The society has a collective responsibility to counter propaganda films, filmmaker and actor Nandita Das has said, and added that she is against banning films as she believes in the freedom of expression.
“There is already a censor board in which a few people arbitrarily judge your films and what is right for one person is not the same for the other. What is required is to create a discerning audience which is a collective responsibility,” she said.
Speaking on ‘Can Art Create Change?’ at the Global Science Festival Kerala (GSFK) here on Sunday, she said that art can change the way humans react to situations, but art doesn’t always create a positive impact.
“Movies, sometimes, can be used as propaganda for something dangerous. Art in itself does not always create a positive change, it depends on time. Time is probably the only judge of great art. Real art is made when the mind and heart are both touched by that. Nobody knows how a movie is going to come out at the end. The script has its science and if the story is not told well, the film will not have the desired impact. No film has stopped a war or changed a social evil, but changes people’s responses to situations though a person’s core value will remain the same. Movies are an amalgamation of all information that is subconsciously stored in the mind of a filmmaker,” she said.
Ms. Das said that independent cinema faces challenges worldwide as most of the space goes to mainstream films. She hailed the kind of films being done by contemporary filmmakers in Malayalam. The filmmaker also reminisced about the warm reception that her film ‘Fire’, a lesbian love story, got at the International Film Festival here in Thiruvananthapuram.
Vaisakhan Thampi, curator and convener of the GSFK Science Committee delivered the introductory speech. Festival director Ajith Kumar presented a memento to Ms. Das.
Organised jointly by the Kerala State Council for Science - Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) and Amuseum Artscience under the aegis of the Department of Science and Technology, the month-long festival, progressing at the Life Sciences Park in Thonnakkal, will conclude on February 15.
