Now on VOD via Amazon Video:
ORIGINAL COPY
Directors:
Georg Heinzen and Florian Heinzen-Ziob
Premiere:
Hot Docs 2015
Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, Vancouver, Leeds, Yamagata Doc, Mumbai, Fantastic Fest, Split, Indian/South Asian fests in San Francisco, Florida, The Hague, and Stuttgart
About:
Mumbai’s last film poster painter struggles to maintain his craft in a changing world.
Mumbai movie theatre Alfred Talkies has seen better days. Dwindling audiences and changing tastes have put the future of the cinema in jeopardy. Behind the scenes is Sheikh Rehman and his small team of craftsmen, who maintain an art studio within the Alfred, where the compose and produce the colorful, lurid movie poster paintings which promote the Bollywood cinema on offer at the theatre. The father and son filmmaking team observe Rehman at work as he explains the science of his design, which involves copying actor photographs in a massive scale, supplemented by action shots to tempt potential viewers; schools his young protegé; and reckon with an uncertain future. The wistful result is at once a portrait of a dying institution and its artisans, as well as a love letter to film and to cinema-going.
what (not) to doc 