The beautiful title gives already a hint to what Aruna Vasudev accomplished for a rising awareness for Asian Cinema in several ways: she was the editor of the wonderful unfortunately discontinued film magazine Cinemaya, she was one of the founders of the organization called Netpac (Network for the promotion of Asian Cinema) and as well the head of the Cinefan festival for Asian and Arab cinema (later Oisan Cinefan) which as well was discontinued.
Even though there were some voices in the West like Donald Ritchie, Max Tessier or the former director of the Berlinale-Forum Ulrich Gregor who suggested already since the late 1950s or 1960s that Asian Cinema is in its diversity and history at least equal to the Cinemas of Europe and America, if not superior at all.
But with Cinemaya there was a new self-perception among Asian critics, filmmaker, festival programmer and film historians. In the issues of Cinemaya one finds many essays about the specific history of certain asian countries, written by people from this specific country like Peggy Chiao on Taiwanese and Chinese Cinema, Gönül Dönmez-Colin on Turkish cinema, Tadao Sato on Japanese Cinema or Chidananda Dasgupta on Indian Cinema etc. I can hardly remember any Asian country which remained disregarded in this magazine.
Supriya Suri divides her film in this three chapters. After an introduction to Aruna Vasudev, the chapters deal with the film magazine, the Netpac and finally with the (Oisan) Cinefan film festival which took place in New Delhi. As there are many interviews with filmmaker, critics, film historian or festival programmer in this film, Suris film reveals another important fact about this movement. A magazine like Cinemaya did not only inspired Western cinephiles with a special love for Asian Cinema like me, it reveals also that the film people from Asia as well were in a permanent exchange of ideas, if in this magazine, if on festivals or anywhere else. One gets an idea of this atmosphere of departure especially in the 1990s. It was the time when people like Hou Hsiao Hsien, Wong Kar Wei and a a lot other directors became famous at big International Filmfestival. Even the film festival in Busan/Korea has since its first edition more or less replaced the International Film festival of Hongkong as the most important hub for Asian Cinema.
A film about Aruna Vasudev was long overdue. As the film is very well researched, it brought a lot of memories back to me. Some of the interviewed persons I met on film festivals long ago. As Cinemaya was for me like an endless source of information about new but also about the history of specific Asian Cinemas, the founding of Netpac was another step. The organization installed Netpac Juries on many International film festivals including Berlin and Rotterdam and quite a number of new talents and now recognized filmmaker were discovered.
And all this began with Cinemaya where Vasudeva changed the office of her husband into the editorial head quarter of the magazine. Some shots show the very unique design of this magazine. The coordination between Netpac and Cinemaya was a further step to expand the discussion on Asian cinema.
And finally as another result of Vasudevs tireless eagerness was the Cinefan Film festival. The first edition took place in 1999 and from 2004 it was named Oisan Cinefan, sponsored by the auction house Oisan. For around 10 years it introduced Asian cinema to Indian audience. The encounter with Asian and Arab Cinema shaped the love for cinema for a lot of young cinephiles. The filmmaker herself (how she mentions in a statement) one of them.
The financial crash in 2008 changed a lot for the worse. Oisan withdrew their financial support which ended the festival and the magazine as well. It was a disputable decision and still hard to retrace. Only the Netpac organization remained from Vasudevs efforts. And one can ask in retrospect if the dependence from Oisan was problematic.
All of us who have a special love for Asian Cinema owe Aruna Vasudev a lot, the audience, especially the young Indian audience owes her the encounter with films from regions normally hard to access in Indian cinemas.
Even though the retired Aruna Vasudevs last sentence in the film is : My life is like an endless party”, the film left on me a melancholic aftertaste. For me it evoked especially memories in the 1990s when I had with some of the interviewed persons smaller or bigger talks when they crossed my ways during the Berlin Filmfestival, including Aruna Vasudev. Some of them are very old or retired, some even not alive anymore. It is the strange feeling when my warm memories become history. Just alone as a piece of reminiscence alone, Supriya Suris film is impressing enough. At the first sight Aruna Vasudev, Mother of Asian Cinema seems sober and journalistic. But what it evokes in me is much more moving. For all of us, critics, cinephiles, but also festival programmers, curators and filmmaker, Aruna Vasudev was indeed like a mother. And it was her accomplishment that one can talk much more about Asian cinema – and especially as its gigantic contribution for world cinema at all. Filmmaker Supriya Suri has correctly identified this accomplishment of Aruna Vasudev and that is another resason why I consider her documentary as a very important comment about film history and especially a tribute to a woman who kept film history alive.
Rüdiger Tomczak
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