DHARAMSHALA, November, 9: The 4th Dharamshala International Film Festival (5-8 November, 2015) concluded on Sunday with the screening of acclaimed films such as Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan, Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary The Look of Silence, and Gurvinder Singh’s Chauthi Koot.
The fourth and last day of the festival saw a host of award winning films, including several cutting-edge Indian films and a specially curated children’s package called Reel Neverland.
The day began with Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary, The Look of Silence, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. At the second venue, Club House, film curator Monica Wahi introduced two films from DIFF’s Reel Neverland package: an animated short by Dina Velikovskaya, About a Mother, and Jury Feting’s feature film, Celestial Camel.
Director Neeraj Ghaywan and lyricist and screenwriter Varun Grover participated in a filmmaker session, Making Masaan, moderated by film critic Namrata Joshi at the Club House. The duo who worked for Gangs of Wasseypur engaged the audience in a freewheeling discussion about the making of Masaan and the film as a reflection of a society in rapid flux.
Swiss director, Dodo Hunziker presented the Indian premiere of his documentary, the Tibetan Warrior, along with the film’s main protagonist, Loten Namling, at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA). The attendees included dignitaries and ministers from the Tibetan administration, including the Tibetan PM Lobsang Sangay and his cabinet colleagues.
Two other documentaries premiered at DIFF on Sunday: Farid Eslam’s Yallah! Underground and Brian Knappenberger’s The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz.
The closing night film for DIFF 2015 was Neeraj Ghaywan’s acclaimed feature, Masaan. Both Neeraj and Varun were present for the Q&A session. Neeraj said the screening at DIFF was the best ever screening of his film after Cannes.
