Protesting against censorship at the Mumbai International Film Festival, 175 Indian documentary filmmakers have announced a boycott of the festival to be held in February 2004.

The filmmakers have come under the banner of a campaign against censorship at MIFF 2004 following a decision by the organisers of the festival, the Films Division, to introduce a clause requiring Indian documentaries to be censored. Foreign films entered at the festival do not have to be censored.

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The filmmakers also decided to write to leading filmmakers worldwide asking them not to participate in the festival and seeking their support to condemn the MIFF action. The statement said it was strange that MIFF-2004 wants to do this while it managed seven previous editions of MIFF without this regulation.

'It is an accepted practice worldwide that film festivals are arenas of uninhibited and creative expression. No international festival of repute censors films,' the statement said.

The filmmakers said that since giving notice to the Films Division and the information and broadcasting ministry more than a month ago, the campaign has tried its best to keep channels of communication open with them, but barring one meeting with the joint secretary, films, and a "few stray" remarks by Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister, there has been no progress or communication.

Prasad had inaugurated the recently concluded International Festival of Reality Films and Forum on Broadcasting and Diversity, held in New Delhi by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust in collaboration with UNESCO and Doordarshan, where Indian films were screened without censorship certificates.

PTI

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