Irish Tiger Film Screens In India For The First Time
The internationally acclaimed Irish documentary BROKEN TAIL will screen in India for the first time at the CMS Vatavaran Environment and Wildllife Film Festival in Delhi.
The festival is the leading one of its kind in India, with over 20,000 delegates and it is the first time that an Irish film has been invited to screen at it. The film which was directed by Colin Stafford-Johnson and produced by Crossing the Line Films filmed in India over a two year period and has broadcast across the world but never before in India.
Last month BROKEN TAIL won the Grand Teton at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival - The Grand Teton Award, which is regarded as the biggest award in the natural history film industry. It saw off competition from over 500 of the best international wildlife films, including the BBC Life and Human Planet series, to win the overall award at this prestigious festival.
Responding to the event, film producer and co-director John Murray said "We are really excited about bringing Broken Tail to India for the first time. The film has screened across the world on channels such as BBC, PBS and CBC, but it has long been our hope to bring it to an Indian audience. We hope that this festival screening will help us secure a nationwide broadcast in India."
Broken Tail was funded by Bord Scannán na hEireann/ the Irish Film Board, RTÉ, along with CBC, SWR, ZDF, ARTE, MEDIA, Nature for WNET and BBC. The screening in India is taking place with the support of Culture Ireland.
About the Film
One of the world's leading tiger cameramen travels through India on a personal pilgrimage, piecing together the extraordinary journey of Broken Tail - one of the planet's most famous wild tigers. Irish Cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson spent almost 600 days filming Broken Tail & his family for some of the finest tiger documentaries ever made. Broken Tail was the most charismatic tiger cub he'd ever seen in Ranthambhore, one of India's premier wild tiger reserves. Impossibly cute, he gamboled and posed for Colin's camera through the first years of his life. But then without warning, Broken Tail disappeared. He abandoned his sanctuary and went on the run, disappearing into the wilds of rural India for almost a year. He was barely three years old.
Why did this young tiger leave Ranthambhore National Park, supposedly one of India's best-protected tiger reserves? How could he have survived in rural India for so long? What does his death reveal about the fate of the world's last tigers?
On a spectacular odyssey across Rajasthan, Colin travels by horseback retracing Broken Tail's last journey, gathering clues as to his route and behaviour, exploring why he abandoned his home and above all - revealing important truths about India's last wild tigers.
About the Festival
CMS VATAVARAN is India's homegrown International Festival of Environment and Wildlife Films. The reforms introduced in India in the aftermath of 1991 economic crisis led to the beginning of the era of liberalization, privatization and globalization. During the succeeding decade India underwent a major economic transformation marked by increased FDI resulting in high economic growth. However uncontrolled and unsustainable growth, industrialisation and urbanisation resulted in acute environmental fall-outs, affecting millions of people in different parts of the country, particularly in tribal and rural areas. It was in this background that the idea of CMS VATAVARAN, India's only environment and wildlife film festival and forum took wings. "¨"¨Initiated in the year 2002 by CMS(http://www.cmsindia.org/), the festival and forum is aimed towards enhancing understanding, appreciation and shift in attitudes towards the natural world and to increase space for environmental issues in mass media and evolve a nationwide environment outreach framework.