Medium beyond words

Art is not natural. It is made and developed by man. We have to learn and understand art if we want to appreciate it. Cinema is a modern art as it cannot be made without the help of machine, Science, and Technology, said Shri Sudhir Nandgaonkar, General Secretary of Film Societies of India, Mumbai (FFSI). He was speaking as a resourse person on the occasion of a film appreciation workshop conducted by the Department of French and Francophone studies, Goa University on 14th of January. Shri Nandagaonkar further said that it took 30 years for cinema to develop as an art form. Initially it was called ‘marvel of the century’. Cinema is the medium beyond words. Cinema is based on images. The monopoly of words was taken over by the monopoly of images. After the discovery of moving images the tyranny of words was over. The language of images is the language beyond words and to understand the language of images is film appreciation.

I was very happy to have attended this workshop. I would say that instead of me attending this workshop I was somehow made to attend it. First of all even when the notice was put weeks ago, I just happened to read it while going for the class on the same day. In the class I was thinking whether I should bunk the lecture. Fortunately sir came late that day. On coming to class he said that both the lectures for the day were cancelled on an account of singing competition organized by Goa University and a 2 day seminar to be organized by the department of Sociology. I was still wondering whether I should go for the workshop as the last date of application was over long back. I decided to take a chance. Just then a friend of mine exclaimed “hey Preeti, don’t go ya we’ll go for singing competition…”After hearing that I came to the conference hall where the workshop was being conducted.

The workshop concluded after watching a film “Children of heaven” and discussion on it.