Flashback: 2012

It didn’t take long for filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam — who had moved to Dharamshala — to realise that despite the town’s many cultural and religious events, it lacked something that focused on contemporary culture.

Having travelled to several international film festivals, the duo felt that starting a small festival in the mountain town — one centred on bringing good, independent films to their community — made perfect sense. Thus was born the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) in 2012. During its first edition, only 32 films were shown, and that too on DVD.

“Right from the beginning, we knew that what made film festivals special was the interaction between filmmakers and audiences. Through our network of filmmaker friends, we were able to invite ni

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