It’s always a cerebral exercise talking to filmmaker Vipin Vijay; the conversations are often peppered with his deep insights on the what’s, hows and whys of the ‘ephemeral’ and the ‘subversive,’ the ‘self-exploratory’ and the ‘pre-occupation’ and such of Indian and world cinema. Not exactly easy to understand! Underneath all that high-brow talk though, evident is his deep-rooted earnestness and awareness for the medium of cinema, a passion which has made him one of the most interesting avant-garde filmmakers in the country. The native of Kozhikode, who calls Thiruvananthapuram home, is one of the two ‘Filmmakers in Focus’ at the 10th edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), which begins on June 16.
Eight of Vipin’s films will be screened at the fête. “I’ve chosen some of my earlier films for IDSFFK because they were made at a time when the transition to the digital domain was unfolding in cinema. In fact, in my earlier films I’m reflecting nostalgically about time, my concerns with it,” says Vipin, adding that what preoccupied him then is not what’s going through his mind now. “Nowadays, I’m constantly aware of the real issues, notions of spectatorship, the relation between cinema and the ‘uncinematic,’ the characteristics of high-defenition images... I’m constantly self-introspecting,” he adds.
We’ve caught up with him while he is editing his latest project, Prathibhasam, a feature film, “on how one responds to the act of disappearance.” It’s yet another example of how he experiments with themes and ideas, this time ‘on the disintegration of the family through anthropomorphic concerns to varied civilian codes.’ Indeed, Vipin has distinguished himself as one of the few filmmakers left in Kerala who chose not to go after mainstream actors or moolah and has doggedly stuck to experimental cinema. His films though have found a life of their own, opening and being shown in film festivals from Copenhagen to Oberhausen, winning him prestigious awards, including a National Award, and are even being taught and archived for film studies courses in universities across the world. “I’ve never thought of it as a challenge to experiment with themes and ideas, simply because the morality of my actions and my life is the same. Films are the reflection of your engagement with life. Whenever I have thought of giving up, something happens, some pathological instinct that gets me thinking of cinematic rigour,” says Vipin.
Also, at this year’s IDSFFK, Vipin is coming “full circle.” He takes his place on the jury for the fête’s documentary competition. “Being on the jury will be an opportunity to see for myself the pre-occupations of my contemporaries. I’m also looking forward to meeting like-minded people and interacting with them. That said, this is an opportunity to look at the resonance to one’s own work. I feel that new media has effectively put the viewer in some false sense of security. This has put the lineage of an image into doubt. It is not sharpness any more but resolution that everyone is talking about. But I am sure of one thing. We are unable to create a conceptual discourse when it comes to cinema, and for me that is more tragic,” says the filmmaker, stressing that such creative engagements are the need of the hour. “There is a sense of collectiveness in Indian indie cinema but it’s in a state of flux. Filmmakers need to talk to each other for engagement within the domain and they need find common ground,” he explains.
Then, perhaps, there might have been a collective resistance to issues like the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting denying censor exemption to three documentaries, films dealing with JNU protests, the unrest in Kashmir, and on the Rohith Vemula issue, meant to be screened at IDSFFK...? “It’s a classic case of political disjunction. Throughout history, whenever, wherever there is political disjunction, it has paved the way for a radical thought process. I feel this context can lead to the emergence of a new radical filmmaking. It has earlier happened in different parts of the world in different forms. An avant garde movement can today happen anywhere and that can take shape from Thiruvananthapuram, Kashmir, Delhi...,” he says.
Genre benders
Vipin’s films to be screened at IDSFFK:
The Egotic World, his diploma film at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata (2003), looks at the ideas of entrapment and liberation.
Video Game, which won him the prestigious Grand Jury Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival (he was the first Indian filmmaker to get the award), is a ‘complex video journey on a motorcar, that incorporates mythic themes of questing and searching.’
Broken Glass, Torn Film, the controversial signature film of the International Film Festival of Kerala 2007 is a short look at subversive images politics in Malayalam film history.
Poomaram (The Flowering Tree), which won the special jury award for non-feature films at the National Film Awards, is ‘an audio-visual observation of the interconnection between ancient menstrual rituals and modern civilisation/cultural practises.’
Bhoomiyil Chuvadurachu (Feet Upon The Ground) is an exploration of the creative self of Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) is about ‘listening and related cognition that produces a spectrum of sound and other auditory hallucinations.’
Chitrasutham mixes occult and virtual reality and and Vishaparvam (Venomous Folds), deals with the traditional practice of Visha chikitsa, the science of poisons.
Up next
Vipin is also working on a documentary for the Public Service Broadcasting Trust. “It’s being shot entirely on a iPhone 7. In the first part I’m documenting the disappearance of an island in the Sundarbans and for the second part working with an archaeologist from Dharwad. It deals with the poetic and the inventive dimension of the archaeological experience,” he explains.