The Deustch Angle

The GenNext 4.0 Film Festival showcases short German films that are aimed at bringing a connection of thoughts between German and Indian students

The GenNext 4.0 Film Festival showcases short German films that are aimed at bringing a connection of thoughts between German and Indian students

A collection of excited school children awaiting the screening of a film from Germany,which would depict the life of teenagers their age,marked the scene at the NFAI on Wednesday afternoon. To celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relationship between Germany and India,Max Mueller Bhavan in association with (National Film Archives of India) NFAI have organised a programme titled Germany and India 2012: Infinite Opportunities that kicked off with the GenNext (Generation Next) Film Festival at the NFAI auditorium,Law College Road on September 12. The film festival,first held in 2009,has been successful in spreading awareness about education,culture and lifestyle about Germany in the city. We’re trying to encourage the use of media in language teaching, says Flucht,Director,Max Mueller Bhavan. The films are screened to bring the first hand information about the German culture and Language to the different schools and colleges in Pune as well as the Max Mueller Bhavan students who are studying the German language. We want to show the attitude of the German students to their Indian counterparts and bring about a connection of thoughts between them, adds Flucht.

The films selected to be screened at the festival are youth centric and deal with subjects like education,music,adventure,interpersonal relationships and tourism. This year,the festival has been themed on adventure. Highlights of the film festival are three German movies- Groupies bleiben nicht zum Frühstück (2010),which is a comedy directed by Marc Rothemund,Die rote Zora (2008) directed by Peter Kahane and Sommer (2008) directed by Mike Marzuk. All of the films that are screened will be preceded by short animation films.

To commemorate 100 years of Indian cinema,a short film based on Dadasaheb Phalke was screened on the first day of the festival. Animated films like Froschkonig and Hansel and Gretel will be screened on September 13 and 14. A quizzing session was organised by PASCH,a group of schools that have partnered with NFAI and Max Mueller for this event. PASCH stands for the ‘Schools: Partners for the Future’ initiative,a global network of some 1500 schools that spread awareness about German language and culture among their students. We are targeting partner schools in Pune for our various exchange programs and the response so far has been excellent, says Flucht.

Vibhavari Deshpande,of the Harishchandrachi Factory fame was the chief guest at the event. The opening day of the film festival witnessed an encouraging audience that comprised of students of Geman language as well as film students. It was a very interesting movie and much to my surprise,I could understand the whole movie,says Tejaswini Marathe,a tenth standard student,who was delighted with the German film Groupies bleiben nicht zum Frühstück. Another student from the audience,Pallavi Munot says,This is the first time I attended the film festival and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The film festival will be travelling to various cities like Kolkata,Mumbai,Bangalore,Hyderabad,Nagpur,Ahmedabad,Kohlapur and Indore in India as well as other countries in the South Asian region like Nepal,Bangladesh and SriLanka, says Flucht.

(The GenNext 4.0 Filmfest 2012 will be held in Pune till September 14 at the National Film Archives of India,Prabhat Road from 3-6pm)

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