Beyond Bollywood Bollywood = Indian film? Not necessarily. Small, independent house art movies are getting more and more popular. They’re rebelling against the convent ional description of what India is. Cooperation has started between Bangalore and the School of Film Directing at the University of Gothenburg. the Bangalore film business. Bangalore has a great art and film scene filled with aspiring directors and visual artists. There we were lucky to meet Director Prakash Belawadi who has plans for a new film school for film directors similar to ours. It’s very stimulating and inspiring to meet film makers and artists from India and find that our views and thoughts are more similar than I could imagine.”
Gunill a Burstedt is Director of the film school at the University. GU Journal sent Indian exchange student Dhruv Ramnath to talk to her over coffee to find out exactly what is the nature of the collaboration between the film school at the University of Gothenburg and the International Centre for Film and Drama in Bangalore.
How did it start? “The School of Film Directing is a young institution. We started 13 years ago. We’ve been busy developing our programmes and until recently only had contact with Nordic and some European film schools. Now is the right time for us to relate to other film schools outside Europe.” Why this collaboration? “In our international policy plan for the film school, we have a short term ambition to develop cooperation between students here in Sweden and students outside of Europe. In education, it is very important to discuss issues and work together to understand each other. When you travel away from your own country, you can also look at yourself, your culture and your tradition from a different angle. This is not only important for our students but for Indian students as well. I believe we have a lot to learn from each other. We want to connect with one film school to get a deeper relationship and continue cooperation in a long-term perspective on the basis of equality.” What are the benefits? “The world is connected today and we should benefit from that interconnectedness. The film business is worldwide and 1 4
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Gunilla Burstedt
Prakash Belawadi
our students should learn to know filmmakers from other parts of the world. Participation in international collaborations is also important for researchers and teachers. In many ways, internationalization is an important component in the University’s quality assurance work. We believe that by establishing collaboration we can exchange ideas by elevating our conversation. The goal is to strengthen each other and broaden our views. Why Bangalore and not another city in India? “It was a coincidence. The Region (Västra Götalandsregionen) contacted me to say that they would like us to explore collaboration with Bangalore. They have a four-year agreement for cultural exchanges called Linking Initiatives – with the state of Karnataka – and Bangalore is the capital. This was how it all began. In December of 2009 we visited the Film Academy in Bangalore and presented the School for
We have a common aim to improve quality and increase the breadth of diversity in the entire domain of the moving image.
What is the vision? “We are interested in long-term cooperation. Looking forward a few years, this could be in the form of a student and teacher exchange, developing an international Masters programme in the film school building and creating an understanding of the film industry in a broader sense. Both our film schools focus only on directors, which is unusual. I look forward to discussing some of these issues with our colleagues in India, including diversity, gender equality, cultural heritage and our approach to production and distribution in the digital paradigm, because that has the potential to create a significant impact on film production and distribution. We have a common aim to improve quality and increase the breadth of diversity in the entire domain of the moving image.” How does the global university project at the University impact the collabora tion? “The University of Gothenburg has recently taken a further step towards becoming a ‘global university’. This is based on a well-thought out, long-term sustainable investment with a number of strategic partnerships consisting of uni-