Minister for School Education D.Manikya Varaprasad on Wednesday promised to consider the inclusion of film-making as a subject into the school curriculum.
Addressing a press conference after watching the Iranian film ‘Half Mine, Half Yours,’ being shown as part of the International Children’s Film Festival here, he promised to initiate action towards this end.
“The debate about the inclusion of films into the curriculum has started during this film festival. We will take feedback from those involved in the debate and act accordingly,” he said.
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Special screening was organised for over 400 children from juvenile homes in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts as part of the film festival. Sharing the details at the press conference, the Commissioner of Information and Public Relations C.Parthasarathi said efforts were made for the first time to include underprivileged children in the festival.
“Special screening is being held for visually challenged children and children from residential bridge schools. Cultural programmes are being held at Lalitha Kala Thoranam every evening, followed by open screening of the films,” he said.
Telugu producer-director Tammareddy Bharadwaja in another press conference debunked the notion that government subsidies will foster good children’s films. The need of the hour is an attitudinal change coupled with passion towards children’s cinema, he said, while criticising the “proposal” culture in Telugu filmdom whereby financing of a project hinged on the director-actor combination and not on the storyline.
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Meanwhile, the festival had enthusiastic participation from children on Wednesday. However, crowds thinned down on Wednesday compared to the previous two days, presumably owing to the strike threat by APSRTC employees.
A special team of 11 tribal children arrived from Koraput district of Orissa, on behalf of the NGO ‘India-South Orissa Voluntary Action’(India-SOVA). Eager to perform the Dhimsa dance at the cultural evening, the children watched films during the morning session.
“Ours is the most backward district in Orissa. All these children are school dropouts and never travelled even till Berhampur. This will be a dream come true for them,” beamed Sachinda Mohanty from India-SOVA. Similar was the exuberance of kids from city-based ‘People’s Initiative Network’ who never stepped into the portals of Prasad’s IMAX though living in the city.
“We watched ten movies so far. I loved the movie Ningi, Nela Naade,” chirped Rohini, a girl from PIN.
‘Half Mine, Half Yours’ (Iran), ‘Question Mark’ (Iran), and ‘Touching Wild Horse’ (English) were some of the movies screened on Wednesday.