BANGALORE: It was curtains down on Thursday for the 4th Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFES). While the festival was a huge hit with the audience, the festival had its share of ups and downs. Lack of publicity was the main drawback. With the exception of certain sections of the society, the public at large was unaware of the festival. The impact of this was felt on the attendance. In an era where people post the most intimate details of their personal life on social networking sites, a public event such as this did not utilise the power of networking sites. The international festival saw little activity on Facebook and was not seen trending on Twitter too.Once the stalls were put up outside the venues screening the films, Bangalore woke up to the festival and enquiries came in. But the issue of passes dampened the spirits. The passes were initially divided into three categories —Delegate passes at `500 for the whole week, passes for Film Society and Chamber members and student passes at `100 for the week. The price of the delegate passes discouraged those who wished to catch a few good shows in between work. A ticketing system for each movie was preferable, some opined.Later, the daily pass was introduced; but then again most people were unaware of this resulting in empty seats at some venues.While Lido on M G Road saw the maximum footfalls with people even sitting on the aisle and floor just to watch the film, Suchitra in Banashankari and Inox J P Nagar saw only a select group of people coming in to watch the screenings. Worse, in some screens as little as four or five persons were seated — A colossal waste of the screening. The confusion regarding issue of passes at venues and the resulting dip in audience was a downfall that could have been prevented.Another aspect that inconvenienced the public was the limited number of screenings of a single movie. Some wished for screenings on a rotational basis to enable them to catch all the movies in theatres closest to them and not travel all the way across town. Even though the bus service was well thought-out, in reality it was not so practical. People just didn’t have the time to travel all over Bangalore to watch the movies oftheir choice.Still in its nascent stages, the event’s lack of proper organisation came to the fore when, at some venues, the jurors were not even given water to drink. Also, the jurors were seated amidst a noisy audience disrupting their viewing experience. In some venues, no representatives from the organising committee turned up to receive the delegates much to the chagrin of volunteers present.Another major disappointment was also a missed opportunity for the organisers to popularise the event — Workshops and discussions were hardly undertaken during the course of the festival. Members of the Kannada film industry and students of films could have benefitted from the workshops that the organisers promised but didn’t fully deliver.BIFFES tried to incorporate the best of what a film festival has to offer but the execution has not gone without a few hiccups. BIFFES has much ground to cover in comparison to other film festivals. It has without a doubt the love and support of Bangaloreans, who are keenly awaiting a new and improved version next year.
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