Sapna Bhavnani talks about her visit to the Wench Film Festival, horror genre and more.
Sapna Bhavnani, talking about the third edition of Wench Film Festival, said that they started giving agency exclusively to horror films.
The 3rd edition of Wench Film Festival, India’s first horror film festival, will for the first time physically showcase films involving BIWOC, LGBTQ+ women and non-binary filmmakers apart from virtual screenings. Founded by celebrity hairstylist-turned-filmmaker Sapna Bhavnani, the festival will open with the award-winning Mexican film Hucera: The Bone Woman, directed by Michelle Garza Saver, and conclude with The Nightmare, directed by Alice Wadding.
In an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, Sapna Bhavnani shares her excitement about her film festival. He shared, “We are very excited for our first day to have Anvita Dutt coming and delivering the opening speech. That would be really cool. I really can’t think of a better speaker to kickstart with. We have some great movies for today. I am very excited about the screening. This time we didn’t have too many panels but we did have a very good panel with Vishal Furia who I am also moderating. It should be a lot of fun. And of course, we have the Indian premiere of Aarti Kadav’s sci-fi feature The Astronaut and His Parrot starring Ali Fazal and Megha Ramaswamy, which I am very excited about. That would be pretty cool.”
Sapna Bhavnani further revealed what is in store for film lovers who will be gracing the Venche Film Festival. “As a founder, every film is great and beautiful for me. But I think if there is a writer then he should not miss Kaizad Gustad’s writing workshop. If someone does, that would be great. And secondly, because no one gets the opportunity to meet Mr. Vikram Bhatt, so to have a masterclass by the talented man himself, if you’re a horror fan or just a fan in general, So this is a very rare opportunity for you to learn from him,” he said.
“I would suggest not to miss it. Tomorrow, Kaizad will do a writing workshop with a group, then he will conduct a live storytelling and writing session. He would get an idea from one person, and get another idea from another person That’s how the story goes and that’s how he’ll teach you to live. And Vikram will talk about the genre and place in India that he specializes in.”
Explaining why the horror genre is so underutilized despite having a dedicated fan base, Sapna said, “I feel there is no dearth of talent in our country. But this is also the fault of the manufacturer. If everyone is looking for commercial success and if you watch horror then it will be a slapstick horror comedy. And those are the ones we get. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of producers or big studios that don’t really support short films. It’s a big shortcoming.”
“Speaking in a global context, you have horror specific platforms like Shudder that take the genre to their consumers. Even if you look at the production houses, take America for example, they are really investing so much money. And they are massive. For example A24. I think there is no better production house than this. Check out the projects they have selected. They really take chances on very different stories. We need something like this here. We don’t want weak stories and want to make them that way.”
Sapna Bhavnani emphasizes that there is much more to the horror genre than just scares. “There are many nuances. If you have anything to do with social change, horror is the best platform. Look at Jordan Payde, he’s told so many stories of social change through horror. It’s the best way. So somehow we Haven’t dealt with this well in India but we hope to change that. We have an open pitch on Sundays where 6-7 people will get a chance to pitch their stories and get feedback. Hopefully next year By then we will have India’s first horror market. That’s my plan as a horror filmmaker, that’s the only way it can change that. That’s the goal, by next year to have a horror market that can take people from all over the world We bring in people who are dedicated to the genre. We don’t want someone just because of their big name. We’re very genre specific. If you look at our guests, it’s very genre specific.”
The festival will screen 23 films in competition. The films will be screened under three different categories Blood Thirsty (more than 40 minutes), Dwarves (10 to 40 minutes) and Elves (less than 10 minutes). The jury, which will judge three different categories, will include Annick Mahnert and Shari Frilot (Blood Thirty), Alexander Heller-Nicholas (Dwarves) and Namrata Joshi (Elves).
Sapna Bhavnani also shared a few things about her next film Bearlike Man, which she is producing under her production house, Venture Films. “I’m writing it in the Sundance Collab Lab and it’s really amazing. It’s horror, with a little gore. These are the two modes that will be in it. It does a lot. I think anyone being a woman in India would relate. Also, how sons are treated like gold in our country and who is responsible for this as a mother. That’s why we need to take responsibility for our upbringing. So this is the story of a mother who can go to any extent to make her son better.”
The physical screening will take place at Harkat Studio and Ved Factory from March 17-20, while the virtual screening will be held from March 10 to 20, 2023.
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