Dharamshala International Film Festival in collaboration with the Festival des 3 Continents’ Produire au Sud (PAS) launched the first edition of FilmLab South Asia in 2022. With this new undertaking, it hopes to take its support of regional independent filmmaking to the next level. Not only does PAS share with DIFF the same ideals of valuing and promoting independent cinema, its long experience in running training workshops around the world is exactly the kind of professional support, resource and network that filmmakers in South Asia can take advantage of and benefit from.
Ritu Sarin, the director of the Dharamshala International Film Festival, was one of the guests of the 20th anniversary of Produire au Sud in November 2021, in the frame of the 43rd Festival of 3 Continents. She shared the voice of the festival she’s been running for 11 years, and her intentions to partner soon with Produire au Sud workshop.
The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) was founded in 2012 by filmmakers and long-term Dharamshala residents Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam with the aim of promoting contemporary independent cinema in the Indian Himalayan region. As long-term residents of Dharamshala, they wanted to provide a non-partisan public space where Dharamshala’s diverse population could come together and interact with each other, drawn by the common language of cinema. Since then, DIFF has become one of India’s leading independent film festivals and its sphere of influence has spread across South Asia. One of DIFF’s key priorities has always been to find ways to support and encourage the development of cinematic talent and voices in South Asia, and over the years, it has organised various filmmaking workshops and mentorship fellowships for filmmakers from the region.
PAS Filmlab South Asia 2023 | 2nd edition
PAS Filmlab South Asia 2022 | 1st edition
Previous Edition in Kolkata
