8th Dharamsala International Film Festival opens at TIPA

DHARAMSALA, 8 Nov: The eighth edition of Dharamsala International Film Festival (DIFF) opened with the critically acclaimed feature ‘Eeb Allay Ooo!’ to a packed house at the auditorium of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in McLeod Ganj, the Upper Dharamshala here on Thursday evening.

DIFF 2019 began with Tibetan classical song (Nangma Toeshey) performed by the artists of TIPA followed by the screening of filmmaker Prateek Vats’ satirical dramedy ‘Eeb Allay Ooo!’which opened the festival being held over 7-10 Nov at TIPA.

For the second year in a row, DIFF has partnered with Picture Time, a New Delhi-based movie theatre on wheels and set up a mobile digital theatre with state-of-the-art projection facilities at its venue.

The festival will screen over 25 films and documentaries across different languages over the next three days at Prime Time’s mobile and TIPA’s main auditorium. Off the lot, Pema, a short narrative by Sonam Tsetan and Light a Candle, a short documentary by Tenzin Kalden are the only Tibetan movies in the line up of the DIFF.

The President of the CTA Dr Lobsang Sangay attended the opening of the festival as the Chief Guest and applauded the directors and team behind the DIFF for their handwork and successfully organising it year after year.

While the opening ceremony of the DIFF went smoothly, Director Ritu Sarin, who organises the festival with her husband and filmmaker Tenzing Sonam spoke on the challenges that accompany the festival and said that DIFF almost didn’t happen this year owing those challenges.

DIFF is a non-profit undertaking presented by White Crane Arts & Media Trust founded by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam to promote contemporary art, cinema and independent media practices in the Himalayan region with an objective to create events, spaces and opportunities to nurture, encourage and develop contemporary forms of creative expression in the region.

The annual film festival being held in Dharamsala, the exile headquarter returned to TIPA this year after Upper TCV School served as its venue over the last three years.