Sa Karnali makes History in Documentary scene
Surpassing its own record of being the first documentary to be released at a theatre for regular shows, Sa Karnali through Dolpa is now set to cross another milestone. This is to be the first Nepali documentary to be successfully screened for 25 commercial screenings.
Initially planned for a weeklong exhibition at Kathmandu's Kumari Cinema, the documentary was further extended for another week by the Cinema operators – Vision Entertainment.
Nakim Uddin, Chairperson of the exhibiting company says – "The main thing here is people have liked it, and in addition it has not been a loss bearing engagement for us. This does open a scenario for commercial screening of non-fiction Nepali films in Nepal."
Released on 6th of October, the documentary was initially planned to be screened till 12th October. But due to the spontaneous response from the movie goers of Kathmandu, the screening has now been extended till 19th October.
Sa Karnali… a spontaneous visual documentation of the music video making process of a Nepathya song by the same name, also portrays other additional images and messages from Dolpa.
"This is a great moment for me, and even more, for all documentary makers and enthusiasts of not only Nepal but all around the world. I hope this will pave a new way for exhibiting documentaries which has otherwise been limited to festivals and private screenings," says Kiran Krishna Shrestha the maker of Sa Karnali.
Along with prospects, Sa Karnali has also brought out an issue for formalising documentaries in Nepal. As rules and regulation related to documentaries does not prevail under the law of the land – documentaries are compelled to follow rules which govern feature films production and exhibitions. "The main difference here is between fiction and non-fiction. How can the authorities tell us to pre-register the films with a pre-written script? It is simply not possible to have a pre-written script – at least for my type of documentaries," says Kiran – hinting towards the need to modify the regulations.
The screening of Sa Karnali… was even instructed to be stopped immediately by the Film Development Board, accusing it to be an illegal exhibition. However nepa~laya was successful in convincing the authorities to cooperate.
"The past two weeks has been very challenging for us – initially we were worried if people would come to watch it at all. And when people started coming in – we always had to worry if somebody from the authority would come and stop the screening." says Arpan Sharma of the production house – nepa~laya. "Whatever the case may be I am glad it has happened and this will lead us to a path of formalising documentaries in Nepal – in terms of regulation and even business." adds Arpan.
Come Thursday 6:00 PM, history is going to be written for Nepali documentaries. The 25th screening will happen for Sa Karnali.
"I wish to see all documentary enthusiasts attending this milestone show." says Kiran.
