Father Gaston Roberge, considered the doyen of film studies in Calcutta, died on Wednesday. He was 85 and suffering from age-related-ailments.
The Jesuit priest-turned-film academic from Montreal, Canada, reached Calcutta in 1961, and the city became his home.
He founded Chitrabani, a centre for film studies, with the help of Satyajit Ray, in 1970 as an extension service of St Xavier’s College, Calcutta, and remained its director till 1996.
He taught in the film studies department of St Xavier’s College. He was the founder-director of the UGC’s Audio Visual Research Centre, which later became Electronic Multi Media Research Centre under St Xavier’s College.
Father Roberge lived on the college campus. “He had not been keeping well for the past few years… he was living at the infirmary for priests,” a member of the college’s former students’ association said.
He had told this newspaper earlier that the first Indian film he saw was the Apu Trilogy in New York on the eve of his journey to India. “I was very impressed, particularly with Pather Panchali,” he had said.
He had done his Masters in theatre arts (film) at the University of California in Los Angeles.
“With the passing away of Father Gaston Roberge, the Jesuits lost a noble companion who served the Society of Jesus for 64 years and a guru of film theory, who was confident of India's potential in the area of film, art, culture and media,” Father Dominic Savio, principal of St Xavier’s College, said.
He was associated with the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Calcutta, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi, and Calcutta and Jadavpur universities among other institutions.
Father Roberge conducted several discourses in various countries on the films of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, with whom he had the best of academic exchanges. He was also an expert on Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein. He did his research on Eisenstein in Moscow on a Canadian scholarship.
Father Roberge’s funeral will take place at Dhyan Ashram near Joka on Friday at 11am.
