The late poet Ayyappa Panicker sitting amidst a bunch of wide-eyed youngsters on a flight of stairs with his unassuming smile is one of the many attractions of the photo exhibition being organised at Saritha theatre to mark the silver jubilee of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) that got under way here on Wednesday.
The exhibition arranged thematically on various facets of the fest take visitors through the evolution of IFFK over the years and offers a fascinating trivia to those drawn into the history of an event that has become a marquee annual event of the State.
For young film buffs who started making the annual pilgrimage to the fest only recently, it may be revelatory that the fest switched between the three major cities of the State since its inception in 1994 before Thiruvananthapuram became its permanent venue from 2001. And that it was returning to Kochi for the first time since 1999 when the now much sought-after international competition segment was added with films drawn from Africa, Asia, and Latin America alone. It was also the year when the awards Suvarna Chakoram for the best film and Rajatha Chakoram for the best debut director were also added to the festival’s attractions.
“We have consciously foregone the conventional system of exhibiting photos with captions beneath but have arranged them in segments in such a way that it tells a story on its own.
“The exhibition could be a treasure trove of information for inquisitive young movie enthusiasts,” said Sajitha Madathil, actor and Kerala State Chalachitra Academy member who along with Bina Paul, the artistic director of IFFK, developed the concept of the exhibition.
Different segments
So, there are segments on the evolution of the logo of the fest, the changes over the years, the organisers who slogged it out behind the screen to make the fests a success, the stalwarts associated with it, the history of the prestigious Aravindan memorial lecture, the changing contours of the festival books, delegates, open forum and much more with small accompanying blurbs.
