Paritosh Mehta, an eminent commissioning agent for National and International documentary filmmaking from Canada, says he respects many Indian short filmmakers and finds the documentary scene in the country very vibrant.
"I think the Indian documentary scene is quite vibrant .I have been on various websites, spoken to various documentary filmmakers over here. Ultimately the documentary scene is universal. We may live in Canada, you may live in India but we all want to tell good stories. India has a great background in telling stories. And I think they are very good and I personally revere them," Mehta said.
Mehta also pointed out that the main thing that is plaguing documentary makers around the world is finding finances and once that problem is solved, the industry would actually do very well.
"I think to look at where the documentary scene is going from here is still early to say. The whole industry is evolving. The most important part is the funding. And that is a problem. Documentary filmmakers in India are looking for funding so are others in other countries. It is a universal problem," Mehta said on the sidelines of IFFI.
"Hopefully we can find a solution to keep the documentary strand alive. That is my own wish I hope we find a long time solution to financing the documentary films," he added.
Mehta is the director for independent production at OMNI Television, a division of Rogers Media Inc in Canada. Omni is a multi-cultural channel, which works with minority groups in the country. They make films in different languages.
"Omni broadcasts programmes in over 40 languages. Canada is a country of immigrants... We speak more than a dozen languages. The main language is English and French but many ethnic communities have programme in their own languages," Mehta said.
