I should begin by thanking Enrique Nicanor, Director of the Ourense International Film Festival in Galicia, Spain, for including a ‘Homage to Tagore’ section in this year’s festival to mark Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary, in conjunction with the Tagore Library of Ourense founded by José Paz. It is one of the first, fairly comprehensive tributes to Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary, which UNESCO is marking in 2011.
Category: Digital thinking
About the digital revolution: creativity, the internet and a new world of possibilities
Kaberi’s Indian cooking – our new webseries
We’ve been thinking about this cooking webseries for a few months but never quite found the time to launch it. The concept is that Kaberi explains to a maximum of four guests how she is preparing the evening dinner for all of us. The videos and recipes are published on a dedicated Kaberi’s Indian cooking Facebook page, inviting people to post their feedback, photos and experience of making the recipes. The contents of the Facebook page are visible to anyone but only Facebook members are able to ‘Like’ the page and contribute to it.
Shyama at the Kolkata International Film Festival
OK, so it has taken me a few months to find the time to edit the material shot by our friend Séamas McSwiney. Still, now you can see a special edition of the Shyama podcast about how the film was received at the Kolkata Film Festival in November 2009.
Pirates, vandals & the internet
It’s been an intriguing week. First, I spent last Saturday at #ORGCon, where I had been invited to talk about our film Shyama in the opening panel discussion chaired by writer Cory Doctorow entitled ‘Thriving in the real digital economy’. Then on Monday evening, as I was still digesting what I had heard at #ORGCon, I noticed our friends Brian Newman and Sheri Candler tweeting enthusiastically about Gerd Leonhard’s talk The future of film and cinema.
Food for thought
On Saturday, for the first time in ages, Kaberi and I spent the evening with our dear friends Martin and Nathalie, as well as their wonderful children Chloé and Melie. When we mentioned that we plan to start a video podcast series of Kaberi’s Indian cooking, Martin recommended that, before doing so, we should watch Nora Ephron’s film Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. He told us that it is about the parallel stories of the person who wrote the first French cookery book for Americans and someone who decides to make all the recipes in the first French in a year and to write a blog about it.
Open-air ‘Bollywood’ evening in Liège
On Saturday evening, Kaberi & I found ourselves invited to help introduce an open-air screening of the ‘Bollywood’ film Dilwale dulhania le jayenge (The big-hearted will get the bride) in Liège. Now, I cannot claim to be an expert in ‘Bollywood’ films, not least because I don’t understand Hindi. However, in recent years, Kaberi has introduced me to the better-known films of this genre through subtitled versions.
Our Tagore dance film trilogy
If you have been wondering where Kaberi and I disappeared to, perhaps this leaflet about our Tagore dance film trilogy will give you an idea.
I have finally succumbed to the suggestion of various friends, particularly Lambros, that I start a blog. Through our Shyama podcast, Kaberi and I are trying to offer answers to the many questions about Shyama and Rabindranath Tagore which people watching our film version of Shyama have been prompted to ask us.
This blog is more about my personal interests, though the link with our Tagore dance film trilogy is inescapable since the trilogy brings together my interests in films, Tagore and digital thinking. I hope you’ll find them interesting too.