Talking movies

Up close and personal with Dubai-based Premjit Ramachandran, founder of an art film club

Having fun is serious business for this man, to the extent that he started his own art film club when he did not find one in Dubai. His emails and messages (in response to the request for an interview) are sprinkled with humour and wit.

Meeting him in person only adds to the belief that the soft-spoken exterior masks a gifted mind that's continually brimming with thoughts, ideas and dreams. In all his 27 years, he has managed to pack plenty of punch from different fields. His personality reminds one of a 200-pack of Staedtler colour pencils – all the basic colours, but with many more shades.

Premjit Ramachandran is the founder of Buena Vista Film Club (serious art cinema fans can join the club), self-taught web whiz, lead guitarist-singer-composer of the progressive grunge band 'if' and presently an interactive designer for The Studio Dog, a design studio in Media City.

He prefers to be called Prem. Here is his story.

"I was a member of a film club in Bangalore and when I came to Dubai in 1999 to join my parents, I looked around but did not find anything interesting, so I decided to set up my own club. It took me five years to build a good collection, including films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Fellini, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa and others.

"I started by creating a brand name for the club – designing logos, posters, and of course, a website. The name Buena Vista Film Club is in reference to a movie Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders. I sent out emails, put up posters around town and spread the word. We started out with 14 members in the first month. Now we are a core group of six who are on the same wavelength. There's Kristine (Norwegian, screenwriter), Nicholas (French-Norwegian, photographer), Mark (English, writer), Allison (American, teacher) and Layth (Iraqi, creative director) and myself.

"We usually meet at my place every alternate Sunday. Sometimes we go to see a film in the theatre, recently we saw Punch Drunk Love. Then we critique the film, try and understand particular scenes, share opinions and discover new interpretations. We try to go for a range of movies by balancing art movies with feel-good films like Amelie, which I thought was technically good," he says.

The members are quite serious about their 'get-together'. For instance, once Nicholas was working round the clock and had not slept for two days. But despite his busy schedule, he took out four hours to make sure he did not miss a screening. He says, "I have been in Dubai for 12 years and it's nice to know people who share a similar interest in cinema. I can always watch these films on my own, but it's the discussions, the human contact with like-minded people that I really look forward to."

Says Mark, "I like the Buena Vista Film Club because it offers an opportunity to see films that are outside mainstream cinema, and older films too, and to discuss them afterwards with people who have interesting perspectives on them. It's also a good opportunity to meet creative people who are trying to make things happen here in Dubai."

Prem plans much in advance before showtime. Such dedication is directed towards everything he does, not only the running of the film club.

This bachelor of commerce, postgraduate and an MBA from Cardiff, Wales, UK, is passionate about art, design and movies. His site 100hands.net is his "aesthetic test bed". The website was reviewed on reputed design portals such as k10k.net, designiskinky.com, surfstation.lu and linkdup.com.

He says, "With 100hands I have tried to explore cutting edge design and typographical styles. On the projects I have done for 100hands, I am most pleased (artistically) with criminal english (criminalenglish.100hands.net), a website I designed for a writer friend of mine called JP whose work I think is on another plane.

"I asked him to provide me with 10 pieces and with that I created criminal english which, in effect, is 10 pieces, 10 visual interpretations."

A visit to 100hands brings up another aspect of this web expert. During his stint with the ad agency epromoseven he shot some simple things and simpler things (simplethings.100hands.net and simpler.100hands.net).

He explains, "I tried to bring out the beauty from common things we see everyday like the kettle, doorknob, stairs, battery charger and laptop.

"I didn't have enough with simple things," adds Prem, "hence I went and shot simpler things,' he adds, "because we moved to new offices and there were a bunch of other things surrounding me which I couldn't resist but click."

Talking about his now defunct band 'if' (idle foundation), he says, "We were four jobless guys who teamed up to create music and though it sounds clichéd, we fused Indian Carnatic with avant garde grunge. We recorded two CDs for private circulation and would regularly play for Freedom Jam held once a month in Bangalore. I have uploaded the band's music, downloadable and free for all on if.100hands.net. Here I have experimented with line drawings and used the people in the band as the navigators."

He likes the way visual communication impacts culture and society. The development of the global culture. At the moment, he is working on "Disembodiment: a visual commentary on maps".

"I am trying to create an abstract interpretation of elements of the world maps. I have completed renditions of Japan, the U.S., South America, Scandinavia and India.

"I would probably end up with about nine or 12 pieces which I would then print and frame and also create a website to showcase them with some motion graphics and sound," he explains.

Why disembodiment? "Because I have tried to free the soul of 'maps' from its physical body. I am also working on a script for a movie I will make one day. I will call it 'End'."

Like they say, the end can also be seen as the beginning for something new, and for Prem surely it will be yet another road less-travelled.


Buena Vista Film Club
- Members meet every alternate Sunday.
- Open to people willing to explore the intensity and depth of art cinema.
- To become a member, visit www.100hands.net and email Prem a list of your five favourite films and why you like them.
- The club's next screening is of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. It will be held today at 7.00pm.

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