The International Portable Film Festival (IPFF), IPFF: coming soon to a portable device near you Forget all the high-flying, glitzy international film festivals Here's one that you can watch absolutely free and is completely portable

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IPFF: coming soon to a portable device near you
By Frederick Noronha, Indo-Asian News Service

Bangalore, July 11 (IANS) Forget all the high-flying, glitzy international film festivals. Here's one that you can watch "absolutely free" and is "completely portable".

The International Portable Film Festival (IPFF) calls itself the world's first completely portable film festival, existing exclusively for portable video devices including iPods, 3G phones, PlayStation Portables and other devices.

It is delivered through a video cast; so there are "no cinemas, no queues, no closed doors, no e-scalpers and no barriers to audiences seeing the films they want, when they want".

A total of 122 film entries have been received for IPFF 2006. The countries represented include Australia, the Netherlands, the US, Romania, Canada, India, Austria, Hungary, Britain, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

IPFF's Australian promoters are keen to see a wider participation from India.

The festival's managing director, Simon Goodrich, told IANS: "India is more than ready for the International Portable Film Festival. With over one million downloads per day to mobile phones, with the largest English-speaking audience in the world and the biggest film market, India is absolutely central to a festival like this."

He added: "We were very impressed with the way that content for portable devices is being developed and taken up by Indian audiences. We would love to collaborate with filmmakers there and we would love to move the IPFF to Mumbai or Delhi in the coming years."

Ayesha Madganvkar, an Indian student currently working as an intern at IPFF in Australia, said: "We're trying to contact filmmakers, the press, universities, magazines and others in India and tell them about the festival."

IPFF focuses on "precious little films" and "films that look good small". Its promoters are also interested in "films that give you glimpses into life from the oddest angles and the farthest corners of the globe".

Andrew Apostola and Goodrich, the creators of the festival, are known for their work with independent media in Australia and for establishing SYN FM, the world's largest youth-run radio station.

"It (telling stories through the portable medium is) really is a different way of viewing and the scope for exploration, experimentation and innovation is enormous," said the event organisers when asked what set them apart from the over 1,200 estimated film festivals held around the globe.

"Portable" film has been criticised for its "solitary practice" - for the most part, it is viewed alone, as an individual. But the organisers say people who own portable devices often "form part of a community and are united through the process of owning and using that device".

The audience is potentially huge. Even those without portable devices can participate.

The IPFF site portablefilmfestival.com will allow downloading of films directly to your computer or by subscribing to an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed that will continually update your film collection.

Films can be viewed in your preferred movie player (Winamp, Quicktime, Windows Media Player or other free software tools).