added.

So, from today, we suppose, we won't be able to distribute our copies in the open. If you come looking for one please contact one of these numbers to collect your copy.

Anamitra: 9883103809 / 9143251670

Sriparna: 9883504512

Arupratan: 9432860086

Snigdhendu: 9330948167

Debarghya: 9007336434

If the conditions don't change our copies won't be available after the 1st day of February.

We believe we produce an annual little magazine of films every year. That's what we take our no-budget films for. They can't stop our distribution this way!

Season Two

2011-01-26T16:56:00.005+05:30

DVDs would be available from today at table No. 157, Guruchandali in Little Magazine Pavilion of Kolkata Book Fair, 2011.

Thanks.

Subimal Misra: Shot @ Underground

2011-01-20T18:12:00.005+05:30

Subimal Misra: Shot @ Underground was planned as a film focused on the maverick anti-establishment author and his works. It was the first audio-visual project we took up, me, Snigdhendu and Sriparna, even before the formation of Little Fish Eat Big Fish. Arupratan Ghosh was talked into playing a character which was later portrayed by Abhishek Bhattacharya (Codename: Mahesh Chowdhury). Another character was played by Sumit Dey. Souva Chattopadhyay contributed to the film financially. It was a 25 minutes' short film. The incomplete version that is available now misses two major sequences that were included in the original script. We planned a Subimal on Subimal sequence that needed chroma keying. But the author was never ready to get out of his house and if you've ever been there you know of course it is impossible to set even a baby light inside his room! So, we had to reject that idea. Not only that, we had to drop the whole film due to lack of cooperation from the authors' end.

It went on like this, at first, when we approached Mr. Misra for the film he was overwhelmed and said "Although I have total faith in you people and your works or enthusiasm for activism I'd like to be a part of it. Please consider to share your ideas with me from time to time." It was just after the publication of Byas Khasra Sankhya. He was totally mesmerized with the cut-up Subimal Misra Jumpcut aka Asole Eti Subimal Misrer Golpo Hoe Uthte Parto. Then as the time passed by we realized that he expects nothing more than a biographical documentary from us and we were never ready produce a crap like that. We had our ideas more developed with the time and then his supervision started. You see, everytime we had to send a copy of the rush and a copy of the thing we had edited out of that. He used to say "I must know whether I have or haven't said something that doesn't quite goes with my image on the camera." We didn't object. We wanted the film to materialize but it was frustrating. He started behaving like a producer, shouting on the phone "How the hell can you edit the raw footage without my permission". It was not all his fault. There were some guys from Bangladesh, South India and Gujrat who kept on poking him on these issues. Subimal spoke of them several times without mentioning their names. Then Mr. Dhiman Dasgupta entered the scene. All we wanted was a voiceover from him but he kept on insisting that we should show him first on the screen, establish his identity and then we can use the voiceover through out the film till the end. And at the end we must show him again during the last part of his piece. We told him that we are not planning a documentary. He replied "You are only a child. You don't have enough knowledge about films. That's how films are made, you can't go beyond that!" The author himself by this time wanted a 'total view' of the 'thing we are going to make'! I sent him a letter via post. It consisted the whole screenplay and my take on the same. After a week Subimal replied to Snigdhendu on the phone

I couldn't make a sense out of that!

There were no cards left for us to play! We sent the whole thing and he, in turn, refused to cooperate! We don't like to work under conditions, we had to stall the project right there. We were busy with other productions too. LFEBF, the forum, was more than a year older and it was the time for the first release Five No Budget Films (2010). After that, we tried to convince the author once or twice over the phone but showed no ultra-enthusiasm. Subimal was rigid at his point. He wanted us to put even his mother in the film!

He never understood, or understood but was never ready to grant that he was not important at all for the film. It was his works, statements that we wanted to play with.

Where he lived in childhood or what school he attended was not of our interest.

In the month of September, 2010 Mr. Nilotpal Roy called Snigdhendu and suggested that we should stop the campaign and announce if we are not going to complete the film. In response I made a post on the blog.

And that was the end.

This January, I came to know via Youtube feed that someone called Basab Mukherjee has made a three and a half hour long 'Biographical Documentary' on Subimal Misra. Moreover, Dhiman Dasgupta and Nilotpal Roy are also featured in it with considerably good screen time! We congratulate them and express our sincere thankfulness to the spirit of the good work. We never wanted to make an ad film for the anti-establishment author, that was 'our fault'. In fact, if we could complete the film we'd have considered this title too -- Asole Eti Subimal Misrer Bigyapon Hoe Uthte Parto. Not only Mr. Dasgupta and Mr. Roy, we'd like to thank Harper Collins Publishers India Ltd too for publishing Subimal's works. Now, we have no reasons left to repent or regret. Yes, Mr. Misra is the maverick anti-establishment author from Bengal and according to his theory Ananda Bazar Publication is an institution but Harper Collins Publishers India Ltd is diffrent and not the same!

So, friends we've learnt a lot from the author. He was not, but his works were important to us.

Long live the anti-establishment!

Long live Subimal Misra!

Harper Collins Zindabaad!

- Anamitra Roy

SEASON TWO: NO BUDGET FILMS

2011-01-11T15:20:00.009+05:30

Time and again we have been told that film making is a costly

affair. You need good cameras, lights, large crews, extravagant sets

and what not. All of these cost a pretty hefty amount of money.

We are a self-somposed group of independent artists trying

to express ourselves creatively through the film-media

without seeking any help from producers or financiers.

This is the 2nd season we are opting for a direct to DVD

release again.

This year we are releasing four films together

1) Basontogatha (2010)

Ballad of the Spring

Bengali, 14:46 min

Dir: Arupratan Ghosh

Watch the Trailer

BasantoGatha (Duration 15 Mnts) was shot during March- April '10, using a Canon Digital Camera (Non SLR). The ephemeral senses of those evenings in Kolkata and suburb surely added gestures of its own kind into the images. The fake blood , dropping down from the heart of the city, slapped me in the last day of shooting.

Nevertheless , we used few lines from “Hawa” (The Wind), a collection of poems By Arup Ghosh, in the film.
The arrows are much straighter this time! Hope all of us will have a comprehensive viewing of the film.

2) Jotugriho (2011)

Secret Footage

Bengali, 61:24 min

Dir: Anamitra Roy & Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Watch the Trailer

Join on Facebook

The Voyage: Souradeepta is a trendy teenager from a small township somewhere in Bengal. Being abducted by a mysterious guy he comes to know about a worldwide conspiracy against the cultural identity and versatility of human being. He was suggested to visit Kolkata in order to understand the all of it. Being both inspired and confused Souradeepta arrives at Kolkata where he conducts a survey amongst the youth, meets 'the guy who knows it all' and lights up a cigarette for 'the just murderer'.

The Encounter: Another mysterious guy who already had a screen appearance in the first segment abducts Avik and asks him about 'the mission'. Now-a-days, Avik has become a part of the corporeal city. He walks on the streets with thousands of distracting self-images around him. He is an award-winning filmmaker planning his next film on some novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Say the doggy dog world, he is in for it.
At the end of the film, Avik is re-introduced to an old text to see if he could recognize it.

3) Memories_Alternate Cut (2011)

Bengali, 22:40 min

Dir: Abhishek Bhattacharya

Join on Facebook

"I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die."
-Kevin Spacey (American Beauty)

4) Chhobi Somporke Du-ek ta Kotha (2011)

Two or Three Things about Visuals

Bengali, 26:36 min

Dir: Sriparna Dey

Watch the Trailer

Join on Facebook

In a private library a lonesome painter finds an old painting without a signature and his life changes all of a sudden. The this line between reality and dream evaporates. He starts to feel that he is living a nightmare and would never be able to come out of it...

Total Runtime: 125 minutes approximately.

Participatory Contribution Rs.100/- or more

The release is scheduled in Little Magazine Fair at

Rabindrasan, Kolkata on the evening (5:30 pm)

of 12th January, 2011

Come, join us

Support the no-budget wave...

For us, film is not an industry, rather an activism.

It is not all about gloss.

Regards

Five No Budget Films - PTP Release.

2011-01-07T16:57:00.001+05:30

Enjoy!

Five No Budget Films on Pass The Popcorn

A Big Loss!!

2011-01-03T14:28:00.001+05:30

Abhishek da (Mr. Abhishek Dasgupta) passed away late night yesterday (02.01.11). He was a lively joyous young guy who contributed a lot during our previous production. All the staircase sequence in "...Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo" aka "Or,a Horror Film" by Souva Chattopadhyay was shot at his house in Baje Shibpur, Howrah. He worked as one of the production controllers for the film. Moreover, he covered the release of Five No Budget Films (2010) in last book fair on behalf of electronic media (R Plus).

Just received the sad news today. It's unbelievable. Doctors reported that he was suffering from Liver Cancer not recognized earlier.

We mourn this untimely occurrence.....lost a invaluable friend of ours.....

Five No Budget Films (2010) Torrent released on Karagarga

2011-01-02T02:08:00.002+05:30

The title explains it all.
For KG users, check out: http://karagarga.net/details.php?id=112106
or click, Five No Budget Films on KG

Cheers!

Official Facebook Page for Season 2 DVD

2010-12-29T22:31:00.001+05:30

Please Join. Show your support...

Plot synopsis follows - Meanwhile join on Facebook

2010-12-29T22:20:00.001+05:30

Stand by the artist, show your support friends (only for Indians)

2010-12-26T23:56:00.004+05:30

Everyone knows what they had done to Jafar Panahi and no elaboration is needed we think. Please sign this petition friends. It would be delivered to our prime minister as soon as the issue gets enough support from the Indians.

copy and paste this link to your browser:

http://www.petitiononline.com/INDIA/petition.html

or just click here:

Free Jafar Panahi unconditionally

Cast & Crew Details - Secret Footage aka Jotugriho

2010-12-13T15:02:00.008+05:30

1) The Voyage :

The Teenager : Souradeepta Chowdhury
The Mysterious Guy : Kamal Kumar Roy
The Just Murderer : Anamitra Roy
The Man Who Knows it all : Maitreyo Bhattacharya

& Abhishek Bhattacharya, Yovik, Dhritisundar Roychowdhury, Ayan Kumar Datta among others....

Camera : Sriparna Dey, Dhritisundar Roychowdhury
Production Control : Ritam Bhowmick, Atanu Dutta

Script, Concept, Direction : Anamitra Roy

2) The Encounter :

The Director : Yovik
The Man with the Gun : Abhishek Bhattacharya
The Girl : Srinka Mukherjee

Camera : Anamitra Roy, Dhritisundar Roychowdhury
Make - up : Sriparna Dey
Production Control : Ananda Das

Script, Concept, Direction : Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Secret Footage - Synopsis updated

2010-11-24T20:42:00.005+05:30

As we announced earlier, Anamitra and Snigdhendu had taken up a joint venture, a film in two segments. The latest update about the project says that it would be released under the old name i.e Secret Footage (2011)
We already have gained the valuable support of 75 people on facebook and would love to have you there.
So Friends, here goes the full synopsis...

Souradeepta is a trendy teenager from a small township somewhere in Bengal. Being abducted by a mysterious guy he comes to know about a worldwide conspiracy against the cultural identity and versatility of human being. He was suggested to visit Kolkata in order to understand the all of it. Being both inspired and confused Souradeepta arrives at Kolkata where he conducts a survey amongst the youth, meets 'the guy who knows it all' and lights up a cigarette for 'the just murderer'.

2)
Another mysterious guy who already had a screen appearance in the first segment abducts Avik and asks him about 'the mission'. Now-a-days, Avik has become a part of the corporeal city. He walks on the streets with thousands of distracting self-images around him. He is an award-winning filmmaker planning his next film on some novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Say the doggy dog world, he is in for it.
At the end of the film, Avik is re-introduced to an old text to see if he could recognize it.

Wait till January, 2011 to watch. The narrative is never the all of a film...

..and Finally We Got Listed on IMDB

2010-11-22T13:41:00.002+05:30

It's good to be there especially when you are working totally outside the mainstream. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1773426/
Vote the title fellas...
Thanks.

Five No Budget Films (2010) on IMDB

Join Secret Footage on Facebook

2010-10-14T04:11:00.000+05:30

Secret Footage aka Jotugriho (2011) - plot synopsis

2010-10-14T03:53:00.001+05:30

Wait till January, 2011 to watch. The narrative is never the all of a film...

Thanks to The Bengal Post for covering us in their article on Indie films of Bengal

2010-10-04T03:33:00.003+05:30

Click on the image to read the article

Read The Underplayed on Postscript Official Blog

Project Subimal Misra Postponed for Undefined Period

2010-09-26T13:20:00.004+05:30

The short film which was to be released this July based on maverick anti-establishment author Subimal Misra has been postponed for an undefined period. Without the author's cooperation we can't move forward with the project.

& Dear Sir,

one more thing to be noted. We don't work under conditions and that is the main reason we do not work with producers. Everyone associated to any of our projects must remember that.

Latest News

2010-09-09T04:08:00.004+05:30

Anamitra Roy and Snigdhendu Bhattacharya are working together on a film for the Season 2 DVD. Of course Secret Footage would be a part of the venture. Update follows in a couple of weeks.

Up Country by Lucas McNelly - Chapter 7

2010-07-15T01:03:00.004+05:30

After Blanc De Blanc Lucas McNelly is planning to make Up Country (well, the title may change later as McNelly says). He is publishing the narrative as a series of Novellas on his blog 100 Films. We are supporting him to raise funds for the film by reposting his posts here.

Please feel generous to back the film on Kickstarter.

John ran faster than he had run in years, faster than he thought was still possible.

He had never seen eyes that contained so much hatred, so much hunger, so much pure evil. In his mind's eye they were yellow, almost glowing, like a wolf or a coyote or a bear, ready to tear him limb from limb at the slightest provocation. The sort of eyes that haunt your dreams. Had he been mistaken? No, there was a weapon--an axe or a spear or a sword, something sharp and painful. It was a man protecting something, defending his turf, and he had intruded.

He ran like a man possessed, blindly down the road. Branches whipped his face.

He knew he should look back to make sure Paul and Mark had gotten away. He had yelled to them, hadn't he? The moments after he had come across those eyes had been something of a blur, so he couldn't be certain, but he thought he had yelled something. At minimum they would have a head start on the psychopath and should be able to outrun him. Mark, especially, was young and somewhat athletic, but he wasn't sure about Paul. How fast could he run? He knew Paul was older, but couldn't be sure how old, exactly.

He ran some more.

Paul had been on one knee, wiping blood on the grass when John had fallen away from the shed and bolted. On closer inspection, Paul saw the blood had been smeared on the rock with a wide brush and had started to dry and turn brown. He figured it was still relatively fresh, and was about to make a more thorough investigation when he had heard John's panicked yells of Run, run. Fuck me, run. His right hand was still on a rock for support, so he used it to push himself up and followed John's lead.

He looked back briefly to see a man lumbering out of the shed. That was all he needed to see.

The wind rushing past his ears, his heart pounding, John tried to focus his attention. He thought back to his high school track days, trying to remember his coach's tips. He pumped his arms, lengthened his stride, and was careful not to turn around, lest he slow himself down. Plus, he figured whatever was going on back there, however close the axe murdering serial killer might or might not be, it was probably best that he not know. He remembered a story he'd once heard, something about how you don't have to outrun a bear, you just have to outrun the guy next to you. It was enough to know there were two people between him and danger. All he had to do was stay in the lead.

And so he ran, down the road, ducking to avoid low-hanging branches. When he came to a fork in the road, he took it.

In his fishing boots, Paul struggled to keep up with John. He could see John up ahead, pulling farther ahead. John would vanish from view when the road turned, then reappear when it straightened out again. Paul tried to call out for John to keep up, but he was having trouble drawing enough air into his lungs and his cries came out as nothing more than the wheezes of a desperate man. He feared John would run too far ahead and be gone for good.

John's lungs burned. He had no idea how far he had run (A mile? Two?) when the road emptied into a clearing. He kept going.

Paul saw John reach the clearing and figured it might be his last opportunity to get his attention, so he slowed his pace in order to gather the resources for one last scream. He shortened his step and the shift in stride put him off-balance. He never saw the root that caught his toe, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"John!"

John slowed when he heard his name and turned around to see Paul face down in the dirt, scrambling to get back up. He ran back to help and readied the knife in anticipation of the madman, should he come barreling around the corner, but he didn't appear. It was oddly quiet.

Had they lost him?

Paul was on all fours, struggling for breath. His hat was gone. His face was flushed crimson. The fall had knocked the rest of the wind out of him. It took him a minute to speak.

"Who the fuck was that?"

John bent over, his hands on his knees. He had no idea. "You ok?"

Paul nodded. "More or less."

It was another minute before either one of them spoke. John straightened up. "Hey Paul?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's Mark?"

They turned around, looking back in the direction of the camp. There was no sign of Mark. No one was yelling. They couldn't even hear someone running through the woods. It perfectly quiet. Too quiet. There was no sound at all.

...to be continued when our Kickstarter campaign hits $3,500...

Up Country by Lucas McNelly - Chapter 6

2010-07-13T08:35:00.002+05:30

Lucas McNelly is the award-winning filmmaker behind such feel-good movies as BLANC DE BLANC and GRAVIDA, as well as the screening series Indies for Indies. His work has been featured all over the place. Maybe you’ve heard of him, maybe you haven’t.
After Blanc De Blanc Lucas McNelly is planning to make Up Country (well, the title may change later as McNelly says). He is publishing the narrative as a series of Novellas on his blog 100 Films. We are supporting him to raise funds for the film by reposting his posts here.
Please feel generous to back the film on Kickstarter.

To call it a road was...generous. Sure, it fit some definition of a road--chiefly, you could drive a truck down it--but it was little more than two tire tracks in the woods. Despite the fact that the bridge had been gone for what seemed to be several years, the road looked to be somewhat recently used. Paul guessed that someone had been driving ATVs across the brook, or perhaps a truck with 4 wheel drive when the water was low, but the traffic had done little more than maintain the integrity of the ruts. The trees hung over, creating a gauntlet of branches under a canopy that blocked out the sun. They could only see thirty or so feet until it made a gradual right turn and was eaten up by the forest. It could at best be described as a tunnel through the woods that was just barely big enough to fit a vehicle.

John was pretty certain that this road would lead them to the highway, or at least to a dirt road, so without discussion he started down it. And really, what was there to discuss? They could either follow a river or a road and a road was, at very least, man-made. It seemed to be taking them in the general direction from which they came, so it was something of a no-brainer. It never occurred to him to ask the others.

And so they walked, John in the lead, for a quarter mile until the road came to an intersection. To the left the road spread out a bit, opened up into something a little more spacious. Straight ahead appeared to be more of the same. But through the trees to the right, there was a building.

They had found their way out.

John motioned for Paul and Mark to catch up and they all stood there for a minute, staring at what appeared to be a hunting camp.

It was a small camp, placed in among the trees with a semi-attached shed over to the right. The trim and the porch had long ago been painted green. The shingles on the roof were badly in need of repair. It was obvious this building had been around for decades, if not longer. But in the area in front of it someone had gone to the trouble of doing basic masonry around a campfire and there was firewood stacked in the small clearing that served as a yard. As abandoned as the camp itself looked, it wasn't.

John went first, walking about half-way before he started calling out to no one in particular. Hello? Is anyone there? There was no answer, so he walked the rest of the way and stepped up on the worn, knotted planks that made up the porch. The camp was covered in gray shingles (had they always been gray?) that looked similar to the ones on the roof, only a different color. There was a hunting knife with a 6-inch blade jammed into the windowsill. John set his fishing pole down against the gun rack nailed to the wall and pulled the knife out of the wood, gripping it as a weapon. He slowly opened the wooden door, then the screen door patched with duct tape. It slammed shut behind him.

Once inside, it took John's eyes a second to adjust, to focus. Despite the fact that there were four rather large windows, the camp didn't seem to get a lot of sunlight except for on the white table to John's left. It was old and chipped, but looked new compared to the linoleum on the floor, which was cracked and peeling beyond recognition. In some spots it was non-existent. From the gas lamps that hung from the ceiling, John surmised that there wasn't any electricity. He was right. They were too far from a power line for it to even be an option. To the right there was a sink, but the spigot had been taken out and taped over, and a metal bucket with quite possibly the original version of the "All" logo was turned upside down inside it. There didn't appear to be a single thing in the camp that wasn't older than John himself.

Hello?

Straight ahead was a wood stove, and behind that there appeared to be another room.

Is anyone there?

John pushed the curtain back to reveal bunk beds, two queen sized mattresses with another two more on the other side of a partial wall. The mattresses were lumpy and stained. John could see where a mouse had ripped out a good deal of stuffing and made a nest, exposing the metallic spring. There was a duffel bag on the floor and a sleeping bag rolled out on the top bunk, but no one was in the camp itself.

Outside, Paul and Mark looked around. Mark made a slow circle around the perimeter. Paul looked at the wood pile and spent a few minutes in the middle of the yard, taking in the surroundings while John went inside. There was a rusted out oil drum that had been used to burn garbage. He could see that the campfire had been recently used, as there was a tiny bit of smoke coming from it. He bent down to take a closer look as John came back outside.

"Anything?"

"No, but someone's been here. I'm going to check the shed."

The shed had been built more recently than the camp, but was in worse shape. There were gaps in the boards and from the smell, John could tell that at least part of the shed functioned as an outhouse. The door was shut. He walked across the porch and reached to open it.

Paul shifted his weight to get a better look at the fire, to maybe get an idea of just how long ago it had been used. He reached his hand out for a rock to steady himself and it landed on something sticky. Annoyed, he went to wipe what he assumed to be pitch on his pants, but it wasn't pitch. It was a dark red. He touched it to his tongue.

Blood.

The rock was covered in blood.

"Oh my God. Uh, John?"

John had the door to the shed half open when he noticed the silhouette of someone standing in the corner. He was heavy-set, hadn't shower or shaved in weeks, and looked as if he had been living out here for months, maybe more. But John didn't see that. What he saw was a crazed, maniacal look in the man's eyes and the gleam of light reflecting off whatever metal object was in his hands.

"Holy shit." He stumbled back and gripped the knife tighter.

The man took a step toward him and started to swing the metal object through the air.

"Oh fuck!" John scrambled off the porch, nearly tripped on the uneven ground, and took off.

"Paul! Mark! RUN!"

...to be continued when our Kickstarter campaign hits $3,000...

Up Country by Lucas McNelly - Chapter 5

2010-07-06T23:28:00.003+05:30

[Lucas McNelly is the award-winning filmmaker behind such feel-good movies as BLANC DE BLANC and GRAVIDA, as well as the screening series Indies for Indies. His work has been featured all over the place. Maybe you’ve heard of him, maybe you haven’t. After Blanc De Blanc Lucas McNelly is planning to make Up Country (well, the title may change later as McNelly says). He is publishing the narrative as a series of Novellas on his blog 100 Films. We are supporting him to raise funds for the film by reposting his posts here. Please feel generous to back the film on Kickstarter.]

Their gear was gone, that much was certain. The packs had left an imprint in the grass, so there was no mistaking where they had been. As the minutes passed, it became more and more clear that their guide might not be coming back. He hadn't exactly been friendly or outgoing, and he had always seemed to be sizing them up, as if he was unsure they were worthy of the woods. It didn't take a detective to connect the dots. The guide was missing. Their stuff was missing. There were, as far as they knew, only four people for miles around, maybe farther. So unless Yogi Bear had mistaken their gear for picnic baskets, the only logical solution was that the guide had stolen their stuff. It wasn't a perfect theorem, but it was damned close. It was John who finally said what everyone was thinking, that the guide had stolen their stuff and abandoned them in the middle of nowhere. He shot a disapproving look at Mark, who seemed to be more at a loss than Paul. "It's just...I had no idea," Mark stammered. "He even had positive reviews online." He has a webpage? "How do you think I found him?" "Through your jailbird cousin?" John retorted. Mark glared at him. Paul's face said that maybe this wasn't the best time as he took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. He was going to have to start thinking like a lawyer again. He started by taking a wider look at the area, but the woods pretty much all looked the same. There was evidence of traffic all around, but it was their traffic. The guide could have easily re-traced his steps back to the road or gone up river. There was no way to know. And considering how unfamiliar they were with the area, it would be a bad idea to head out into the woods looking for him. "Well then," John added. "That means we either stay where we are, try to find our way back, or follow the river. Paul, you saw the trail better than I did. How well could you pick it up?" "I would hardly call it a trail. For all I could tell, we were just walking through the woods." "Ok, well we can't exactly stay here. I don't imagine he's sending someone to come get us. What do we have to work with?" They all emptied the gear they were carrying. It wasn't much. Some worms and lures. Extra hooks. A lighter and a pack of cigarettes. Mark had a small Swiss Army Knife. John had his cell phone, but there was no service. The flares, the flashlights, all the stuff they needed was in that missing gear. Paul had bragged at the airport that he had brought enough supplies to survive for weeks. It was all gone. "We're fucked," John said in the most direct way possible. Mark was quiet. Paul was sorting through the creels, trying to see if he could channel his inner MacGyver and fashion something out of nothing. John looked around, trying to get a sense of direction related to where they had started. He paused staring at a 30 degree angle up-river. "So I think we generally came from that direction. Seems we have to follow the river. So I would think upstream would have a better chance of taking us to the road." Mark finally spoke up. "But if we go downstream, won't it take us to the ocean?" "The ocean is a hundred miles away. We have to go upstream. Right, Paul?" Paul thought for a minute. "Yeah, I think so." They worked their way upstream for a mile or more, walking on the shore where possible, but more often wading through the shin-deep water. The rocks were slippery under the water, which slowed their progress some and made for a few moments where it looked like one of them might fall, but they trudged on more or less silently, all three of them trying to sort out the situation at hand. They were lost in the northern Maine woods, in a place so remote they hadn't even bothered to name the town. They had driven by a sign indicating that they were in the unorganized township T2-R6, whatever the hell that meant, and now they were seeing it first-hand. That big rock over there might as well be the mayor's office, the fish in the water the town council. John was leading the way. After a while, he slowed to a stop. He motioned for them to catch up. "What is it?" Paul asked. "I don't know. Definitely something." Upon closer inspection, what they found was the remains of some sort of wooden structure on the shore, the logs connected like the corner of a log cabin. The structure was clearly gone, but the wood wasn't so old that it should be. And yet, it was too close to the water to be a cabin. It looked as if it had been knocked down a couple of years ago. John climbed up on the shore and suddenly his expression changed. "Guys, it used to be a bridge." "How can you tell?" Paul said. "Because up here, there's a road."

...to be continued when our Kickstarter campaign hits $2,500...

Up Country by Lucas McNelly - Chapter 4

2010-07-01T02:48:00.002+05:30

Mark heard them yelling and wandered downstream to see what all the fuss was about. They were back-to-back, hands cupped around their mouths, hollering into the woods. It was comical, really, to see them standing there. They looked like idiots, the guy who married his sister and some lawyer friend of his. Mark had never met the lawyer before, but he seemed like a nice enough guy--quiet, courteous but not polite, and clearly excited to be in the middle of nowhere. You didn't have to know him very well to realize that this was a person who relished the opportunity to get away from urban life.

As for John...well...John was family, sort of. He was proof of the old saying that you can choose your friends, but not your relatives. And, in truth, he didn't know him that well. His sister hadn't exactly brought him around to meet the family, instead casually mentioning one day that she'd started living with this guy who until then had only existed in Facebook photos of her at a baseball game, her at the beach, her at the bar. He was in the background at first, sporadically in the same places as her. Then he was in almost all of them, usually right next to her, sometimes with his arm around her. Then her status changed from "single" to "in a relationship with...". Even when they skipped the engagement and got married one day, John still hadn't met her family.

Not that Mark was all that surprised. His sister was the poster child for rash decisions where reason was little more than an afterthought. She held the local high school record for pregnancy scares without a positive result and managed to do it without getting a reputation for being a slut. She was just...impulsive. A match made this quickly, this foolishly had disaster written all over it. Sure, a rushed marriage wasn't newsworthy, but it didn't say much for either of them. What sort of person gets married without meeting his wife's family?

His father had said it best: "Thank God there aren't any children". And he liked John more than most.

Mark could do without him entirely.

But he was sort of enjoying watching him and Paul standing there, yelling into the woods like their lives depended on it. They hadn't even noticed he was there, they were so busy shouting. Could they seriously not even remember Ryan's name?

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Hey," Paul saw him first. "Have you seen the guide?"

"You mean Ryan?"

"Yeah."

"He went towards you. Why?"

John and Paul looked at each other, both of them feeling too dumb to answer right away. "We can't find him," John finally said.

"What do you mean?"

"We don't know where he is."

"Well...maybe he went to take a shit."

Paul looked at John with a wry smile. "That's probably it. I bet he can't hear us." He looked back at Mark. "Did you catch any big ones?"

Mark held up a Ziploc bag full of brook trout. "I got my limit."

Paul smiled. "In my bag there's a flask with some 18 Year Glenlivet in it, should you want a celebratory shot."

Mark couldn't believe it. "You put that in a flask?"

"We're roughing it, aren't we?"

Mark laughed and turned to head back upstream to where they'd left the backpacks. It took him a minute to find the spot where the guide had pushed back the brush, but finally noticed something of a trampled path of grass where they had walked through. Once his eyes adjusted to the change in light, he found the matted grass where they had placed their bags. Only, there was something wrong. He walked back to the brook.

"Paul? John?"

After a minute, they walked into view.

"Did you guys do anything with the bags?"

They both shook their heads. John yelled back, "No, why?"

"Because they're gone."

...to be continued when our Kickstarter campaign hits $2,000...

Up Country by Lucas McNelly - Chapter 3

2010-06-24T23:27:00.001+05:30

It was if the guide had opened the door of a pitch black room and let in the sun. It was blinding, overwhelming, disorienting. Once John's eyes adjusted, focused, he saw a brook (a river?) carved out of the woods. There was no banking, no shore. The woods stopped and the water started. He imagined that when the water ran high, the trees would be partly underwater, that the roots stretched into the brook itself. And if he remembered correctly from childhood--that a tree's roots spread as far as the branches--then they did, they dug under the riverbed, soaking up water as it filtered on down. He was pretty sure, mostly sure, more sure than he was about the moss.

Mark and Paul had already put their packs down next to the guide's. Mark dug a worm out of his creel and carefully threaded it onto a hook and, following the guide's cryptic directions, walked fifty feet or so upstream. Once there, he dropped the worm into the currents and let it float downstream. The guide shook his head, no. He pointed Mark to a spot on the opposite shore where the water had collected around a fallen log. Mark did as instructed and no sooner had the bait hit the pool then the line went taut. Mark yanked the pole, hard (too hard?), and reeled it in as fast as he could. From the tension on the line, it looked like a big one. He drew it closer and it flashed to the surface, fighting with everything it had. Back down into the current and then--suddenly--the line went limp. It was gone. Mark finished reeling in the line. The worm he had so carefully threaded was gone--the hook picked clean.

"Why'd you let him go?" John chided.

"I had him. Did you see it? He was huge."

"I don't know if he was huge..."

Paul was more methodical. He put his pack down and stood in the doorway to the water, surveying the brook, the sky, the opposite shore, and what else John couldn't guess. He took his hat off, selected one of the flies, and attached it somehow. John had never seen fly fishing in person and was curious about the mechanics, but not curious enough to be labeled a fool.

Paul waded out to the spot he'd selected and started waving the fly rod around, forward and back, 10 o'clock 2 o'clock, whipping the neon orange line around in the air like those rhythmic gymnasts John's wife would watch every four years. How did he keep it from going in the trees? After thirty seconds, he let the line rest on the surface of the water, then snatched it back up almost as quickly, as if he was only interested in catching the really motivated fish, the type-A personalities, the greedy ones. But soon enough, he had one, the fish attacking the fly as it hit the water, like Jaws going after a swimmer. It was a nice trout, big enough to keep, but Paul let it go, said something about it being bad luck to keep the first one.

John had never heard that. Then again, he had never read those magazines in Paul's office either.

"You fishin'?" It was the guide. His fishing pole ready and anxious to hit the water.

"Yeah, of course." John put his pack down.

The guide pointed downstream. "Go down they-uh, not too fah, just past the bend. Ok?"

Um, maybe? It was the most detailed thing he'd heard the guide say, and he still understood none of it.

"Did you say 'not too far'?"

"Ayuh. That way." He pointed, seemed slightly annoyed, muttered something about people from away, and cast his line.

John complied, left his pack with the others, and worked his way forty or so feet downstream, around the bend, and tried to find a spot similar to the one the guide had shown Mark. He spotted one without much trouble and spent the next twenty minutes futilely casting down into the deepest-looking spot. He let his mind wander, taking in the warmth of the sun on his face, closing his eyes and listening to the water rush over the rocks, the wind through the trees, the birds singing all around him. It was beautifully serene, peaceful.

Every so often, a fish would nibble at his worm, the line responding with a playful little tug, but it was never more than that, and John didn't mind. It was relaxing just standing there in the brook, the water up over his knees, the woods existing all around him in their uninterrupted form, the way they had for centuries. He imagined himself as one of the original settlers of Maine (or was it part of Canada then?), fishing this exact spot in this exact condition, his fishing pole nothing more than a stick with some twine tied to the end.

It was an hour later (Two hours? Three? John had lost all track of time) when Paul walked up to him, asked if he was having any luck. They exchanged comments about what a great spot this was.

"Did you see the guide go past you?"

"No, did he go downstream?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go down past him, and we can leapfrog our way down."

"Ok, I'll move down in a bit. Where's Mark?"

"Just killing it back where he started. No way he's moving any time soon."

Paul moved down the right shore as John cast along the left. Ten minutes passed, maybe more. He heard Paul calling to him.

"Hey John, what's the guide's name?"

"Uh...Brian? Ryan? Ian? Something like that. Why?"

"I can't find him." He called out again, this time in the other direction. "Brian? Ryan? Hello?"

There was no answer. John joined in. "Brian? Ryan?"

Still no answer.

"Mr. Fishing Guide? Ian?"

Nothing.

...to be continued when our Kickstarter campaign hits $1,500...

Up Country - Novella by Lucas McNelly

2010-06-23T02:44:00.005+05:30

Lucas McNelly is the award-winning filmmaker behind such feel-good movies as BLANC DE BLANC and GRAVIDA, as well as the screening series Indies for Indies. His work has been featured all over the place. Maybe you’ve heard of him, maybe you haven’t. After Blanc De Blanc Lucas McNelly is planning to make Up Country (well, the title may change later as McNelly says). He is publishing the narrative as a series of Novellas on his blog 100 Films. We are supporting him to raise funds for the film by reposting his posts here.

Please feel generous to back the film on Kickstarter.

UP COUNTRY, Chapter 1

The truck pulled to a stop at the edge of the woods. They had driven a mile or so through a field, past a weathered red barn with a Dukakis ’88 sign facing the road. John had asked if people up here were that far behind the times. The joke had not gone over well with the truck’s driver.

As far as John could tell, there was nothing to indicate that the truck should stop here. No parking area, no path into the woods, nothing but a solid wall of bushes and trees. It was, simply, the end of the field. He looked over his shoulder, but the red barn was gone from view.

Six months ago, his brother-in-law Mark had told him about this fishing trip his cousin had taken in the northern Maine woods–camping in a tent and living off the fish you caught for a couple of days, a real back-to-nature vacation. It sounded compelling enough. But when Mark had scoffed that, no, it wasn’t Stephen King country, it was much more remote than that, he was sold.

It took even less to convince his lawyer Paul, a tax attorney who wore Armani suits during the week and a ratty old hat with fishing lures stuck through it during the weekends. Paul had copies of Field & Stream magazine in his office, framed prints of lakes and rivers along all the walls, and some sort of large fish mounted over his desk. He had described to John once–in great detail–the process of catching it, the lure he used, the body of water he had been fishing, the thrill of victory. John had nodded politely, but never could remember what type of fish it was. He was too polite to tell Paul he’d forgotten, and didn’t care enough to ask to hear the story again. He only knew it was impressive. Or, at least, he assumed it must be. Why else would he go to the trouble of mounting it?

The driver of the truck, the one who wasn’t impressed with John’s joke, was their guide. Brian or Ryan or Ian or something. He had said maybe twenty words since picking them up at the Portland airport four hours ago, and what little he had was so deeply buried underneath a accent that none of them had understood more than a fraction. John knew Pakistani cab drivers in New York that were easier to understand. Brian or whoever shut the truck off and muttered something like “this is it”. He took a sun-bleached Red Sox hat off the dash and jammed it on his head.

They all piled out of the truck, walking around to stretch their legs. The guide walked fifteen feet down the edge of the woods and without giving it a second thought, unzipped his pants and relieved himself. Then, he grabbed some gear from the back of the truck, walked to a spot in the tree line, and pushed aside a bush to reveal a well-worn, clearly marked trail.

Let’s go.

John, Mark, and Paul scrambled to get their gear out of the back of the truck and follow him before he disappeared into the woods. By the time John got his backpack on, he could barely remember which bush to move and the guide was already thirty feet away. He ran to catch up.

UP COUNTRY, Chapter 2

The first thing John noticed was the darkness. Kind of like walking into a cave. Here and there a shaft of sunlight hit the ground, but for the most part, the trees took care of that. It took John’s eyes a second to adjust, to focus, to take in the shift in brightness. The floor of the woods was covered with a thick coat of dead leaves and rotting branches that had broken off during storms or just given up all hope of consistent sunlight. All around moss poked through. John tried to remember what he’d heard about moss. Did it always grow on the northern side? On the southern? Or was that something else?

Hey!

Mark was yelling back at him. He was thirty feet ahead; Paul twenty feet more. John couldn’t even see the guide, even though he wore a blaze orange shirt with a deer decal on it and the phrase “Getchadeeryet?” all mashed together as one word. Actually, blaze orange probably was no longer accurate. It was an old shirt. Perhaps just orange or whatever you’d call that color when it had faded over the years.

John jogged to keep up, careful not to trip in the trail that was more of a footpath weaving around trees with a strip of flagging ever forty feet or so to mark the way. As he got closer to Mark, he started to catch glimpses of the guide. He was moving fast, walking through the woods with purpose, only occassionally checking to make sure they were keeping up.

“Fucking hell. Does he even know we’re back here?” The pack was heaving and John was slightly out of breath from jogging.

“I think so. I saw him check a minute ago.”

“Where did you find this guy anyway?”

“My cousin recommended him.”

“The one in jail?”

“I do not have a cousin in jail.” Mark’s voice came up a little. It was a touchy subject. “He’s a second cousin. Not even a blood relative.”

“Uh huh.”

“Anyway, it wasn’t him. It’s a different cousin.”

“You know, Paul’s a lawyer.”

“Really?”

“Sure. Hey Paul!”

“I don’t want to know,” Paul yelled back. “I’m on vacation. You see this hat? This is my I’m not a lawyer hat.”

“So I lose my attorney-client privileges?”

“Yes.” Paul stopped, turned to face them. “But replaced with the ever more solemn fishing trip code of secrecy. Like Vegas, only without the strippers.”

“So you don’t want to know about Mark’s genetic pre-disposition to crime?”

“Not a blood relative,” Mark protested.

“No. I don’t care.”

“Ladies!” The guide had walked back toward them and didn’t look pleased. “You wanna stand around in the woods or you wanna fish?” They all wanted to fish. “Ok then.” The guide turned and walked down the path, muttering something about people from out of state and city folk being a waste of time.

Like chastized children, they walked in silence for the next ten minutes, doing their best to keep up with a guide who was moving even faster through the woods. Finally, he stopped. They could hear running water, but they couldn’t see it. The guide put his pack down and pushed aside some brush. The woods opened and before them lay a bubbling brook. The burst of light took their breath away.

…to be continued when our Kickstarter campaign hits $1,000…

Secret Footage - Teaser

2010-06-16T22:51:00.003+05:30

Click to Play

Teaser of the forthcoming short film by Anamitra Roy....

Five No Budget Films 2010 - Trailer

2010-06-16T22:51:00.001+05:30

Click to Play

Trailer of the latest DVD released by LFEBF in the end of January, 2010

WBRI interviewed Anamitra Roy and Sriparna Dey

2010-06-12T03:33:00.004+05:30

The Washington Bangla Radio interviewed Anamitra Roy and Sriparna Dey. Click here to go to the page on WBRI website. Unfortunately, the on phone interview is in Bengali

Secret Footage aka Jotugriho (2010) -- Teaser Uploaded

2010-06-08T16:28:00.001+05:30

On BasantoGatha By Arupratan Ghosh

2010-05-20T17:21:00.003+05:30

We've just completed the film "BasantoGatha". After releasing the DVD (“Five No Budget Films” ) last January , LFEBF decided to release another DVD comprising of a good number of 10 films as its next project. This film (Basanto Gatha) is made for that DVD ("Dwitio Writu" : Season II), expected to be released by the end of this year.

BasantoGatha (Duration 15 Mnts) was shot during March- April '10, using a Canon Digital Camera (Non SLR). The ephemeral senses of those evenings in Kolkata and suburb surely added gestures of its own kind into the images. The fake blood , dropping down from the heart of the city, slapped me in the last day of shooting.

Nevertheless , we used few lines from “Hawa” (The Wind), a collection of poems By Arup Ghosh, in the film. These are outrageous.

The arrows are much straighter this time! Hope all of us will have a comprehensive viewing of the film.

BASANTOGATHA ( Aka A Spring Tale / Ballad of Spring)

Casting :
Rajkumar Mukhopadhyay, Kanchan Sengupta, Jiniya Chatterjee,Nabendu Bikash Roy, Atanu Singha, Rangeet Mitra, Arup Ghosh

Voice Over :
Taken From "Hawa" (The Wind), a collection of begali poems By Arup Ghosh

Dialouge:
Mukesh Gupta

Production Control :
Sukanya Ghosh

Editing :
Anamitra Roy

Photography & Direction :
Arupratan Ghosh

Curator Needed

2010-05-12T16:43:00.004+05:30

[CONTENT SUPPRESSED BY AUTHOR]

http://artfreakroy.weebly.com/

Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script ---- Full Movie on Youtube

2010-05-12T01:57:00.005+05:30

Finally, I let it go free. JLG Had No Script is now available on Youtube --- free to watch if you only have enough patience to buffer all the 3 parts of the film. Otherwise, just buy it. It's the only film that made an effort to speak on the theoretical basis of making no-budget film in West Bengal. As per ground reportings, there are people still interested about these films released in February but could not get a chance to watch. Well, one must do his parts.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Our DVD is still available to buy or rent on Zinemaya and Filmmaker.

Basonto Gatha - Ballad of the Spring (2010) by Arupratan Ghosh

2010-05-11T04:19:00.006+05:30

Starting the post-production on 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, LFEBF season 2 : Film 1 is on its way of completion. Spring - tale / Ballad of the Spring aka Basonto Gatha (2010) is the 4th film by Arupratan Ghosh and the 3rd in collaboration with us. It was Arupratan who named this collaborative of independent filmmakers during the post-production of his 2nd film Mrito Kanchan-er Lobh-e in 2009.

The film approaches like a digital poetry, a non-linear representation with a voiceover made out of the poems from 'Hawa' (The Wind), an anthology of poems by Arup Ghosh.

Trailer uploaded:

The Man Who Wrote the Lone Gun Manifesto Features Us on his Blog

2010-04-27T13:44:00.002+05:30

Clive Davies-Frayne was interviewed by Anamitra for his thesis paper. After that Clive put the whole thing on his blog with our 'complete trailer'. Yes, we'll be modifying the LGM as it suits to our conditions soon in the month of June.

Read The Post:

or you can copy and paste this link into your browser's address bar:
http://filmutopia.typepad.com/lone_gun_manifesto/2010/04/a-conversation-with-little-fish-eats-big-fish.html

Lone Gun Manifesto by Clive Davies-Frayne

2010-04-26T14:47:00.005+05:30

Lone Gun Manifesto (vs 1 - beta)

The Lone Gun Manifesto is an open source document. You can reproduce it, share it, give it way and alter it anyway you wish, without my permission. For me it is a toolkit. My toolkit. A tool kit based a mixture of punk rock and graffiti culture, a toolkit that will enable me to shoot a cinema quality feature film, in under eight days, on a production budget of about $600. If you don't agree with any of the principles, feel free to write better ones. That is the reason this is labelled (vs1 beta).

LONE GUN MANIFESTO

For the last twelve years I've been banging my head against the wall, trying to figure out how to deal with the insanity of the movie industry, whilst at the same time exploring the equally insane world of micro-budget movie making. The problem is that neither system works. The industry becomes more and more obsessed with playing it safe and the independents largely try to imitate the work patterns of the industry, only with less money. For people like me it's a nightmare, because what I want to do is make movies and have people watch them... and, to do that without investing three years of my life and all of my money into a project which then flounders around the ridiculous distribution system.

Anyway, after many years of pondering the problems of funding, shooting and distributing movies, I believe I have an answer. However, it means completely changing the way we think about movies. It is a production philosophy designed to let creative people make brilliant movies quickly, cheaply and without exploiting the people who contribute to its making.

Here are the headlines:

1) One DSLR camera, One person, One microphone (The lone gun shoots alone)

2) Strip movie making down to the basics - a camera, a great story and some actors

3) A lone gun never asks for permission to shoot at a location

4) Put something original and honest in front of the camera

5) Think like a photographer, not like a film-maker

6) Money is for food, transport and a dedicated hard-drive for each project and nothing else

7) Natural light only

8) Everyone who works on a movie, has the right to distribute that movie for free or for profit

9) No credits before the title ever, regardless of how famous someone is.

10) The end product must be cinema quality (capable of projection to cinema sizes without falling apart)

11) A creative common license for the movie (how open you go is up to you, but people must be able to share and alter it for free)

12) If you’re going to be a gorilla… you may as well wear the full monkey suit.

OK. In practical terms this means that you are shooting in public places,but never in such a way that anyone is aware you are shooting. That's why it is done best with a standard DSLR camera. (I really want to see someone figure out how to do this with the RED by the way!)

In terms of the sound recording there are two alternatives: radio mics for all cast - or the way I am doing it, a $30 pair of binaural mics, (which look like iphone headphones) jacked into a portable digital recorder. (I've tested this method and the sound quality is phenomenal, once you've got the hang of it) To use the binaural system, the actors have to set away the sound, which is placed in shot between them... and one of them is given a Zippo cigarette-lighter to clack at the start of a scene, which gives you the cue for syncing the audio.
In reality this means you are only filming mastershots. You can't control the environment to get coverage. However, this really, really speeds up the production process. Basically, you and the actors pick your location. You decide where you are going to place the camera. When you're set up, they walk into the set up, set away the audio and play out the scene. Because there is no crew and no lines to edit, the acting can be completely natural (think Woody Allen circa Manhattan).

Here's the list of kit I use (feel free to improvise better solutions):
1) A good DSLR camera

2) A portable digital audio recorder

3) A microphone (not the kind you’re thinking about.. The one I use cost $40)

4) A Zippo cigarette lighter

5) A small beanbag

6) A computer with some professional editing software on it

7) Some actors

8) A pocket sized notebook
9) A brilliant idea for a movie

10) A script

11) A dedicated hard drive

12) An idea about how you’re going to build an audience

One of the things that I think makes this philosophy work is that the writer/director decides in advance, to give everyone who contributes to the movie the rights to distribute the movie for free or for profit. My project has been running for four weeks so far - we’re in writing and pre-production. The first actor I attached has already told me he has friends at a European TV station, to whom he would like to give the finished movie... along with a raft of international arts festivals. Neither of those two distribution options would ever have occurred to me. I'm working on free distribution via iTunes and also on getting a US theatrical release via some of my US contacts. Once you take the rights shackles off a project, it's amazing what happens. Seriously amazing.

Finally, I know there are issues about working this way. It forces moviemakers to give up a lot. However, the freedoms it gives in return, to just work with a team of people quickly and creatively to make a movie, more than pays off for any restrictions.
And… finally, if you know of anyone who would make an outstanding movie, if only they had this one piece of paper, then give it to them. Pass this on to the people you believe it will inspire.

Thanks for reading this - up the revolution!

Read this on Clive's blog

WWW Release on Filmmaker

2010-04-23T23:08:00.010+05:30

We are glad to announce that Five No Budget Films, 2010 from the house of Little Fish Eat Big Fish is now available on Filmmaker.Pro
Anyone can get our films from any part of the world.

Rent the DVD:

Thank You

Five No Budget Films, 2010 Worldwide release on Zinemaya Server

2010-04-01T09:52:00.004+05:30

We are glad to announce that now the "Five No Budget Films" are available worldwide from Zinemaya. Anyone can buy or rent the movies from
zinemaya.com

or read about the films on 8mm

Thanks for your support....

Resolutions : Taken on 18th March

2010-03-19T01:02:00.004+05:30

The annual meeting that was announced earlier on this blog has taken place on the scheduled date and time. Members present at the meeting are Arupratan, Anamitra, Sriparna, Sumit, Snigdhendu and Pratik. Others who couldn't come due to certainly arouse conditions but kept in touch with us are Souva, Abhishek, Mainak and Dhriti. On the basis of all its members' consent, the LBEBF has taken the following resolutions in the meeting.

Resolutions:
1. The members have decided to submit a minimum subscription of Rs.50/- per month to keep the LFEBF running. The fund raised by this monthly subscription is to be spent on keeping all the promotional activities alive throughout the year.

2. The yet unsold 30 copies are the last copies of the '5 No Budget Films, 2010'- packaged edition. After these, the packaged edition will no longer be available. Only the pouch edition will be there to buy.

3. Our next project is to release 8-10 no-budget short films (duration 10 minutes each) in one DVD on the 1st day (Which shall be the 11th January) of Kolkata Little Magazine Fair, 2011. All the members are hereby informed that the last date for submission of rush is 15th December, 2010. Some of the directors have alredy announced their date of completion -------

Arupratan Ghosh - Spring Tale - 31st May
Sriparna Dey - Two or Three Things .... About Visuals - 30th June
Anamitra Roy - Secret Footage - 31st August
Snigdhendu Bhattacharya - (Not Announced Yet) - 30th September
Souva Chattopadhyay - (Not Announced Yet) - 15th December
Pratik Mondal - (Not Announced Yet) - 15th December

But before all these a long awaited film is going to release in the month of July. The film that brought Anamitra, Sriparna, Snigdhendu, Pratik together with Sumit and Abhishek.

Subimal Misra is Dead

(aka) Subimal Misra: Shot @ Underground

(aka) Asole Eti Subimal Misrer Biggyapon Hoe Uthte Parto

A short film on the maverick and audacious experimentalist anti-establishment Bengali author Subimal Misra. An LFEBF presentation in association with Byas (Bengali Little Magazine), Abosardanga (Bengali Little Magazine), www.kalojournal.com and of course Open Secret.

We guess a little surprise is waiting for the readers in the next post of this blog. Keep visiting. Good bye. Best regards from the house of LFEBF

The Annual Meeting on 18th March

2010-03-15T22:45:00.008+05:30

The annual meeting of LFEBF is being held on March 18, 2010 in front of the statue of Lenin at Esplanade. Individuals willing to participate please post comments here or contact Sriparna (9903998708), Anamitra (9883103809), Arupratan (9432860086) or Mainak (9836833606).

Be there within 5:30 in the evening.

We repeat, no one is going to be informed personally. Just follow the blog to stay in touch.

Stay for the cause....

A Refreshing Start: Our Next Project

2010-03-13T01:54:00.005+05:30

Arupratan Ghosh has started shooting his forthcoming film today. This is going to be his fourth film. It's a ten minutes short being shot in a digital camera. LFEBF is planning to announce the next venture, an anthology of ten minutes short no-budget films. The project will be finalized in the next LFEBF meeting. Anamitra, Sriparna, Snigdhendu, Abhishek and Pratik have already started developing and putting their concepts into shape.

Yes,

the child has cried and it is healthier than we ever expected.

[To All The Members of LFEBF:

Please follow the blog regularly. The date of the next meeting is going to be posted here in the next two or three days. No one is going to be informed personally. Remember, may be we are friends or enemies or comrades or whatever, may be we have a drink or a fight when we meet but right now the warfare has begun and everyone shall stick together. As your participations were voluntary in the last project i.e '5 No-Budget Films, 2010' we expect you again to be there this time. But frankly, we don't know anything about your personal state of mind. How much is left within you after all these. If you are here for the cause, stay for the cause.... and if you are here because your friends are making films and you think you should be making one too, just leave. We don't want anymore problems to be caused due to misconceptions ( if you have one, you know what is being said). Everyone is very much important but no individual is really important that much.... you know it.

Follow the blog...post your responses as comments. That's all. You will be informed timely before any and every event.]

Anyone interested to participate and help is cordially invited to the Meeting.

Tell Iran to Free Jafar Panahi Immediately : Sign the Petition

2010-03-11T23:13:00.009+05:30

S.O.S

IT'S AN EMERGENCY...

On March 2nd it was reported that the director of THE WHITE BALLOON had been imprisoned by the Government of Iran. He is still being detained. We've just been informed by the 'Hope For Film' network through an e-mail that a petition, to be sent to the authorities in Iran, is calling for signatures. The petition states ---

"To: The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran

We call on the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the immediate release of internationally respected Iranian Filmmaker Jafar Pahani, (winner of the Camera d' Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival ) and his family and dependents.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned"

On the 1st of March, Panahi was arrested from his home along with his wife Tahere Saidi, daughter Solmaz Panahi and 14 of his friends by plainclothes officers and taken to theEvin Prison.^[8] Most were released 48 hours later, but Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof remain in ward 209, and Mehdi Pourmoussa in another ward inside Evin Prison.^[9] Worst of all is that Panahi's arrest has been confirmed by the government, but charges have not been specified yet. Probably, they have arrested him again for his "anti-islamic" activities.

Abbas Kiarostami published an open letter in a Tehran newspaper to protest the incident. --------

"I don’t quite know to whom I am addressing this letter, but I do know why I’m writing it and I believe that under the circumstances it is both critical and inevitable because two Iranian filmmakers, both of whom are vital to the Iranian wave of independent cinema, have been incarcerated.

As a filmmaker of the same independent cinema, it has been years since I lost hope of ever screening my films in my country. By making my own low-budget and personal films, it has also been years since I lost all hope of receiving any kind of aid or assistance from the Ministry of Guidance and Islamic culture, the custodian of Iranian cinema.

In order to make a living, I have turned to photography and use that income to make short and low-budget films. I don’t even object to their illegal reproduction and distribution because that is my only means of communicating with my own people. For years now I have not even objected to this lack of attention from the ministry and cinema tic authorities .

Even if we choose to disregard the fact that for years now, the cinematic administrators of the country, who constitute the main cultural body of the government, have differentiated between their own filmmakers (insiders) and independent filmmakers (outsiders), I am still of the opinion that they are oblivious of Iranian independent cinema. Filmmaking is not a crime. It is our sole means of making a living and thus not a choice, but a vital necessity.

I have found my own solutions to the problem. Independent of the conventional and customary support granted to the cinematic community at large, I make my own short and independent films with hopes of gaining some credit for the people I love and a name for the country I come from. Sometimes the necessity to work calls for the making of films beyond the borders of my country, which is ultimately not out of personal choice or taste.

However, others, like Jafar Panahi, have for years tried to summon official government support, exploring the same frustrating path, only to be confronted with the same closed doors. He too has for years held hopes of obtaining public screenings for his films and receiving official aid and assistance from the relevant governmental bodies. He still believes that based on the merits of his films and the acclaim they have brought the country, he can seek legal solutions to the problem. The Ministry of Guidance and Islamic culture is directly responsible for what is happening to Jafar Panahi and his like. Any wrongdoing on his part, if there is any at all, is a direct result of the mismanagement of officials at the cinematic department of the Ministry of Guidance and it’s inadequate policies which in no way leave any choice for the filmmaker other than to resort to means that jeopardize his situation as a filmmaker. He too makes a living through cinema.

For him too, filmmaking is a vital necessity. He needs to make himself heard and has the right to expect cinematic officials to facilitate the process, rather than become the major obstacles themselves. Perhaps the officials at the ministry can not at present be of help in solving Jafar Panahi’s dilemma, but they need to know that they are and have been responsible all these years, for the dreadful consequences and unpleasant and anti-cultural reflections of such policies in the world media.

I may not be an advocate of Jafar Panahi’s radical and sensational methods but I do know that the cause for his plight is not a result of choice but an inevitable [compulsion].

He is paying for the conduct of officials who have for years closed all doors on him, leaving open small passages and dead end paths.

Jafar Panahi’s problem will eventually be solved but there are numerous young people who have chosen the art of cinema as their means of expression and careers.

This is where the duty of the government and the Ministry of Guidance and Islamic Culture, as the government’s main cultural body, becomes even more critical, for they face a large group of Iranian youth who aim to work independently and away from complicated official procedures and existing prejudices.

Jafar Panahi and Mahmoud Rasoulof are two filmmakers of the Iranian independent cinema, a cinema that for the past quarter of a century has served as an essential cultural element in expanding the name of this country across the globe. They belong to an expanded world culture, and are a part of international cinematic culture. I wish for their immediate release from prison knowing that the impossible is possible. My heartfelt wish is that artists no longer be imprisoned in this country because of their art and that the independent and young Iranian cinema no longer faces obstacles, lack of support, attention and prejudice.

This is your responsibility and the ultimate definition of your existence."

Abbas Kiarostami / 1388.12.18 [March 9, 2010] / Tehran

According to The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a source close to Panahi said: “Over the past years, Ministry of Intelligence authorities have summoned Jafar Panahi to different investigation offices of the Ministry in different locations and have questioned him. In one of these meetings he was told, ‘Just because you are a famous filmmaker, you mustn’t think that we are unable to arrest you. We can arrest you whenever we decide."

We protest this nasty politics of the Iranian government. If you are with Panahi please sign this petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/FJP2310/petition.html

Make your voice heard. It can make a difference.

Five No Budget Films: 2nd Edition: DVD Release on 13th March,2010

2010-03-09T15:52:00.010+05:30

We are glad to announce that 2nd edition of the DVD containing all the five no budget films will be released on 13th March,2010, at Kolkata Maidan.

The price of the DVD package is Rs. 100/-

On this occasion a Pouch Edition of the DVD is also being released. The price of the this edition of the DVD is Rs. 50/-

Copies will not be available anywhere except the screening venues (informations will be posted shortly on this blog). You can get your copy from LFEBF members too.

Call for your copy:

[For Kolkata, Howrah, 24 PGS, Hooghly & Nadia]

Arup (9432860086), Anamitra (9883103809), Sriparna (9903998708), Pratik (9804202863), Snigdhendu (9330948167), Ananda (9831396945), Sumit (9051226823), Abhishek (9874294708)

[For Delhi]

Souva (+91-9811839083)

Or Write Us:

littlefisheatbigfish@gmail.com

Raise your hands in support of the non-industrial mode of film-making ....

A Reply to Mr. Cyrus Surendranath

2010-01-29T01:22:00.007+05:30

Someone called Cyrus Surendranath has posted some comments on this blog. We are quoting him at first :

On Antoraal (aka A Hiding)

Cyrus said...
This post has been removed by the author.
January 27, 2010 1:52 AM
Cyrus said...

The more I look at the glimpses from your films, the more appalled and disgusted I am. The voiceover in the film sounds like bad, Bengali little magazine gibberish with a garnishing of half-understood Mani Kaul and Chris Marker. The two morons you've cast here, look like side-benchers from an ETV telefilm. So much for "avant-garde"!

As for the Amiyabhushan passage, it has become so horribly predictable for a certain class of Bengali-intellectual-aspirants to dig out lesser known authors and cite them hoping they sound/look counter-culturish enough! Sorry, but reading the passage on camera is the most facile and unimaginative thing you could have done. Of course, it would take any of you a hundred years or more to approach an Amiyabhushan text as a film. I can bet some of you, if not all, do write in the so-called little magazines. The problem is precisely that technology has made it possible for people like you to appropriate a medium like DV, and thereby turn what could have been a revolution into a shitty farce.

Most of your cinematic inspirations seem to stem from France or Latin America. Do try and find out more about what is happening NOW in Asian cinema, and what Asian auteurs are doing with DV, before you make fools of yourselves jumping around with a digital camera, making 5 films in 6 months.

Sorry for being so nasty, but felt compelled to call a spade a spade! Hope you guys won't take it personally.

Cyrus Surendranath
January 27, 2010 1:55 AM

On JLG Had No Script

Cyrus said...

Frankly, my dear, you look like a clown trying to impersonate Godard. In case that is the avowed aesthetic intention, I guess its fine. Am rolling on the floor looking at the sordid make-up, and the fact of the "post-colonial" Godard speaking in Bengali! Poor Jean-Luc is past 80 and making a film called Socialism. Please give him a break!

It isn't the least bit funny to see poor upstarts like you pretending to be in Godard's shoes by making a film in shabby B&W, and with a new-found, digital movie-making toy. God bless new media!

Cyrus Surendranath

January 27, 2010 1:32 AM

On In Search of Dead Golds

Cyrus said...

Why are you guys trying so hard to publicise your "avant-garde" filmmaking through a blog in English when it is obvious that you are rather constipated in that language? Sorry to point out, but "Golds" sounds like grammar-translation from Bengali. Besides, you quote and cite mouthfuls of hallowed sources from Borges to Brueghel without knowing how to spell their names correctly. First grow up and then try to be avant-garde!

But, it doesn't look like you'll heed this advice (monkeys on heat never do). So, good luck!

Cyrus Surendranath
January 27, 2010 1:24 AM

Our reply :

To Mr. Cyrus Surendranath,

1. We are not trying to publicise our "avant-garde" effort through this blog. Sorry to inform you that the avant-garde has died long ago and its ghost has been smuggled to Kolkata, the 3rd world metro. Now, can you situate the meaning of the word "Ghost" historically? If you can, you will get what we are trying to say. Thanks for your advice anyways.

2. It is obvious that we are constipated in English. It's not our mother tongue, but we don't know any other language (e.g Spanish, French) to communicate to a larger readership.

3. Do you think that JLG Had No Script had any relations with Godard at all ? It's the ghost of Godard that we carry on our shoulders whenever we speak of a film movement. At least, Anamitra thinks so. A vulgar comic atmosphere is intended in the film. But you are such a c-factor that you roll on the floor, laughing out loudly and doing all that just seeing a trailer of a film which has been made at a cost of 1000 rupees. Are you a Hijibijbij or what? In case you are not a bengalee see the page on Sukumar Roy at Wikipedia to know the meaning of Hijibijbij. Don't think that we are pretending to be in Godard's shoes or something like that. We know the situation very well. Godard was a popular filmmaker in his early years. Though he tried to change the scenario, nothing to be fascinated about him. He was an off-the-track exclusive prostitute working for pimps, he knew that. He is unsuccessful in throwing the unwanted capitalist intervention out of the terrain of film the art and he knows that very well. Now, poor Jean-Luc is past 80 and making a film called Socialisme. He never wanted a break for lunch or coffee in his "career". Who the hell are you to ask one from us for him ?

4. If we say that we are making films and Cinema is only an industry, so let's destroy cinema, let's rape it together by making thousands of no budget films, can you make an effort to understand it?? Cinematic inspirations are only so to speak.... our real inspirations are some of the little known poets and writers of Bengal and of course IPTA movement.

Now, let us say, we are not even making films. We are mocking films, the toy in hand of the capitalist, the needle in hand of the imperialist and expansionist and we are doing this only to restore the proper amount of activism among the youth of Bengal. The process has just started, keep an eye....history proceeds from failure via failure to failure, but that doesn't imply everyone must be sitting in the field of confusion sucking their thumbs and watching in the big sky the blue birds to fly by.

5. It's not technology but the capitalists' marketing strategy that has made it possible for people like us to appropriate a medium like DV. Please send us some of your good actors and actresses to work for free with us and we won't be using those side-benchers anymore.

6. We've turned it all into shiity farce what could've been a revolution and Mr. Cyrus what have you done?? Until the 27th we were getting visits from 30 different IPs in average per day. Your comments have brought it down to 12 in last two days. Sorry to quote Rocha again, but we need to be self-consuming at first in order to survive, the so-called impotency can be overcome only later. Now quoting Satyajit Ray for your pleasure, we need more intelligent interpretations of our limitations...and that's what we are doing . We have finished five films and going to release a DVD tomorrow through the "non-existing" non-commercial distribution chain , all within a cost of 15000 INR. We guess NONE of your ASIAN "AUTEURS" have done this much in their countries. And please specify who are you speaking of, there are lots of them, from Miike to Ji-woon Kim, via Hsiao-hsien Hou and Ming-liang Tsai. So, please specify so that we can answer you more precisely. There is a recent trend among intellectuals to cite examples from the Asian New Wave Directors' works without knowing nothing much about them and we are aware of that, are you ?? One more thing, (another little known writer of Bengal, Udayan Ghosh is being quoted here), please get it by heart, revolution is not an embroidary. So, you dug it by now we guess, what we mean by that.

7. I guess, you are not some Cyrus Surendranath, if you are really, where are you from? Do you belong to a south Indian Christian family? Then how do you know so much about Amiyabhushan and the tendencies among the "Bengali(ee)-intellectual-aspirants" ?? Have you been to Kolkata ever? Then you might know that there are two kinds of films being made right now in Kolkata. a) Commercial and b) Festival films. We are trying to do something apart from these. We agree that it would take any of us a hundred years or more to approach an Amiyabhushan text as a film because we won't work with producers or the industrial set-up and without those it would be impossible for us to shoot a whole feature film somewhere in Koochbihar or Dinajpore. But, how could you know that? Please inform us about the translator and publisher because we are suspecting that we know you very well. Reveal your identity, no one is going to hurt you my dear.

8. A monkey can copy many actions of human beings, but as far as we know, they haven't been successful in copying the process of film making yet. If the Bengalee monkeys used to get heated up with these kind of activities we haven't even thought of making films at all. But there lies the problem. They write in little magazines to publish a book from ABP or Protibhaas someday. They join govt. funded theatrical groups to get into the mega serial business. They usually get heated up with songs like "toonir maa", new models of mobile phones and bikes, stylish sunglasses and sexy sister-in-laws. That's where we want to hit, but, leave it. It's not for you to think on. If you can, kindly post your reply as a comment ( and don't forget to mention your email id this time) as we want to get into conversation even with you ---- The Question is : What made you so heated up when you saw these Bengalee monkeys making films and going to make fools of themselves very soon as they are on heat ? ?

Please Do Reply......

Thank you, if you didn't show your inherited sarcasm in your comments we couldn't get issue for our newer posts on this blog so soon. So, thank you again.... a big THANKS from the house of Little Fish Eat Big Fish. Reply...

Five No Budget Films: DVD Release on 30th January

2010-01-26T11:46:00.007+05:30

We are happy to announce that a DVD containing all the five no budget films will be released on 30th January, in Kolkata Book Fair 2010.

The price of the DVD is Rs. 100/-.

The DVD will be available at the stalls of Kaurab (Stall No. 405) and Natun Kabita (Stall No. 406).

Otherwise, in case you are unable to come to the book fair, you can contact in any of the following numbers to get your copy:

Arup (9432860086), Sriparna (9903998708), Sankha (9477413550), Souva (+91-9811839083), Snigdhendu (9330948167), Sumit (9051226823), Abhishek (9874294708)

DVD Cover:

Inlay Card

Five No Budget Films 5: Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok (aka Long Live (all) the Revolution)

2010-01-25T22:27:00.010+05:30

Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok (aka Long Live (all) the Revolution) is about a young writer’s struggle in the power-craving world of ideology and disbelief. In this short fiction you will find a fake-magician, and you will be haunted by a prolonged and bizarre nightmare. This film is basically a fantasy of telling the (un)truth.

Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok (aka Long Live (all) the Revolutions)

Bangla, 2010, 22 min

Cast: Yovik, Mainak Pal, Anamitra Roy, Sankha Subhra Ganguly, Shriparna, Subhendu Manni

Production Control: Mainak Pal

Camera: Debashish Adak

Sound & Editing: Anamitra Roy

Make up: Puja Ghosh

Art: Subhendu Manni

Set: Mainak-Avik

Story and Direction: Sankha Subhra Ganguly

Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok-- The Trailer

Production Stills

Five No Budget Films 4: Antoraal (aka A Hiding)

2010-01-25T20:17:00.007+05:30

A Bengali film of 15 Mnts Duration. The film describes the Primary and the Darker things, that the year 2009 inherits. Hope, you will enjoy!!

Antoraal (aka A Hiding)

Bengali, 2010, 15 min

Cast: Manab Sharma, Jiniya Chatterjee, Soumitra Chowdhury, Joydeep Dam

Dialogue: Mukesh Gupta

Production Control: Tata Mukhopadhyay and Sukanya Ghosh

Graphics: Sriparna

Camera: Joydeep Bose

Sound and Editing: Anamitra Roy

Story and Direction: Arupratan Ghosh

Antoraal-- The Trailer

Production Stills

Five No Budget Films 3: ... Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo (aka ... Or, A Horror Film)

2010-01-21T14:35:00.001+05:30

...Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo (aka ...Or, A Horror Film) is inspired from a short story by Daniil Kharms, a little known Russian poet and short story writer. The film is about the paranoia inherent in the urban mindscape that prohibits oneself from fulfilling his/her desire.

One day, the nameless protagonist of the story comes across a stranger, and that triggers off a series of bizarre incidents in his otherwise event-less existence. He finds a dead body in his flat, he meets a girl who tries to seduce him, he desperately tries to get rid of the dead body... but, at the end, he becomes more confused than ever!

The film examines how power intervenes in our lives, almost imperceptibly, and then starts re-engineering our activities and desires.

...Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo (aka ...Or, A Horror Film)

Bengali, 2010, 19 min

Cast: Sankha Subhra Ganguly, Doelpakhi Dashgupta, Kanchan Sengupta

Cinematography: Arupratan Ghosh, Rajshekhar Das

Sound and Editing: Anamitra Roy

Costume: Pritha Chattopadhyay

Make Up: Sriparna Dey

Producion Control: Avishek Dashgupta, Pritha Chattopadhyay

Screenplay and Direction: Souva Chattopadhyay

...Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo--- Trailer

Production Stills

(Click on the images to view full size)

Five No Budget Films 2 : Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script

2010-01-20T18:18:00.000+05:30

A Mimetic Approach Towards Cinema

The film is not a film at all, but merely a theatrical dress rehearsal captured on a miniDV. The title of the film is exploitative. This is not a spoof on Godard, even characters from Glauber Rocha invades the scene.

The basic concept of the film is to stage the way the colonized mind mimics the aesthetical value of European Art Cinema. The concept of 'Cinema' is being killed in the film where the director himself plays the character of Godard ( with lots of quotations from JLG's interviews) wearing a heavy make-up on his face while his hands reveal the original colour of his native skin.

He speaks to a critic on the very film being shot and introduces his five characters one by one. The dubbed soundtrack specifies the hierarchical altitude of the two of them.

The film unfolds by picking up threads and glimpses from various planes of reality and arranging them around a table.

Let the rest remain untold for the viewing. . . .

Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script

Bangla, 2010, 23 min

Cast : Anamitra Roy, Sumit Dey, Kamal Kumar Roy, Abhishek Bhattacharya, Sangbit Samaddar, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Arupratan Ghosh, Yovik

Concept Development, Camera, Godard's make-up : Sriparna

Assistant Director : Sumit Dey

Make-up : Kamal Kumar Roy

Production Control and Management : Kamal Kumar Roy, Pratik Mondal, Mithun Chakraborty, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Written, Directed & Edited by : Anamitra Roy

Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script - Trailer

Production Stills

(Click on the images to view full size)

Five No Budget Films 1: The Sand Book

2010-01-19T19:10:00.003+05:30

The Sandbook (AKA Boita: Jibito o Hotyakari) is improvised from a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. The story moves with the landing of an amazing book in the hand of a scholer, who tries to understand "the internal ties in events occuring" in and around the book in order to go through it.

From Borges' story, however, only the concept of the book was borrowed. Then the film takes its own course, as ideas from Franz Kafka, Stiphen Hawking, the Upanishads and Mao also enter the scene. Reference from another Borges story also comes in.

What is the Sandbook after all? What are its charectaristics? Watch out to get get the answers.

The Sandbook (AKA Boi-Ta: Jeebito O Hatyakaree)

Bangla, 2010, 20 min

Cast: Kamal Kumar Roy, Abhishek Bhattacharyya, Arupratan Ghosh, Sumit De.

Director of Arts: Sripanra

Sound, Camera and Editing: Anamitra Roy

Production managers: Pratik Mondal and Ananda Dass

Screenplay and direction: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Trailer of The Sand Book

Production Stills

(Click on the images to view full size)

Little Fish Eat Big Fish: As It Stands Today

2010-01-19T18:12:00.001+05:30

Before getting into the detailed description of each of the Five No Budget Films, we'd like to clarify that Little Fish Eat Big Fish is an open platform for all the aspiring 'auteurs'. Anybody willing to make a No Budget Film, be it a short film or a full length one, a documentary or a feature, can use our name, with as much as a perfunctory permission from anyone belonging to the group.

The group currently consists of the following members--

Anamitra Roy, Ananda Dass, Arkapratim Mukhopadhyay, Arupratan Ghosh, Avishek Bhattacharyya, Kamal Kumar Roy, Mainak Pal, Puja Ghosh, Pratik Mandal, Sankha Subhra Ganguly, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Souva Chattopadhyay, Sriparna De, Sumit De, and Yovik

And we must not forget the continuous support and encouragement of--

Avishek Dashgupta, Kanchan Snegupta, Mahadeb Indu, Pritha Chattopadhyay, and Sukanya Ghosh

Five No Budget Films (To be Released in 2010)

2010-01-19T14:24:00.003+05:30

The Beginning

It all began with “Mrito Kanchan-er Lobh-e”. Just before that film was shot, Arupratan Ghosh, Anamitra Roy and Sriparna Dey (the latter two were already working on a no budget short at that point of time) had come in touch with each other, quite coincidentally, and it had been found that all of them shared a mutual love and affection for experimental film and literature. Names like Jonas Mekas, Chris Marker and Mani Kaul surfaced and acted as catalysts to make the bond stronger and more cohesive.

“Mrito Kanchan-er Lobh-e” was a cumulative effort and that triggered the idea of forming an independent group which would go on making no budget films at regular intervals.

Later, Souva Chattopadhyay, Sankha Subhra Ganguly, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Sumit De, Avishek Bhatacharyya and Yovik joined the initiative and the group started to take a definitive shape.

Emergence of a Self-Sustaining Group

In July 2009, the inception of the group, under the banner of “Little Fish Eat Big Fish”, was formally announced. It was also decided that the next venture of “Little Fish Eat Big Fish” would be a compilation of five no budget films, where five members of the group would make his/her own film.

It took us nearly six months to complete this project. All the five films were shot with a minimal budget and mostly using amateur casts and crews.

The most important aspect of this project was the emergence of "Little Fish Eat Big Fish" as a self-sustaining group of independent artists. Each member of the group took part in the film-making process in every possible ways.

For example, Arupratan Ghosh, apart from directing his own film, acted in two other films in this project and was the cinematographer in another one. Similarly, Anamitra Roy was the editor for all the five films and besides that, acted in his own film as well.

Forming a self-sustaining group is, we believe, a crucial part in pursuing the no budget track, as it ensures that the involvement of artists from professional domain, be it in acting, cinematography or editing, remains minimal. It also helps in keeping the cost within a specified limit which, for no budget films, is really minuscule.

Five No Budget Films: The Third Venture

'Five No Budget Films', the third venture of Little Fish Eat Big Fish, consists of the following short films (click on the titles to view in details)--

The Sand Book (aka Boi-Ta: Jeebito O Hatyakaree)

Bengali, 2010, 20 min

Directed by: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Jean Luc Godard Had No Script

Bengali, 2010, 23 min

Directed by: Anamitra Roy

…Athobaa Bhoy-er Golpo (aka … Or, A Horror Film)

Bengali, 2010, 19 min

Directed by: Souva Chattopadhyay

Antoraal (aka A Hiding)

Bengali, 2010, 15 min

Directed by: Arupratan Ghosh

Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok (aka Long Live (all) The Revolution)

Bengali, 2010, 20 min

Directed by: Sankha Subhra Ganguly

In the next few posts, we will elaborate on each of these five short films, with the trailers and production stills. Till then…

Crime and Punishment: The Second Venture

2010-01-19T14:09:00.001+05:30

"Crime and Punishment" was the second film released under the banner of "Little Fish Eat Big Fish". It was written and directed by Sankha Subhra Ganguly, a student of mass communication and an incurable movie-buff.

"Crime and Punishment" was supported by Institute of Mass Communication Film & Television Studies. The film was sent to IBDA'A Awards 2009 in Film/TV Feature category.

Crime and Punishment

2009, Bengali/English, 20:33 min

Cast: Yovik, Kamal Kumar Roy

Cinematography: Debashish Adak

Make Up: Sriparna

Sound and Editing: Anamitra Roy

Written and Directed by: Sankha Subhra Ganguly

In Search of Dead Golds (Mrito Kanchan-er Lobh-e), 2009, Bengali, 12 mins

2010-01-15T16:04:00.005+05:30

In Search of Dead Golds was the first no budget short film made under the banner of "Little Fish Eat Big Fish". It was written and directed by Arupratana Ghosh, a poet and writer.

Mrito Kanchaner Lov- e was shot in last winter (Dec'08), i.e., exactly one year ago. The December was not so soothing. In fact it was the hottest winter of the decade.

Digitally it appeared that urban memories, which are very discrete in nature, were giving an oblique structure to the film. We could merely stop them and hence touched the geographical end lines of our city marked by the age old river and the newly constructed super masculine highways , to talk a bit personally.

The things we deserve & those we hate, the awe some River & the splashing markets, our kisses to our girls & our desire for a story line – everything remained in a blue !

And The Hunters of the Blue – can I put the name of Mr. Brueghel , the fifth man who was with us in the car..

We chose a faded colour for the film.

Cut to Whites !

Cheers!!

Mrito Kanchan-er Lobh-e (In Search of Dead Golds)

Bengali, 2009, 12 minutes

Casting: Manab Sharma, Sriparna Dey, Anamitra Roy, Arkapratim

Camera: Arupratan Ghosh

Graphics: Sriparna

Production Control: Tata Mukhopadhyay

Sound and Editing: Anamitra Roy

Music: Dipyaman Ganguly

Written and Directed by: Arupratan Ghosh

Why No-Budget?

2010-01-15T09:00:00.004+05:30

Wikipedia defines "No Budget Film" as-

A no budget film is a produced film made with very little, or no money.

Young directors starting out in filmmaking commonly use this method because there are few other options available to them at that point. All the actors and technicians are employed without remuneration, and the films are largely non-profit. Usually the director works alone on such films, or uses a very minimum "crew" of volunteers to assist him/her on such projects where no money or financing is available, not including the cost of film. No-budget films are made every day with video tapes and consumer cameras.

We, more or less, accept this definition. But, at the same time, we feel the urge to closely examine this sentence--"Young directors starting out in filmmaking commonly use this method because there are few other options available to them at that point"-- as it highlights and poses some serious questions to the traditional mode of film making.

Time and again, we have been told that film making is a costly affair. You need good cameras, lights, large crews, extravagant sets and what not? All of these cost a pretty hefty amount of money. Now, whenever the question of money arises, we presume that there should be a person called the "Producer", standing at the doorstep of the film maker, who will invest the necessary amount of capital and in turn, quite naturally, look for a profit out of his investment. From this point onwards, the problem starts getting more and more complicated.

Accepting the fact that producer will always look for profit mandates that the film should reach out to a large number of audience who will buy the tickets, buy the music tracks (so, you need to have good music or songs in your movie too!), or, at least, buy the DVDs. But, reaching out to a wider audience often implies setting a limit to one's creativity or the flare for experimenting with the art-form.

Now, one may argue that all the great directors in the world, starting from Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Bunuel, Satyajit Ray to Wong Kar-Wai, Bela Tarr and Anurag Kashyap, have always found a producer willing to invest in their experimental films. So, isn't is quite unjust to portray the producer as a dumb bloke who thinks about nothing else, but money and profit?

To answer this question, we must clarify that we are not using the word "producer" in its traditional sense. For us, a "producer" is a representative of the consumerist culture, who tries to impose himself upon the "auteur" and thereby control him, and the entire socio-economic mechanism of today's world supports him in his effort.

Therefore, we view the existence of a "producer" in the process of film making as an unwanted intervention of the consumerist culture to control and, thereby, subjugate the "auteur". We are not bothered about how Godard managed to make "Pierrot Le Fou" despite the fact that he had a producer. Also, we are not arguing whether a producer can produce experimental films or not. But here we are questioning the fundamentals of the system itself. We are questioning the basic logic behind the existence of producers in the value chain of film-making.

That is why, we have taken recourse to no budget film making to ascertain our point and to create a parallel channel for expressing ourselves.

So far, the age-old myth, that film making requires a lot of money, has helped producers to earn their breads. But, we believe that film making is not a costly affair. We can make good, serious films without spending a gargantuan amount of money. Moreover, low cost digital cameras and editing programmes have made our task easier.

Secondly, we also want to dethrone the traditional chain of film distribution. We intend to make our films available on DVD, simultaneously taking advantage of the internet to show and distribute our films. Creating a parallel distribution channel is, we believe, an imperative for the survival of no budget films.

At the end, we'd like to request you all to come and see what kind of quality a no budget film can deliver.

Support us, and help the art of cinema to survive!