In September 2005 while expending its activity Uttar Pradesh unit of Jan Sanskriti Manch decided to experiment with film screenings. In its natural progression in the year 2006 for the very first time in the history of Gorakhpur we made an attempt to organize a festival of films from peoples’ contribution. We showed almost 20 films including short films, animation, documentaries and full length feature films. After screening of Anand Patwardhan’s film “War and Peace” we conducted a discussion session anchored by a panel of 4 people. More than 100 people participated in the discussion which lasted for 45 minutes. Around 4000 people enjoyed the screenings in the festival. At least 500 people from surrounding small towns participated in the festival. First year we dedicated our festival to the theme of Resistance in Cinema and clubbed it with 75th year of Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom. Jan Sanskriti Manch, Expression- Gorakhpur Film Society, Peoples’ Forum and PUHR (Peoples Union for Human Rights) were the main organizers of the festival. It was solely financed by individual contributions. We also released a festival brochure. From next year i.e. in 2007 the idea of organizing independent film festival really picked up and we succeeded in repeating it for the first time in Allahabad (April 2007) and Bhilai (May 5-6, 2007). After that it became a continuous journey. A brief journey of Cinema of Resistance is as follows:
Year 2008
3rd Gorakhpur Film Festival, 23 to 26 February
1st Bareilly Film Festival, 7-8 June 2008
1st Lucknow Film Festival, 13-14 September, 2008
Year 2009
4th Gorakhpur Film Festival, 3 to 6 February 2009
2nd Lucknow Film Festival, 11 to 13 September, 2009
1st Nainital Film Festival, 7-8 November 2009
2nd Bhilai Film Festival, 13 to 15 November 2009
1st Patna Film Festival, 25 to 27 December 2009
Year 2010
5th Gorakhpur Film Festival, 4 to 7 February 2010
3rd Lucknow Film Festival, 8 to 10 October, 2010
2nd Nainital Film Festival, 29 to 31 October, 2010
2nd Patna Film Festival, 4 to 6 December 2010
Year 2011
6th Gorakhpur Film Festival, March 23 to 27, 2011
1st Indore Film Festival, April 16-17, 2011
1st Ballia Film Festival, September 10-11, 2011
4th Lucknow Film Festival October 21 to 23, 2011
3rd Nainital Film Festival, October 30 to 31 and November 1, 2011
3rd Patna Film Festival, December 2 to 4, 2011
1st Allahabad Film Festival, December 6 to 8, 2011
Till now we have successfully organized 22 film festivals without a single sponsorship. In all these festivals some of important name of cinema, art and literature have actively participated. They are Arundhati Roy, Uma Chakraborti, MS Sathyu, Shaji N Karun, Girish Kasarvalli,Saeed Mirza, Kundan Shah, Anand Patwardhan, Ashok Bhowmik, Anand Swarop Verma, Mangalesh Dabral, Viren Dangwal, Sanjay Kak, Saba Deewan, Yousuf Saeed, Megnath, Biju Toppo, Ajay Bhardwaj, Ladli Mukhopadhay, Anupama Srinivasan, Surya Shankar Dash, Ananaya Chatterjee, Gibby Zobel, Loknath Goswami, Devndra Raj Ankur, Kaluram Bamania, Zahoor Alam, Santosh Jha to name a few.