Film, mon amour

After watching the news of Kerala being torn apart by the recent floods, Frederique Lien Vanessa, at her home in Toulouse, grieved for the state and even decided to donate something for the distressed. Her care for the country, especially South India, is not something that can be described in words. Frederique’s love story with the country started with her chancing upon Indian movies.

Her fascination for India and its cinema took her to a bigger level when she co-founded Festival des Cinémas Indiens de Toulouse or Toulouse Indian Film Festival. Now the chief selector of the festival, she is living her dream. “Indian films face a big misunderstanding in France. A very big majority of the audience and the film industry don’t know about Indian films at all though you read and watch it on international media. But still the French do not know much about India, especially contemporary India,” she comments.

An ardent follower of world films, she happened to see a lot of Asian, especially Indian movies. “Thus I knew a lot about India and its culture. I want to share with the audience the infinite richness of Indian cinema, to show them Indian cinema is not only about Satyajit Ray (a lot of people know about him there) and the many directors and films that deserve to be screened in France,” she says how the festival was born.    

Frederique believes that Indian cinema has so many aspects that qualify for worldwide releases. France, known for its realistic and masterly films and film makers, have a big market for Bollywood, but Frederique says that the French, especially from cities like Toulouse and Marseille, need to watch more Indian movies than Paris. “It is a big annoyance for us that most of films selected in our film festival will never be screened except during the film festival. Very often, spectators ask us to organise new screenings. This is a very challenging project, the kind of projects nobody wants to believe in, I guess. But I decided to embark on this new journey to promote contemporary Indian films and show the variety and richness of Indian film industries all over France.”  

This year’s festival was in April and she has already begun the selection process for the next edition. “Each year, we try to select films that appeal to the French audience and the ones dubbed to French. Our aim is to promote Indian films and showcase the variety of movies. I keep this in mind while watching films and also check if those were released in France. Very few Indian films have a French release,” she explains. Apart from the festival, there is a huge community that follows Indian cinema and culture, thanks to the festival. Now the festival has completed six years and attracts a lot of spectators. Frederique is a big fan of South Indian movies, especially Tamil and Malayalam films. “Besides cinema, I have a lot of interest in literature, plays and photography. I wish I could read literature from different languages of India. I also have a project in mind — a documentary about India,” she concludes.