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2nd Film Festival for Generations in Delhi and Mumbai (29th Sept. - 5th Oct.)
The second installment of the Film Festival for Generations in India took place between 29th September and 5th October 2019 in Delhi and Mumbai. Part of the Indo-German academic cooperation project "New Directions in Active Ageing and Age-friendly Culture in India and Germany" between Heidelberg University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the Indian Film Festival for Generations went into its second year after its successful initiation in Delhi in 2018. Its concept is based on the European Film Festival for Generations which was started in 2010 and is organized by the Institute of Gerontology at the Heidelberg University as an attempt to use the language of cinema to transfer images of active ageing and to build a bridge between academic research and the general public to discuss age-related topics. It aims at initiating an inter-generational dialogue about the challenges and opportunities resulting from demographic change and increasing life expectancy in Germany and India. While not shying away from discussing problematic and difficult issues of care and illness, the Film Festival is intended to promote an ideal of including elderly people in society and creating an age-friendly culture.
The 2019 Film Festival for Generations travelled to Delhi for the second time and celebrated its premiere in Mumbai. The local venue partners were the India Habitat Center, the Kamala Nehru College and Samvedna Senior Care in Delhi and the Goethe Institute in Mumbai. While the Head of the Science and Technology Section of the German Embassy, Philipp von Ritter, spoke at the opening ceremony of the Film Festival in Delhi, in Mumbai the representative of the Bundesbank, Peter Kern, delivered a welcome address on behalf of Germany's General Consulate in Mumbai. Martin Gieselmann (South Asia Institute) and Constanze Weigl-Jager (Institute for Gerontology), as well as Suboor Bakht (Heidelberg Centre South Asia) and Pablo Holwitt (Delhi Branch Office, South Asia Institute) represented Heidelberg University during the various events surrounding the Film Festival in Delhi and Mumbai. Furthermore, in Delhi the German delegation was joined by Matthias Roos of the Public Health Authority Frankfurt am Main and Deputy CEO of the European Film Festival for Generations who shared his personal experiences of establishing the Film Festival for Generations in Europe.Each film that was screened during the Film Festival was assigned a discussant who provided additional insights about the process of making the film or about the general topics addressed by the film. The discussants included film directors, actors, as well as experts and activists in the fields of gerontology, senior care, film studies and age-related therapy. The selection of films included German, American and Indian films that tackled various topics related to ageing, such as family dynamics, social expectations in regard to ageing, innovative therapy models for elderly people, as well as ways of coping with age-related diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease. All film screenings were well attended and spurred engaged and sometimes deeply personal and intimate conversations between visitors, discussants and the organizers of the Film Festival.
Based on the positive resonance that the expansion of the Film Festival for Generations to India has garnered so far, visions for the future of the Film Festival in India were also discussed. During a Workshop on "Fifty Ways to organize an Intergenerational Film Festival", several experts and multiplicators met to suggest possibilities of making the Film Festival for Generations a permanent event in India and reaching out to even wider audiences. Another Film Festival for Generations in India is planned for 2020.
Posted on 11 Mar 2020
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