Onir wows Berlin

Film-maker Onir’s forthcoming movie I AM has been invited to be screened in Berlin.  On the occasion of a major exhibition on contemporary Indian Art at Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, the Arsenal cinema in Berlin will screen a series of contemporary Indian films in Sept 2010.

The ambition of the programme, curator Dorothee Wenner says, is to highlight the yet increasing diversity in modern Indian filmmaking. “Of late, the perspective on Indian cinema in Germany has been narrowed down to a certain style of Bollywood cinema, which — in fact — seems to be a thing of the past. Many people here still associate Indian cinema exclusively with a beautiful couple dancing on the Swiss Alps,” says Wenner.“It’s high time we correct this notion. So we have selected films which juxtapose these expectations in the most inventive ways — I Am by Onir is one of those films. On a narrative level, it concerns highly relevant social issues and thereby can be labelled a modern political film. Beyond, its production background and financing the story is an amazing example of how Indian filmmakers try to challenge existing filmmaking structures in India,” he adds. Meanwhile The Triangle Media Group in its biennial Global Awards felicitated actor Sanjay Suri and Onir for the movie too. The film got the award for Media for Social Justice. Onir was in Nottingham to receive the award from the Lord Mayor of Nottingham Jeannie Packer and the Rt Hon. Vernon Coaker MP Minister for Schools and Learners.