All about films and film studies
 by Professor Sunanda Mahendra
CINEMA: At a time when a number of creditable contributions of
Sinhala films entered into the cine world such as Prof Nimal
Senanayake's Sankranti, Wasantha Obeysekara's, Agantukaya, Prasanna
Jayakody's Sankara and Professor Sunil Ariyaratne's Uppalvanna, the
discusion is centred round the world of good films and film studies
where the subject is more focussed on the significant aspects of world
cinema.
As a welcome gift to the Sinhala reader, the Sinhala encyclopedia has
now gifted the most significant extracts from its main body titled
focussing all aspects in an encyclopedic manner.
This extract is so titled *Chitrapataya: Sinhala Visvakosha Udrutu No
11*, 2006 (Film: Sinhala Encyclopedia Extract No 11) published under the
chief editorship of Professor K.N.O Dharmadasa and the text edited and
designed by its Deputy Editor Gamini Weragama.
The contents include aspects such as a general overview of the
'cinema world' or the 'film world' which covers the history and the
important landmarks in the growth of the world cinema, followed by a
chapter on the introduction to the film media where the art, aesthetics
and the film technology are embraced signifying what is known broadly as
cinematography.
This opening chapter shows vividly the development of the film from
the origins of the paintings and pictorial genres covering even the
inventions made by such persons as Edison and Lumiere, and the resultant
development that goes hand in hand with the pictorial aspects in
Animation, Cubism, and Impressionism in development of film making
interspersed experiments in such schools of thought as Modernism,
Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, Dadaism etc this also paved the way
to the critical approach to the world of cine techniques depending on
the creative approaches from creator to creator.
Film festivals
The third broad overview is made on the aspects of film festivals and
film societies or film clubs in and around the world and the
significance of the same in the local context. Perhaps it is the schools
of thought that lay guidelines in the film criticism, a subject area not
too seriously regarded in our context of film studies.
As I observe it, anyone has the liberty to write what he feels about
the film nowadays, undermining the fact that it is a serious function of
communication cultivated over the years. In this context the growth of
such film clubs foster the growth of the cinema as an art form all
around the world.
But the ways in which they are handled and organized should be
rediscovered even as an academic form by the local student of the
subject. The best of the films should be selected from time to time and
shown to the student of film studies in order to build up a better cine
culture in a country.
This should be inculcated as an educational phenomenon even at the
school level of teaching literature, criticism and social sciences. In
turn this will result in the making of a live film industry.
It is just not the baser form of entertainment that matters to the
student or the general viewer as is often believed by the general
public. The third chapter covers the history of the development of
filmmaking where the technology matters so much.
It is documented in this extract the salient factors with a special
reference to the industry as it grew up in the Asian context and in our
own country with a comparative outlook on the same as regards many other
countries such as the foreign film world as we see in India, Japan and
China.
History of film
The fourth significant chapter is on the function of the history of
film making where the important landmarks in the growth are pinpointed
Then comes the fifth chapter on Public Performance Board, signifying the
task that underlies it.
The aspects such as Legal affinities, Censorship, Banning, and the
subjects such as Ethics, Violence Terror, Rape and Pornography as well
as the social factors that are linked into it together.
This clarification is supplemented with examples with broad topics
that emerge from the cine works themselves. Such issues have been laid
down suggestive for a discussion.
This significant area that lays in darkness has now raised several
communication issues in a turbulent manner not only in other developing
countries, but in our country as well. The underlying factors are
manifold and have to be dealt from several points of view.
A sociological point of view is one example, where the filmmaker will
have enormous problems with his viewer observed in a clinical manner.
What is widely recognized as so called 'social taboos' could go into the
making of a sensitive human interest story in pictorial terms and the
inevitable question that is raised would be the pertinence or the manner
in which it is presented.
Is it pertinent to expose some of those naturalistic aspects in the
society to the public at large and cause a stir in the minds of all
types of viewers? Maybe the underlying question raised by the public for
which the film maker may state that it is not his task to examine those
areas but he is inclined to show the realism of the society and the
stark truisms that underlie.
As such the demarcation of the film viewer into categories has caused
much serious sociological issues in the field of education.
Sources
In this manner the film is categorized into several segments denoting
the types of films that are suited for children and the family in
general and meant strictly for adults etc. This document lays down quite
a number issues pertaining to the context.
This extract from the Sinhala encyclopedia is scientifically designed
to suit the readers of the subject more closely with an eye together
more details for study of cinematography at large.
The team of researchers and writers of the subject have engaged in
the task of culling material from various sources. In the very first
chapter quite a number of illustrations are presented showing how the
film began to be technologically developed from the still photography
and the silent era of film making.
This I felt is one of the few good chapters bringing broader outlook
to the cine viewer in knowing the aspects of the technical side of the
film industry.
I would have preferred to see some of the profiles of great film
makers down the ages. Though the document gives some details of some
film makers like Kurasowa and Bergman there are some others of
significance.
This document to me comes as a text of material for the contemporary
film student at all levels of education whose main problem is the
finding f material from foreign sources and mainly written in English.
As such the editors should be thanked for the task they have laid before
the general reader and the students of mass communication.
[email protected] |
