Director B. Sivakumar’s conviction to make films for children has grown over the years. His Tamil short film Stamp Album has won laurels at the just-concluded 20th International Children’s Film Festival India.
The film is based on Sundara Ramaswamy’s short story about around two children, Rajappa and Nagaraj, their passion for stamps and their struggle to collect them.
Set in a village in Tirunelveli district, the 27-minute-film transports the viewers to the world of the children and attempts to depict their emotional conflict and how they try to overcome it.
“I chose stamp collection as the backdrop to spread more awareness about the vanishing hobby among children. Philately is a relatively untouched subject in films. I took the help of philatelists to show visuals of stamps on the Indian freedom struggle,” said Mr. Sivakumar, whose short film won in two categories — Best Short Film and Best Jury award.
Organised by the Children’s Film Society India, the festival had nearly 1,400 entries from 109 countries. Of the 10 films shortlisted for the finale, ‘Stamp Album’ won awards in the Asian panorama section. Mr. Sivakumar, who started out on the silver screen, was influenced by editor B. Lenin to venture into short film making in 2002. Some of his earlier short films too had children-centric story lines.
“I was overjoyed when I learnt that children were part of the jury. There are two varieties of children’s film — one about children and the other for children. I want to make more such films as there are very few for children’s entertainment now,” he said.
To be available online
The short film is being nominated for other film festivals too. “The film will be available online shortly,” he assured.
