Spandan Banerjee
Spandan Banerjee | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 2 April 1973 |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Education | Bachelor's degree, St Xavier's College, Kolkata |
| Occupation | Director/ Filmmaker |
| Parent(s) | Mr M.K Banerjee and Kabita Banerjee |
Spandan Banerjee is an Indian independent filmmaker. He is the Founder of Overdose Films Pvt. Ltd. He was born in Kolkata, and finished his undergraduate studies from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, India.
Career
[edit]His interest in art started early from being a young cartoonist for The Statesman in 1990's Kolkata to designing for the Satyajit Ray Society. He started his advertising career at Response India, Kolkata and subsequently BBDO and McCann, until he quit to make films under the banner of Overdose Films. He was one of the six shortlisted for the British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur Award in the SCREEN category.[citation needed] His other advertising work includes Horlicks, Incredible India, British High Commission, National Geographic Channel Films, Goethe Institute, Pratham, UNICEF and more. He has also directed video clips for the 'Tandanu' album featuring Shankar Mahadevan, Vishal Dadlani, Shubha Mudgal, Indian Ocean, Kumaresh, Grammy Award winner Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt and Selvaganesh.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
His independent films including the National Award-winning You Don't Belong, and To-Let (Best Doc IDSFFK 2013) have been highly acclaimed. His earlier film Beware Dogs (World Premiere IFFR 2008) was one of a kind and one of the first music documentaries from India.[7] His films have a distinct style and language and have often been compared to jazz in its form.[8][9][10]
Filmography
[edit]| Year | Film | Director | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Track2 | Yes | Yes | 6 mins. Official Selection: Festival Cine International de Barcelona, 2007 |
| 2006 | Thekey Pe Kya Kartey Ho? | Yes | Yes | 6 mins. Official Selection: VISCULT 2007, Finland, Girona Film Festival 2007, Spain & KARA Film Festival 2007–09, Pakistan |
| 2008 | Beware Dogs | Yes | Yes | World Premiere: International Film Festival, Rotterdam 2008. Off. Selection: Festival of International Films on Art (FIFA), Montreal 2008, Barcelona Asian Film Festival (BAFF), Barcelona 2008, Portobello Film Festival, London 2008, MIAAC 2008, New York |
| 2011 | You Don't Belong | Yes | Yes | 75 mins. "Special Jury" at the 59th National Films Awards, 2012, India; INDIAN PANORAMA at the 42nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI 2011), Goa; Special Jury at the 4th IDSFFK 2011, Kerala. US Premiere: New York Indian Film Festival, NY, 2011. You Don't Belong Film Festival, China 2012 |
| 2013 | To-Let | Yes | Yes | 65 mins. 'Best Long Documentary' at the 6th IDSFFK 2013, Kerala. USA Premiere: New York Indian Film Festival, NY, 2013 |
| 2015 | City Of Dark | Yes | Fiction Feature (85 mins. under post-production) | |
| 2015 | English India | Yes | (75 mins/ Doc) WORLD PREMIERE, HOTDOCS Toronto 2015, IDSFFK, Kerala 2015, Long list for nomination Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2015. |
Reception
[edit]You Don't belong is a 2011 music documentary that follows a popular 80's Bengali song known as traditional and locates the author of the song. Myth and memory, folk and copyright, home and migration are the larger narratives emerging from the journey of a song from the margins into the urban mainstream.
The song was first popularized during the emergence of Bengali bands interspersing rock and folk to capture contemporary displaced realities. Reproduced and distributed by the flourishing recording industry as representative of the folk traditions of Bengal. Traveling across known and remembered lands, following the unseen path of migration that music takes, You Don't Belong asks some important questions about the encounter between art and mass production, creation and ownership in a country of myriad folk and oral traditions.
The Jury citation of To-Let by IDSFFK states, much like a jazz jam, the film takes us on a journey through the plight of the modern urban nomad in search of a home in a modern-day Delhi. Drawing on a mosaic of all too familiar situations, the director creates a funny and poignant ballad that really grooves.
Rotterdam Film Festival calls Beware Dogs (2008) a poetic and exciting documentary on the contemporary music group Indian Ocean. The film depicts the creative struggle of four musicians who are together on their artistic journey, sharing their inner joy, fears, laughs, thoughts and putting it all in their songs. With a lyrical, rather slow pace, yet in a cinema vérité manner, the film shares with us the excitement and the inner battle of the process of creating music. [11][12][13][14][15] You Don't Belong is an exquisite black and white journey into nostalgia, myth and memory, folk and copyright, home and migration felt through a song.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]
References
[edit]- ^ "Indian Ocean finds new shores | Tehelka - Investigations, Latest News, Politics, Analysis, Blogs, Culture, Photos, Videos, Podcasts". 13 June 2017. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ 'Tandanu' (sneak preview) - Indian Ocean and Shankar Mahadevan, retrieved 21 September 2022
- ^ Canfield, David (17 March 2015). "'Raiders!' and 'Mavis!' Highlight Hot Docs 2015 Lineup". IndieWire. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ "International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala". Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
- ^ "Made in India". The Indian Express. 23 April 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ "To Let best long documentary". The Hindu. 12 June 2013.
- ^ "Beware Dogs | IFFR". iffr.com. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ Bhattacharya, Budhaditya (12 July 2013). "Home and the world". The Hindu. thehindu.
- ^ Ramnath, Nandini (20 April 2015). "Spandan Banerjee on his film English India: 'Language is the subtext of everything that surrounds us'". Scroll.in. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ "Spotlighting Diverse Films, Filmmakers at this Year's Hot Docs - New Canadian Media". newcanadianmedia.ca. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016.
- ^ "More than 'earnest' and 'real' - Himal Southasian". himalmag.com. October 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "'To Let' bags honour - The New Indian Express". newindianexpress.com. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Beware Dogs | Magic Lantern Movies LLP". magiclanternmovies.in. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Hot Docs Film Festival - English India". boxoffice.hotdocs.ca. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "International festival dedicates a section to Indian documentaries | world cinema | Hindustan Times". hindustantimes.com. 24 April 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Whose song is it anyway? | music | Hindustan Times". hindustantimes.com. 21 January 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Bengal shines on national screen - Times of India". The Times of India. timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 8 March 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Indian Institute for Human Settlements | To-Let". iihs.co.in. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ Pervaiz. "India EU Film Initiative - 37th Rotterdam Festival". iefilmi.eu. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "It's time to strike camp again: Shifting homes, shifting lives". sunday-guardian.com. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "International Film Festival of India". iffi.nic.in. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Music Inspired Director Spandan Banerjee to make Movies". pib.nic.in. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Canadian Movie Database - Northernstars.ca". northernstars.ca. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "We need to go back to our roots" (PDF). 30 November 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ "Viscult 2007 - The Festival of Visual Culture". pkey.fi. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
