IndiEarth XChange: Defining The Way Forward
The second edition of IndiEarth XChange came to a spectacular close on Sunday 8th December after three days of intense conferences, workshops, showcase performances, screenings and think tank sessions between the Indian independent music, film and media industries, and delegates from developed and developing markets around the world. With over 180 international delegates and artists from countries such as France, Reunion Island, Australia, South Korea, UK, USA, Hong Kong, Germany, Portugal, Israel, Spain and Ireland, the XChange was a melting pot of ideas and insights for independent music & film related trade between India and the rest of the world.
It all began on Friday the 6th of December at The Park Hotel with a session by Sonya Mazumdar of EarthSync and Ankur Malhotra of Amarrass Records, throwing open a discussion on how to engage and interlink the three core components of India’s independent industry – Music, Media & Film. This session, coupled with a welcome address by Sonya Mazumdar and Sastry Karra (EarthSync), paved the way forward for the 3 days of XChange. Following this, Varun Desai, Karthick Iyer and Vasuda Sharma brought to light the challenges and impact of deep-rooted culture on contemporary music during their conference Mixed Culture Music: That Which is Not Pure. Growing the Space – Venues with speakers Khodadad Rustom Irani, Nikhil Barua, Arnaud Monnier, Fernando Sousa and Jean Noel Bigotti tapped into present models in Europe and explored the scope of adapting them to Indian venues and local conditions.
Manojna Yeluri and Atul Churamani had the delegates engaged in their discussion on the current Copyright and Artist Revenue scenario in India and the importance of artist’s awareness to protect their work. This session was followed by an interactive discussion on Radio by representatives – Nitin Rajan, Mahadevan Kalyanaraman, Rohan Sen and Kate Welsman – and its power as both the message-carrying medium and the message itself.
Didier Weiss conducted a hands-on workshop with affordable DIY tips and solutions on how to Set Up a Home Studio. Friday also saw the showcase of 4 handpicked films – A Dream Takes Wings (FDI, Gajanan Jagirdar), The Other Way (Aniket Dasgupta), Scattered Windows, Connected Doors (Roohi Dixit and Ziba Bhagwagar), Tyu’s Company (Reema Sengupta) and Rumblestrips (Dan Noyes, Robin Hauser Reynolds) – to a packed audience at The Screening Room.
The music showcases began at noon at the Out There Stage in the Park Hotel lobby with Bangalore based Kaya followed by renowned Classical vocalist Mahesh Vinayakram. The audience then reconvened at 8pm after the conferences and discussions to absorb evening showcases by Runa Rizvi, Mystik Vibes, Astro Black, Robot Koch, Tritonik, French Cowboy & The One, The Bicycle Days, Sky Rabbit and Hashback Hasish, bringing to a close day 1 of IndiEarth XChange.
Day 2 was initiated with an in depth look into the responsibility of artist managers by speakers Brian Dubb, Rishu Singh and Emmanuelle De Decker in The New Frontier of the Global Business of Music. A technique related film discussion soon followed with Miriam Chandy, Ayesha Sood, Arturo Calvete and Irantzu Lauhinfan on The Social Documentary – Making the Connect. The panel discussion – Urban Culture Journalism – with Mandovi Menon, Arjun S Ravi, Anuradha Ananth and Munbir Chawla – tried to understand urban culture and the ways it is often covered in different forms of media.
V.S. Kundu – Director, Films Division of India, addressed the gathering on the new wave of independent cinema and the FDI’s current and future involvement. This was followed by a discussion on Featuring the Shorts by Gitanjali Rao, Rajarshi Basu and Anirban Dutta that delved into short film making and current technologies being used. Vitor Belho then introduced us to WOMEX 2014 being held in Spain. Four Festivals of the World brought 4 big festival honchos – Alan Tweedie, Kwo-Kwan So, Arjun S Ravi, Jérome Galabert and Dro Kilndjian – together at the IndiEarth XChange shedding light on each of their prominent festivals.
The World Of Sampling by EarthMoments, a workshop on field and basic studio recording by Yotam Agam, Patrick Sebag and Yoav Rosenthal inspired budding audio-engineers. A rather essential workshop on The Artists Brand conducted by Sapna Bhavnani, Romuald Requena and Fabio Battistetti brought the artist’s image and stage appearance to light, with a discussion on its relevance to an artist’s persona.
Day 2 Films saw a wonderful audience turn out to watch Running for Jim (Dan Noyes, Robin Hauser Reynolds), Voice Over The Bridge (Ernest Hariyanto), Dina & Noel (Sivan Levy, Natalie Melamed), Sahel Calling (John Bosch), Printed Rainbow (Gitanjali Rao) and Tasher Desh (Q).
The Music Showcase began with Dayglocrazie and Amrit Rao at the Out There Stage followed by the evening showcases – TL Mazumdar ft Jivraj Singh, Anthony Dassan, Wild City Nights, Christine Salem, Business Class Refugees, Success, Frame/Frame & Psychorigid ft Audio Pervert.
Sunday (Day 3) at IndiEarth XChange commenced with Jody Ackland and Christian Allex conversing on how Independent Programmers approach their work. Story telling or Telling Stories got Divya Bhatia, Sudhir Misra, Israel Wysinger and Sudhish Kamath discussing hard hitting story telling, versus sensationalized depictions of current issues. Shazia Khan, Leena Manimekalai, Anamitra Roy and Hemant Gaba recounted their journey as filmmakers, challenges faced with funding, as they retold production anecdotes in their session on The Real Picture.
Arturo Calvete and Ramakrishna D provided tips on working with video during their workshop Editor’s Secret: Creating A Story from Raw Footage. Ed DeGenaro, renowned music producer and guitarist, took his audience though various methods of Sounding Good on a Budget. Followed suit was an attention-grabbing workshop by revered guitar maestro Prasanna on Tailoring Performances to Connect with Your Audience.
Ayesha Sood sifted through footage while discussing with the audience the importance of Quality Video. Ableton Live a hands-on workshop by Nucleya, explored the software’s potential for live performance and recording.
The workshops came to an end with SoundLab artists presenting individual tracks created in an exclusive 4-day workshop with TL Mazumdar and Robot Koch.
4 Films were screened on day 3 – Baavra Mann (Jaideep Varma), The Comic Book Palace (Felipe Jorge), Ravi Shankar (FDI – Pramod Pati) and Dead Cat (Stefan Georgiou).
Sunday’s music showcases brought many talented artists to the forefront as eager audiences lapped up every showcase with enthusiasm. AuroTejas Hemsell presented four Odissi dances at the Out There Stage, followed by ChandBibi and the Waste Candidates. The evening showcases saw the likes of PINKNOISE, Ravi Iyer, Jayanti Kumeresh, Alex Sorres, Nucleya, Shaa’ir+Func, J.Viewz and Skrat as they delivered out one tight set after another to a lively audience that showed no signs of ending the night.
With IndiEarth XChange coming to a close, we would like to thank all our national and international delegates, artists and participants for contributing to the success of this year’s event.
A special thanks to our partners and associates who joined hands to make it possible.
To participate in IndiEarth XChange 2014 either as Musician, Filmmaker or Media, register yourself on www.IndiEarth.com. For more information on IndiEarth XChange click here. Alternatively you may email support@indiearth.com.
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