MAMI’s year-round film programme goes digital due to the lockdown

The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) Mumbai Film Festival, popularly known as MAMI, has decided to make its year-round movie programme, which is one of its arms, go digital due to the lockdown. It will be an extension and not a replacement for the year-round programme and will be open to viewers across India.

The registration to the online programme will be free but users will have to pay a nominal fee to the filmmaker directly to watch each movie. Following this, the users will receive a link allowing them to watch the film for a limited period of time. The cost per ticket is Rs55. 

MAMI will be providing a platform to those films, which are not available for viewing elsewhere currently. 

“MAMI Year Round Programme Home Theatre is an unchartered and unique initiative. Our filmmakers and us are taking a punt and we request the support of our audience for the same. This is our way of bringing you fantastic titles that don’t have a home in a platform as yet. They are not accessible to anyone, which is tragic. Hopefully MAMI YRP (Year Round Programme) Home Theatre will fix this gap,” said Smriti Kiran, artistic director at MAMI on the festival’s Facebook page. 

Explaining the idea further, she told the daily, The Hindu, “The idea is to have filmmakers become theatre owners and bring their films to premiere in your homes. It empowers filmmakers and we help them find an audience not just in the city but across the country.” 

The online programme kicks off with Tanuja Chandra’s documentary, Aunty Sudha, Aunty Radha, which will be streamed on May 1. The film is about Chandra's two aunts, aged 86 and 93, who spend their last days together in Lahra, Uttar Pradesh.

The producer has decided to donate the entire amount generated from the screening for coronavirus relief efforts.