Why do prominent Kolkata documentary makers stay away from the Kolkata Film Festival?

Almost a decade ago, when he declared himself with the disturbingly effective Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore changed the world of documentary filmmaking. His critics may consider him a meatball sandwich, but the truth is that thanks to Moore’s brazen efforts, documentary filmmaking was finally relieved of its pariah tag. Film schools around the world were only too happy to offer documentary film classes and Film festivals started recognizing the much-neglected genre.

But in good old Kolkata documentaries continue to be poor cousins to feature films. In the grandest film event of its calendar, The Kolkata Film Festival (KFF), documentaries and non-fiction films have been pushed to the fringes, or so claims filmmaker Sourav Sarangi. “I will never screen my films in KFF. Documentary filmmakers don’t get the respect they deserve and their films are shown in a dingy hall in the Bangla Academy,” says Sarangi. Sarangi’s decision may prove to be a huge disappointment for Kolkata film lovers for his latest film Bilal has managed to earn laurels and awards in different festivals across the world. “I have been to different other festivals around the world nowhere do they treat documentary filmmakers as badly. There is no proper literature announcing our presence in the KFF and even our posters aren’t properly displayed,” says Sarangi.

Kolkata-based filmmaker, Joshy Joseph, who screened his film And the Bamboo Blooms in KFF a few years back, has harsher points to make. “Like all departments, the documentary section of the KFF is poorly handled. It’s a great pity that they don’t recognize the fact that documentary filmmaking is the most vibrant genre now. Festivals across the world include documentaries in the main section of the festival, strangely enough KFF has a separate section for them. This, I believe is a stepmotherly treatment,” says Joseph.

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