Just for publicity?
The Hindu
Online art festivals short-change the creators, who go penniless
The pandemic has become an era of online festivals of films, dance, and music. An ex-colleague and good friend, who is an actor and model, rang me up last week. He wanted me to watch a short film that he had directed with his daughter, a theatre activist and software engineer, as the associate director.
Through arresting moments, the film narrates the chagrin of a middle-class technology professional working from home in quarantine. She is a single parent of a girl child and taking care of her widowed mother of unsound mind.
While passing my feedback, I suggested sending it to some international festivals. “Yes, the producer is sending it to three festivals but not to all those prominent in social media,” my friend said. “Do you know that many of such festivals charge an entry fee ranging from $500 to $1,000?”
The fear of being caught for traffic rule violation has indeed compelled many two-wheeler riders to wear helmets. But one cursory look at riders at any traffic junction in Bengaluru shows that more than half the riders have on their heads non-standard helmets, designed solely to evade the eye of law, with little concern for the safety of their own heads.
When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Beijing promised to retain the city’s Western-style civil liberties for 50 years. However, since the introduction of the 2020 law, Hong Kong authorities have severely limited free speech and assembly under the rubric of maintaining national security.