This is for the first time that G. Prashant Kumar of Dendukuru village is viewing international cinema.
A diehard fan of Junior NTR and Mahesh Babu, he is amused with the variety of genres that the 17th International Children's Film Festival of India has to offer. Attending the festival is a dream for him and for his classmate of Zilla Parishad Secondary School in Khammam district.
Braving long road journeys from remote parts of the State scores of children from government schools travelled to the city to be a part of the film festival.
“This year we wanted to ensure that 50 per cent of the children attending the film festival were from government schools across the State. The idea was to give the children in the villages an opportunity to watch international films made for them and ignite their minds,” says B.Venkatesham, Commissioner, Information & Public Relations Department and MD Andhra Pradesh State Film, TV & Theatre Development Corporation Ltd.
Interaction
The initiative saw children from Nalgonda, Khammam, Adilabad and other districts queuing up in front of Dreamland, Magicland and Wonderland venues. “The film festival has given us an opportunity to meet children from other countries. Viewing these films we understand the social issues prevailing there,” says Krishna, a student of ZPSS Areguda, in Adilabad district. Most of them also enrolled in workshops on subjects they were hearing for the first time.
“I went to a film making workshop. I worked on the story board and wielded the camera,”says P. Mohd.Younus, a class eight student of Government High School in Anantapur.
In contrast to the high footfalls from the districts, the presence of city students was abysmally low at the festival, limited to a few screenings in the city. Parents blame it on the film schedule combined with academic pressure. “Why can't they screen these films in selected city schools,” laments a parent. “Our children are busy with second term exams or extra classes. Schools should have sent at least the 4-7 classes to see the films.
Student reviews in the form of Tweets from these screenings could have been useful for filmmakers,” she says.
