Chapter ten!
A vivacious and passionate Sandeep Marwah spends all his time within the realms of creativity to come up with innovative ideas and improve the world of cinema. In his huge line up out of box ideas, a brilliant idea which catapulted the institute to fame turned out to be the unique `International Film and TV Club' in the early nineties. This Club not only promoted tv, films, and media but also helped students get a sneak preview of the work set-up of the film industry besides create an interface with the film industry. Different types of movies were screened and courses designed in such a way it got affiliated with the industry.
"Students not only get a good exposure to the film industry but also get first-hand information about the different challenges that plague the industry. They come face to face with different type of situations that are widely prevalent in the film world. It gives them a chance to learn as well as imbibe new ideas and gain knowledge through interaction with those who are already part of the industry. This makes them more alert and conscious of the impending challenges which were discernible in students within a few months. Thus, the need of the hour became the requisite need to gear up students to become more optimistic with no pre-conceived notions or expectations. But at the same time, be ready to face any situation and fight different type of circumstances before they embark upon a career and make a remarkable entry into films. The Club ensured that these real-life situations are chipped into the minds of students which made it prominent. Thanks to the Club, the AAFT Festival of Short Films too gathered steam and became very popular and the talk of the town. The fest attracted an array of new viewers who were thrilled to bits, as new films were introduced every three months from 1993 to 2003."
Meanwhile, Sandeep Marwah got busy and became associated with another physically energetic pursuit to kickstart `The Asian School of Media Studies' in 2003. The 2nd Film Festival of `AAFT Festival of Short Films' unfurled its doors, as per schedule in 2004. The name of the Film Festival got changed from AAFT Festival of Short Films to AAFT Festival of Short Digital Films after due intervention and diligence of the great filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.
"I had met Shekhar Kapur to invite him to become the Chief Guest for the `AAFT Film Festival of Short Films' and to inaugurate the fest. He told me that he would not be able to make it then due to his prior commitments but would make it the next time. He informed me that times had changed with the advent of the digital age and that an alteration needs to be made in the name of the Film Festival. And so, the term digital got added to the name of the fest. Students from `AAFT Film Festival' as well as `ASMS Film Festival' made their films which were eventually screened in their respective film festivals. Thus about 15 to 20 films were made from our institute every year."
Amidst all this milieu, Sandeep Marwah stuck to time management and ensured that he attends many functions, seminars, and conferences in India and overseas. He had the special privilege to represent India at the `Peace Conference' after he got invited by the `World Peace Federation' in Seoul, Korea. The exceptional congregation had a good turnout of about 180 people who hailed from different parts of the world.
"All the guests in the conference were provided five-star amenities as regards food and accommodation. I cannot forget the amazing experience which I got in the august gathering of high-level dignitaries which
included the likes of Prime Ministers, Presidents, Governors besides former Prime Ministers and Presidents besides VIP's from around the world who were all in attendance at the round table event. Elated to represent India, I had decided that I would make an indelible impact with my announcement and sound different and extra-ordinary. In my preliminary speech, I highlighted the fact that India has been a spiritual capital for decades and history vouches this fact. I informed them that I would love to make films that promote peace and exhibit my creative instincts. I got flabbergasted when the entire audience went against me and raised their voice. They asked me how could I speak about peace alone in my films. Then I informed them that I would highlight love, peace, and unity in my films. In due course, I shared with them my dream venture to conduct a `Global Peace Film Festival' which impressed one and all gathered there. All of a sudden, I became the center of attention and people jostled one over another after the program to get my business card and get my details. At this juncture, the Peace Federation came up with a unique offer to extend support and become partners with me in the Global Peace Federation. This paved way to three different film festivals and I realized that it would become complex in my series of events. Armed with loads of energy and enthusiasm, I decided to get back to India immediately and work rigorously. Until then, there must have been just 1000 short films, 100 films on love, besides films on horror and music made over a decade"
The first `13th Global Film Festival' highlighted themes such as `love, peace, and unity' while `children' became the center of focus in the second film festival while `documentary films' occupied center stage in the third film festival. "I realized that the festival had got constricted to a small zone while I dreamt of being on par with the Global Film Festivals around the world and I decided to have many segments. The fourth Global Film Festival comprised of all the segments possible. We had films on peace, children, mobile, disability, Hindi panorama, foreign films, director’s retrospective, country focus, etc. The gamut of the festival included a variety of events, workshops, seminars, interactions, talks, besides the release of posters, new films, and the launch of new films for three continuous days. We also held the Mahatma Gandhi Film Festival, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Film Festival besides Shakespeare Society on Nov 12th, 13th, and, 14th respectively. The festival ended with the Children's Day celebrations. The events held during the day time became such a big hit that the whole extravaganza looked like a mega Film Festival."
He continued, "The fifth film festival became so huge that the IFFI administration extended a huge round of applause to our organizational skills which enamored the viewers of NCR and kept them busy, occupied, and entertained. Earlier, IFFI had conducted the festival on a large scale in NCR but shifted to Goa in 2004. We got an added advantage due to this paradigm shift of location as it created a huge vacuum in NCR. This huge void prolonged till the time we started the Global Film Festival on a massive scale. We had a huge line-up of movies shown in a professional set-up while other festivals could screen just six films in Delhi. Our festival became a source of inspiration and attracted film aficionados from Delhi and NCR. I realized that most of the internationally acclaimed film festivals had become popular due to their names being prefixed to the festival such as the Berlin Film Festival, New York Film Festival, etc. I too wanted to make Noida famous as it formed the base for the film city which created us. We did not have to look back with our value-added services."
The advent of the pandemic did not become a deterrent to the Global Film Festival as the connoisseur of films, Sandeep Marwah did not restrain himself to fate but ensured that it happened online. "We
conducted the 13th edition of the Global Film Festival online and organized 20 events with the active participation and involvement of 60 countries with 200 speakers. About 500 media personnel attended the event where 800 films were screened in the presence of 1, 25, 000 participants. About four lakh people made a personal visit to the site and it became the biggest festival in the world at a time when most film festivals were canceled. There were 10 events conducted on the webinar and relayed simultaneously on tv. The sessions in the webinar highlighted our tremendous growth in the past 14 years ever since its inception in 2007. GFFN.org is our official website that gives a sneak peek into our multifarious activities. We could not have a film festival in 2008 due to financial constraints. In 2009, we held the second edition which dealt with documentaries. In the third edition, we had children as our focus."
Lockdown did not restrict Sandeep Marwah who ensured that classes took shape online. "We began our online classes in March which goes on till today. Certain restrictions were mandatory during the pandemic and so one-and-a-half hours class got reduced to one hour. We restrained our classes to three hours in a day as that would be the maximum attention span of students. We inculcated stories, short films, theory classes, compilations besides practical demonstration with still cameras in the webinars and conducted events through zoom. In one of our webinars, we brought a man who went to the moon! Charlie Duke had recently traveled in Appollo 16 to the moon in October and he narrated his trip and how he collected stones from the moon."
With the new academic session in place, students are encouraged as usual to adhere to the art of listening. "We advise students to listen and gain knowledge We tell them not to google and give references so that they become voracious readers. As of now, 3000 students have benefitted from our 120 webinars held in India and overseas when other webinars hardly have 37 people in another chamber which I had attended recently."
In-between the run around for different paraphernalia to educate students and conduct film festivals, Sandeep Marwah ensures that he attends other national and international film festivals. He is keen to observe and learn as to how events are organized and how they get that wonderful footfall, without a scope of error. As a swift learner, he then organized the three-day film fest of high stature here. "We became the first film school to organize the three-day film fest of such high magnitude in the world even though there are about 125 film schools in the world. Film festivals are held but not many venture to 40 events with a footfall of 9000 people at that point in time."
Innovative by nature, Sandeep Marwah began the `International Festival of Cellphone Cinema' in 2007. "It all began when Karl Bardosh, a Master and Professor of Cinema in New York University who came to town and showed me his fancy mobile where he had made films at home. He shared his full-fledged films made on his mobile in the institute also. We decided to recreate the same experience and shoot films on mobile. We wrote the script and shot extensively lengthy films in Noida as well as New York. And I became the first Indian to shoot a film on mobile and edit it after the completion of the film. Viewers were taken aback by the films that we had made. We instructed students of AAFT as well as ASMS to shoot short films and submit them as part of their assessment. We received a few films and still photos from mobiles which gave us an idea about Cellphone Cinema Festival. Simultaneously, Bardosh shot films on his mobile in the US and sent them to the Indian students. This was how the `International Festival of Cellphone' came into
existence which became an annual festival. It earned a lot of fame as a film festival and even the recent 13th International Festival of Cellphone Cinema got many entries from around the world."
Sandeep Marwah's presence of mind to follow his US counterpart to make films on a mobile bore fruit and got him due recognition and honor as the `Father of Cellphone Cinema' from the Tisch School of Arts in New York City, three years ago. Hungary played host to the same festival in 2018 wherein Sandeep Marwah inaugurated the event.
"2019 witnessed the inauguration of the Cannes Film Festival of Mobile Cinema and as co-president of the festival, I screened all the short films that we had produced since 1993. Slowly, it became a fad to watch short films on mobile. We realized that we could bring a revolution in India and the world. We proved that we could shoot a film on the mobile and organized the first `World Festival of Films.' And, today the 13th International Film Festival is the oldest Festival of Mobile Cinema which we had created as pioneers.
the end
