Picture Courtesy: Corkfilmfest.org

This is all new for me. I have heard about the festival buzz, and I know how much it is important for artists and filmmakers to have a platform for their voice but to closely witnessing something is altogether a different feel. I almost questioned myself as a filmmaker and my existence! 

There are so many film festivals happening around the globe and as an artist and filmmaker we wonder what's the point! what is the purpose of having these festivals? What are its benefits? Trust me, if you want to find a concrete answer, go to film festival, be a part of it and share that experience. 

Cinema brings diversity. It's an art which should be consumed by people all around the globe irrespective of any language. I know in today's time with globalization and digitalization taking the control over quality content and making it more entertaining and all about box office, but there are people who literally want to look at the cinema with different angle or should I say look at the world and intense issues with contrasting perspective. Over the years, audience has developed a critical view regarding cinema and their likes or dislikes about it. 

I watched it on television or Instagram the red carpet, the media representation of film festivals, all glamorous and paparazzi but I have been blessed this time. Cork International Film Festival has given me this opportunity to look at the amazing films by artist around the globe, have direct conversation about their craft and the efforts that has been into making such fulfilling cinema but also volunteering as a part of the festivals' team. 

The atmosphere created by the festival is warm and friendly that, you feel you are doing something for the community and cherry on top, you are being aware of the responsibility you have towards your process to which I mean the literature of cinema and its impact on people. I happened to watch The Ghost of Richard Harris, a true Irishman and his journey through a different lens. His story has been shown through his son's perspective. The Dumbledore I knew, will be a Dumbledore for me but now there is a slight shift in my viewfinder (all in a good way). The documentary by Adrian Sibley, was an attempt to present the Irish actor in a most truthful and honorary way. One will see a passionate storytelling by a filmmaker definitely. The theatre was full, and I could just hear the applaud in the end and there was a sense of contentment in me, hard to explain but yes. 

I am equally excited for the Industry Day which is going to happen on 17th November followed by two movies. There will be discussion about new industry trends, insights, filmmaking process and the support for emerging Irish Filmmakers. Never leave an opportunity to learn something. 18th November is all about Docu Day Live where industry experts will shed a light on shift in trends when it comes to Non-Fiction. If you are interested, why not to hop into one and get the best out of it! 

For me, the finest part of festival is watching people coming in enthusiastically for the love of cinema, the craft and to appreciate the efforts that has been invested by the filmmaker and his/her team. The celebration of various culture and creativity is what cinema is all about. 

To my Filmmakers and Artist, 
There is a community out there looking for you and your work and I feel ......I WILL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

By Avleen Anand

Picture Courtesy: IMDB

Trust me, this is not what you think it is! Also, have faith that it is more than what you think it is. Don't get confused, I am just trying to play with words and sentences here. As literally I am falling short of words for this amazing masterpiece. 

I am so glad that how our professor subtly pulled us to the Indie Cork film Festival to witness 90 minutes of inspiring cinema along with q&a with the woman in the poster. My classmates and I went for this in order to get some brownie points from our professor (naive brain, honestly) but we came back learning a lot about many things which as a casual viewer we might ignore or just get lost in our world with a snap. 

The best part of being a film student lies exactly how one critically view the cinema and ask question to himself/herself that do I really want to be a filmmaker! You ask crazy questions when you see something that is beyond your brain's potential and Philip Fussenegger, Dino Osmanovic mastered this craft very well. How beautifully the narrative has been constructed in an observational documentary style, following the journey of African American bodybuilder Tischa Thomas and how she defied all the norms of the society and created her own reality, her new Avatar. From being obese to female bodybuilder, the path wasn't an easy one, but she did it.... It is not easy to come on camera and share your story and be vulnerable!!!

One member from the audience asks her the same "how did you feel with camera all around you, was it hard?"

To this she replied," It was awkward in the beginning, but then I get used to it eventually. I want my story to be heard and seen by both men and women and understand a viewpoint which we wanted to convey through this film."

Being a woman in a society full of preconditioned expectations, few get swayed during the process and others just go against it. In times like these, are we really supposed to follow what has been set for us on the plate or should we change the plate, probably people around us!!!!! 

Tischa, the protagonist in the film reminds us to be fearless, be disciplined towards your dreams, chase them, fulfil them, be everything that life has to offer. At the age of 47, she is a mother a grandmother and a female bodybuilder, living her life on her own terms, surrounded by people and to mention her best friend Edward Zahler who has been there as a constant support (honestly, we all rooted for them, sshhh). People who could understand her vision of herself and meet her at the same vibe. Her struggles, her fears were evident Infront of us, also her dedication and her love for freedom and independence. 

My question to you is, as a viewer what will you choose? How do you see yourself? The questions will be endless, but they will give you a sense of relief in the end that, at least you know something about yourself.

 The tigress roar for her life, vision and each one of us who felt that the society and its pressure has done enough damage and it's time to get yourself back and CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY and yet again she asks herself and you, " did you like what you created?"

By Avleen Anand

"When life gives you lemon, just take it! It's good for immunity." 30 years of my life I have spent with my family in India, and I forgot the count of lemons that has been squeezed to understand life in general. On one hand there is my family, my friends, my dog and my freelance work to survive somehow in this Industry and on the other hand, there is my dream. A dream to become a legacy and we all know by now that when you dream big, you got to do the work. Period. 

24th June 2022, the day I received my visa for Ireland, honestly, I was grateful initially but the thought of leaving everything behind and start from scratch feels good when you are sitting in your room with a cup of coffee and your people around you. With all the hullabaloo, the only thought that scared me before hopping on to the plane " will I be able to fulfill my dreams?" I never asked this question ever before then why now! Why at this moment when the flight is about to take off? 

Every society have their respective notions of how to live life at a certain age. In India, though things are changing rapidly, and I am proud of it but still, there is this thing "ah, she is turning 30, she should be married by now", "you will face problems in your pregnancy if you get married at 35 or even 40 or never!" "How much you want to study?"

At one point, I could see myself banging their heads straight into the wall (in my head, not literally) because it is just you who will understand the intensity of your dreams and the hustle that you have faced! There is this belief that you know in your heart, that you are meant for something. That something could be big, small, or whatever you name it. That something just doesn't let you sleep. To live a life with a meaning, I believe there should be a purpose, a dream, a goal, something that is close to your heart. 

 I am glad that there are people who have witnessed my journey and trusted my abilities with same amount of faith "that this is her time to fly". 14 hours of flight just landed with great introspection and fresh perspective. 


Dear Dreamers,
My name is Avleen Anand, and I am 31 years old. I am pursuing my master's in film and Screen Media from University College Cork. "Will I be able to fulfill my dreams?" Well, the screenplay has just begun.

The growth of dubbed films and television is becoming commonplace through unexpected means.

Dubbed cinema has an interesting history. Not all countries, cultures, and genre dub films.  Italy originally dubbed over every film entering the country. Anime and the community around it typically prefer subtitles. Americans have been pampered by Hollywood and the majority of films cater to them through the use of the English language.

So, what is dubbing? Dubbing is when the original production mixed audio is replaced with voice overs in other languages. These are recorded during post production in sound stages rather than on set. This makes the films accessible and marketable to audiences beyond borders. 

Dubbed cinema versus subbed cinema, cinema with subtitles, can become a rousing topic as it is often preference led. Do you prefer to hear the film as intended? Do subtitles take away from the film? For our deaf and hard of hearing community, subtitles are often desired and needed. This allows them the ability to watch films at the cinema and not just at home. Which leads to the question: What if you don’t know something has been dubbed? Recent changes in technology and dubbing skills, especially with  online streaming platforms make it difficult to detect  that you are watching a dubbed foreign film or tv show.

There are other considerations for dubbing. In Italy, films that entered the country were always dubbed for the ease of the audience. Subtitles were a rarity. To consider a country having such a culture around this while others hardly considered it is fascinating. Similar to Hollywood before sound, films entering Italian cinema could focus on appearances. With Japan, anime is imported into other countries where the idea is not whether to dub or not. It is dub versus sub for the focus to be on the original voice acting. However, this too has evolved. Films from Studio Ghibli Films and other Japanese art cinema will always be considered films to never watch dubbed but rather subbed. As people become busier and are watching film and television while doing other daily tasks, they simply do not have the time to sit down and watch things with subtitles. This has even created fans and community around American voice actors who dub over anime.

Cinema has constantly been evolving and we have had so many ways to view moving pictures. This includes the nickelodeons, silent films, talkies, modern theaters, television, Blockbuster, Netflix, and other streaming services. Netflix started as a humble movie rental website that allowed anyone to be mailed mainstream movies, art films, older movies, and international films. America has never taken strongly to subtitled movies, and dubbed films can come across as cheesy. The newest evolution in streaming has changed this. Netflix has been curating content that is enjoyable and visually beautiful. Some of this content is foreign and you would not immediately come to this realization. The posters and photos  give nothing away. If you click on the information it is also not immediately obvious. How you come to this realization is if you click where it gives it’s age rating. This small section will give you the genres and you can find out where a film is from. However, most people just click play. Netflix’s brilliance is in the mastered audio. It is seamlessly worked over the original films and shows. Only a keen eye and ear would notice the difference and upon simpler inspection of the subtitle and audio options see what the original audio was. When and if the viewer notices the difference they have become so interested in what they are watching that they are invested and no longer care if it has been dubbed over.

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Caru Alves de Souza’s second feature film, My Name is Baghdad, operates as one part social drama, and one part skate video. De Souza’s use of gritty ground level cinematography, courtesy of Camila Cornelsen, and semi professional actors effectively conjures an authentic vision of Sao Paulo’s skate culture.  A well written script utilises naturalistic dialogue to convey the feel of skate videos reminiscent of the late nineties, all in the service of addressing relevant issues that run throughout Sao Paulo’s working class neighbourhoods. Baghdad, her family, and her skater cliques are closely followed as they manoeuvre through Sao Paulo’s sense of geographical entrapment, police brutality, and dominating sense of machismo in the local social scenes. Wearing its fem punk inspirations on its sleeve, My Name is Baghdad is ultimately about the bonds of sorority, both chosen and unchosen.

            Living with her mom and two sisters, our title character spends her days in working class Sao Paulo at the local skatepark with her male friends. Decidedly androgynous in her appearance and a tomboy at heart, Baghdad feels at home with these young men as we observe their friend group continually work together to develop their skating skills. Throughout the course of the film, the inherently darker face of working class Sao Paulo comes to the forefront, as the male dominated social structures of the metropolis become more apparent to Baghdad. Growing tired of the machismo present in the local night club and skate circles, Baghdad eventually falls in with a group of all girl skaters, and her newly founded bonds of sorority change her life for the better.

            My Name is Baghdad boasts a stellar cast of actors both professional and amateur that bring a vibrant skate scene to life. Grace Orsato’s performance as our titular character is an understated one which allows the world of Sao Paulo to inhabit the screen as its own central character without Baghdad dominating the screen. The rest of the cast inhabit what I would consider to be Baghdad’s greatest strength, its naturalistic integration of representation. The decision to work with a racially diverse community of actors, including member of the trans community and the differently abled, imbues Sao Paulo with a lived in sense of community that comes across as genuine and culturally diverse without the film drawing attention to itself as a pillar of representation as is sometimes the case with bigger productions such as Disney’s problematic management of minority characters in its recent Star Wars movies. Baghdad’s diverse community gives us insight into how the hardships of working class life in Sao Paulo permeate different demographics in the metropolis, and is conveyed expertly through the film’s charmingly diverse cast.

            One of the hardships that envelops all of the characters in My Name is Baghdad is the sense of geographical entrapment that comes from feeling stuck in Sao Paulo. This is best exemplified on a thematic level by Baghdad’s kid sister Bia, who spends the duration of the film dreaming of leaving Sao Paulo aboard Nasa’s first manned flight to Mars. This subplot provides plenty of humour as Bia attempts to train herself to see in the dark in order to adapt to her notion of Mars’ climate, as well as creating video applications for Nasa with her sisters. While endearing, Bia’s subplot embodies each character’s will to escape the hardships of Sao Paulo. Police brutality is one such social hardship in Sao Paulo’s working class communities and is addressed in My Name is Baghdad to chilling effect. During the film’s second act, Baghdad and her friends are violently searched and profiled by police for no apparent reason. These officers target Baghdad in particular and harass her over her androgynous appearance. Critics Joao Costa Vargas and Jaime Amparo Alves note of Sao Paulo’s issue with Symbolic police violence, “Examples of symbolic violence would be stereotypes related to race, gender and social geography  especially at the neighbourhood level  that predispose and justify the use of lethal force by the police” (Vargas Alves 612). As such, witnessing the police bully Baghdad over her appearance and association with a male group of friends devolves into stereotype based threats as they assume Baghdad keeps male friends in the name of sexual promiscuity. De Souza’s utilisation of ground level handheld cinematography injects this horrifying scene with a fly in the wall documentary feel that aids in conveying the reality that incidents such as this occur in the real day to day lives of Sao Paulo’s inhabitants.            

This day to day life as documented in My Name is Baghdad is also plagued by a toxic sense of machismo present in Sao Paulo’s social scenes. De Souza uses the surface level unity of the skate scene to contrast the troubling gender divisions in the city’s nightlife. In a report of Sao Paulo’s nightclub typography, Claudia M. Carlini & Zila M. Sanchez note that “overcrowding above the maximum capacity and strong sexual competition among the men for the women make these venues more prone to sexual violence” (Carlini Sanchez 1807). This notion of a nightlife dominated by sometimes violent machismo materializes in My Name is Baghdad through a drunken encounter between Baghdad and her supposed male friend Clever. Clever attempts to sexually assault Baghdad in a nightclub after she turns down his advances. This shocking encounter marks a turning point for Baghdad and the film as a whole as Baghdad becomes aware of the toxic male culture that exists within many of Sao Paulo’s social scenes.
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My Name is Baghdad places a spotlight on many of the social hardships faced by the working class inhabitants of Sao Paulo. Despite these hardships, the film conjures a mostly optimistic tone through a focus on the bonds forged in youth and the positive effects of sorority. Baghdad’s skater girl friends draw out a more energetic layer of her character that’s reflected in Orsato’s performance. Baghdad’s dynamic with her sisters and mother comes to be defined by a playful sense of contentment in each other's company despite the trials of the outside world. The same can be said of Baghdad’s sisterly skater girl clique, who all thrive in each other’s encouraging presence while also acknowledging the misogynistic forces that prevent them from fully integrating with the male skater groups of the city. De Souza is conscious of the contrast between the difficulties of working class life and the positive bonds forged in overcoming those hardships together.
Ultimately, My Name is Baghdad successfully sheds a light upon many facets of working class life in Sao Paulo . De Souza is assured in her portrayal of the positive effects of social bonds as a means of overcoming very real hardships. Bolstered by immersive ground level cinematography and the natural implementation of a terrifically diverse cast, My Name is Baghdad promises an exciting career ahead for Caru Alves De Souza and her collaborators.

As we start a new year, lets look back at the festival circuit of 2020. While 2020 saw the shutting down of many productions, it also brought some gems to the 'silver screen'.

Here are my 2020 film festival circuit picks:

Another Round is a comedy drama, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, which follows the story of four friends who set up a drinking experience to see how low levels of alcohol will improve their daily life. Mads Mikkelsen brings an energetic stand out performance. This film has such a good balance of fun and excitement while not shying away from much deeper topics.

Corpus Christi, directed by Jan Komasa, is the incredible tale of how Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia), a recently released convict, attempts to free himself from his past as he explores his deep connection with his faith. This film has darkly comical moments while holding a mirror to society and making people accountable for their actions.

Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness directed by Massoud Bakhshi follows a young woman who is sentenced to death for accidentally killing her husband. Based off a real Iranian TV show, young Maryam must beg for forgiveness live on air for her life to be spared. 

Wildfire directed by Cathy Brady, in my opinion is one of the best Irish films to be made in recent years. This film took five years to make and with a powerhouse performance from the late Danika McGuigan, the story of the intense bond of two sisters uncovering their late mother secrets is a truly captivating watch.

Saudi Runaway, directed by Susanne Meures, follows Muna’s story, a young woman living in Saudi Arabia who is documenting her attempt to flee the confined life she is forced to live, after her arranged marriage. This is an edge of your seat, nail biting watch but it is a story that very much needs to be heard.

Minari is a drama written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung. It is a semi-autobiographical exploration of Chung's own childhood. This slow paced insight into the 'American dream' for immigrants will have you weeping.

 Hello, my name is Emily Power. I am a 23 year old MA student from Ireland, studying Film and Screen Media here in UCC. 

As a child, I would go to the cinema or rent a DVD from Xtravision. I was always so fascinated by the different stories people told through the medium of film and I knew that as I got older that I too wanted to tell stories through film. As I finished secondary school, I leaned more towards the editing side of film and undertook a BA in Multimedia in the Cork Institute of Technology.

Multimedia was extremely hands on with a broad range of modules such as UX/UI design, photography, film, web design and sound production. While towards the end of my degree, I hoped to narrow in more on film, the broadness of this course allowed me to understand my strengths and weaknesses as well as giving me an understanding of multiply areas with media production. I was also very lucky to avail of the Erasmus program which allowed me to study film in a Darmstadt, Germany. In this college, I was able to study modules that would not have been possible in Ireland such as documentary filmmaking, practical effects and Super 8 film. As I finished my BA, I knew that I wanted to continue studying film and with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, it gave me the push to apply to UCC for the MA in Film and Screen Media. So far in this MA, I have been able to study topics and area's of film that are truly fascinating as well as being able to expand on my own filmmaking style with the chance to undertake a creative practice thesis.

Throughout my college experience, I began working as a freelance editor and director. This gave me the best of both worlds where I could work both from home and out on sets. I found my style of filmmaking has also changed throughout college and now going into the professional working world. In my early college years, I focused mainly on either experimental style films or short documentaries. My documentary, 'Keeper of the Lights', ran in the Cork Indie festival and Story! Documentary Film Festival. Seeing my work on screen with people watching was firstly so terrifying but absolutely exhilarating and it really spurred me on to continue working. I continued working freelance, directing music videos for local bands with the music video, 'Gilbert's Dead', winning Best Music Video in the First Cut! Youth Film Festival as well as being selected for festivals such as Cork Indie Art(ist) section, RAMIFF, HER International Film Festival and LockedIn Copenhagen Underground Festival.
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In 2019, I was selected to be a member of the Cork International Film Festival Youth Jury, this was such an interesting experience as I was able to see films that I myself would never have probably chosen to see but I am so glad I was able to get the opportunity to see some wonderful films. This experience led me to become a submission reviewer for the Cork Film Festival in 2020 and I was able to view hundreds of great short films. I would highly recommend film students to partake in something like this as you are able to see what is being made by other filmmakers from all around the world.

After I finished my bachelors degree, I was able to find work as a production assistant with Stori Creative, an Irish production company. I continued working them in the area of set design and now I currently work as a producer with the company. Getting real on set experience has been such a great learning curve and has given me great insight to see how professional sets work and the preproduction process.

If I was to give any film student advice, it is all about making connections. Talk to people in the industry, go to festivals and see what's being selected and try to focus on work that will advance your portfolio and make you stand out. With Covid-19, it can be very difficult to make connections but most film festivals now run online networking sessions which I have found extremely beneficial and would highly recommend.

Links to mentioned work:
https://youtu.be/3ZLnKvFJKX0
https://youtu.be/dfumXvqe3xY