Glamaour Era December edition Glamaour Era december edition | Page 55
‘Be proud of
Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of Toronto International
Film Festival, might like all kinds of films, including our
very own PK and Dangal, but he is particularly
appreciative of makers in pursuit of truth
Bollywood’
Nonika Singh
L iterally, he lives, breathes and
LENS EYE: Cameron Bailey (R) in conversation with Michael Werner, Film and Media, Strategic
Consultant
Wide canvas
eats cinema. Watching 700 lms a
year, cinema not only gets into the
skin of the artistic Director of
Toronto International Film Festival,
Cameron Bailey, but he too gets
under its many layers. At the
International Film Festival of India
Goa, where Canada was the country
in focus, he talks about Bollywood,
how he loved PK and why he did not
include Deep Mehta in the
contingent of lm directors they
brought to Goa.
Seeking the truth
F H
“It’s like when you see it you know it, you hear it and you feel it.
It’s a combination of many things; technical skill, knowledge of
cinema and also a kind of an emotional intensity. Technical
prowess is important but not enough to make a great lm.”
Indeed, the world of cinema has changed dramatically in the past
few years, thanks to the arrival of digital technology. “But
technology has to be married with real imagination.” his eight-year-old son. However, when he seeks fulllment, it is lms high on
dramatic intensity, emotionally powerful and truly insightful, which do the trick
for him. Today’s makers he thinks are no more, no less, bolder than when
Lumière Brothers were engaging with reality. Indeed, he admires makers in
pursuit of truth, especially in countries when the odds are stacked against them.
Be it developing nations or developed ones, he deems, “Every country has a truth
it doesn’t want to reveal.”
Lesser divides B-town lanes
irst things rst, what he seeks in a lm is not any one thing.
I n India there might be a huge chasm between what are seen as
festival lms and what works for masses. However, he says, “When
lms work at their best, there is less and less of that divide between
commercial and artistic.” As an example, he cites lms like
Dangal. Indeed, he knows Bollywood rather well, has great
regard for Anurag Kashyap, whose lm Mukkabaaz they showed
at TIFF this year. Yet another favourite is Village Rockstars, a
small nugget which premiered at TIFF again and upholds its
visual poetry and the authenticity with which it represents its
world. To ll the massive appetite of the Indian diaspora back
home, to begin with TIFF had a tryst with all the Indian matinee
idols. Now there is greater engage