Open Source Movie Making - Desi Ishtyle

Films in the "tambu"

The past few days there's this being buzz generated by the Puri film festival. Most of the movie are shown in makeshift tents, or "tambus" as they are referred to back home. Reminds me of the days as a kid back in Mumbai when they screened the latest hits on projector and screen in makeshift tents during Ganesh Chaturti.

From BBC:

There are no entry forms, selection procedures, competitions, juries, awards, bureaucracies. There are simply a lot of films to be shown.

Bring Your Own Film Festival is an innovative event held on the sandy beaches of Puri in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. It has been drawing droves of filmmakers from home and abroad.

Apparently any dude (or dudette) can show up with their movie and more than likely it will be screened. This is the third year for the festival and it's beginning to attarct some big names from the movie industry. Another question on everyone's mind. How does one ensure the quality of the movies?

From BBC:

Festival enthusiasts have their rationale.

"'India makes about 900 films a year and not even two make it to [festivals like] Cannes. Does it mean that the rest of the films are bad? For a festival in which anybody can participate, a couple of poorly-made films are a risk one has to take," says one.

After all most movies are bound to be better than the countless D- grade Mithun movies churned out by Bollywood year after year anyway.

Image of the day

(Image and Caption Courtesy: BBC News)

US marines work in an international rescue team on Leyte island in the Philippines where some 1,000 people are feared dead following a mudslide.

For all the bad rep, that the US armed forces earn because of the current political situation, they do some good work too!

VP: Shooting was based on faulty intelligence

CHENEY SAYS SHOOTING OF FELLOW HUNTER WAS BASED ON FAULTY INTELLIGENCE

Believed Shooting Victim Was Zawahiri, Veep Says

Vice President Dick Cheney revealed today that he shot a fellow hunter while on a quail hunting trip over the weekend because he believed the man was the fugitive terror mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Mr. Cheney acknowledged that the man he sprayed with pellets on Saturday was not al-Zawahiri but rather Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old millionaire lawyer from Austin, blaming the mix-up on "faulty intelligence."

"I believed I had credible intelligence that al-Zawahiri had infiltrated my hunting party in disguise with the intent of spraying me with pellets," Mr. Cheney told reporters. "Only after I shot Harry in the face and he shouted 'Cheney, you bastard' did I realize that this intelligence was faulty."

Moments after Mr. Cheney's assault on Mr. Whittington, Mr. al-Zawahiri appeared in a new videotape broadcast on al-Jazeera to announce that he was uninjured in the vice president's attack because, in his words, "I was in Pakistan."

An aide to the vice president said he believed that the American people would believe Mr. Cheney's version of events, but added, "If he was going to shoot any of his cronies right now it's a shame it wasn't Jack Abramoff."

At the White House, President George W. Bush defended his vice president's shooting of a fellow hunter, saying that the attack sent "a strong message to terrorists everywhere."

"The message is, if Dick Cheney is willing to shoot an innocent American citizen at point-blank range, imagine what he'll do to you," Mr. Bush said.

Elsewhere, aviator Steve Fossett completed his three-day journey around the globe, setting a world record for wasting both time and money.

"Shikari Shambu" Dick Cheney

"Late Show with David Letterman," CBS:

• "Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It's Dick Cheney."
• "But here is the sad part — before the trip Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy's request for body armor."
• "We can't get Bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney."
• "The guy who got gunned down, he is a Republican lawyer and a big Republican donor and fortunately the buck shot was deflected by wads of laundered cash. So he's fine. He took a little in the wallet."
  

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," NBC:

• "Although it is beautiful here in California, the weather back East has been atrocious. There was so much snow in Washington, D.C., Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fat guy thinking it was a polar bear.
• "That's the big story over the weekend. ... Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, a 78-year-old lawyer. In fact, when people found out he shot a lawyer, his popularity is now at 92 percent."
• "I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, 'Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?'"
• "Dick Cheney is capitalizing on this for Valentine's Day. It's the new Dick Cheney cologne. It's called Duck!"
  

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Comedy Central:

• "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt ... making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, (was) shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird."
• "Now, this story certainly has its humorous aspects. ... But it also raises a serious issue, one which I feel very strongly about. ... moms, dads, if you're watching right now, I can't emphasize this enough: Do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulations they're trying to get lifted — it's just not worth it."
  

"Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," CBS:

• "He is a lawyer and he got shot in the face. But he's a lawyer, he can use his other face. He'll be all right."
• "You can understand why this lawyer fellow let his guard down, because if you're out hunting with a politician, you think, 'If I'm going to get it, it's going to be in the back.' "
• "The big scandal apparently is that they didn't release the news for 18 hours. I don't think that's a scandal at all. I'm quite pleased about that. Finally there's a secret the vice president's office can keep."
• "Apparently the reason they didn't release the information right away is they said we had to get the facts right. That's never stopped them in the past."

Sixer for today

6. Thank god my plane was delayed by 5 hours in Mumbai. As a result of that, I got a direct connection from Paris to Atlanta instead of going through New York City and getting caught in the great blizzard of 2006.
5. Customer service ends when you cross the US border. The same damn airline I flew with had crappy customer service in Mumbai and even worse in Paris.
4. Mumbai will soon be a city of either highrises or slums, nothing in between.
3. Musharraf complimented Dhoni's locks. This is newsworthy.
2. "Rang de Basanti" was an excellent movie with a great soundtrack. Looks like they ran out of money at the end. Ending could've been better.

and finally......

1. Jetlag sucks!!