The Seventh Madurai International Children's Film Festival 2010 started off with a seminar for teachers, titled “Animation as a tool for Teaching and Learning” at Setupathi Higher Secondary School here on Sunday.
The official inauguration will be held at the school on Monday where B. Devendira Boopathi, president, Yadharthaa (film appreciation club), is scheduled to deliver the presidential address. Yadharthaa has been organizing the film festival for the last six years to mark the birth anniversary of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and also the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
This year, theme is ‘Celebration of year of Bio-Diversity-2010' and nine films highlighting this aspect would be screened. Austrian film, The Turtle Incredible Journey, a documentary feature film narrated by Miranda Richardson and directed by Nick Stringer along with Ben Stassen's Sammy's Adventures 2010 would be screened during the inaugural session.
A workshop for students on ‘Video Film Making' will be held on Friday at the School. The highlights of festival include a retrospective on French director, Sylvain Chomet, Russian Animation films and special focus on German nation and a tribute to Kihachiro Kawamoto.
The year of bio-diversity theme related films to be screened are Le Papillion(French), Malli (India), The Seven of Daran (Dutch), Walkabout( Australia), Help I am a Fish(Danish), Happy Feet( English) and Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingo(British-French- American).
The film festival which runs from Sunday till Friday has public screenings at Victoria Edward Hall and Sethupathi Higher Secondary School at 6.p.m. The films to be screened include, French film, The Triplets of Belleville, Dutch film, Kikkerdril, German film, Story of Little Mook, a Belgian-Luxembourg-French film, A Town Called Panic, Canadian film, Babar: King of the Elephants and Chinese film, Riding Alone for Thousand Miles.
The film festival is organized by Yadarthaa, Tamil Nadu Children Film Society, Victoria Edward Hall and Sethupathi Higher Secondary School and supported by Federation of Film Societies of India. Admission is free for all.
