Like many other websites, Google.com is offering directors instead of distributors the opportunity to show off their babies. One of them, Ben Rekhi, was interviewed last week by Rediff.com.
But as the traditional means of film distribution are dwindling, I believe that embracing online technology is the future for independent filmmakers. The Internet will revolutionise the film industry just as it has the music industry.
That is a really interesting point. Rekhi has already produced and directed two movies that were available online, so he must know what he is talking about. I am just worried about such a prediction.
The essence of what is called Cinema has something to do with a large obscure room, where people go and sit, in order to watch the projection of a certain amount of image per second. That's cinema; you have to go out, put a rain coat on if it is raining, and set up an appointment with your friends if you can't stand being alone. It requires a certain amount of energy and good will.
If the future of B-list movies is dependent upon computer addicts watching them alone in front of their flat screen, that's pretty sad. It's sad because cinema is not a comfortable art, there is no break to check your e-mails or go to the restroom. Cinema is about fighting with your neighbour for the right to the armrest and with your bladder when watching a 3 hour movie.
Internet did not revolutionize the music industry, it just added a new medium. If there are not beheddings there is no revolution. Music majors still exist and still make a lot of money. Rekhi's revolution is about the 21st century music-lover or film buff's behaviour.
As Walter Benjamin said in The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility, the art amateur is no longer taking the time to appreciate the work of art. You can put millions of mp3s onto your Ipod but how many of them will you really perceive and assess?
Surely, more people will see Rekhi's movies but sadly, because of the medium he is using, how many of them will really see it as a piece of art rather than an object of consumption?
