Last minute changes in the schedule, and a heavy downpour dampened the start of the first Karnataka International Children’s Film Festival here on Friday.
Being held simultaneously in all districts of the state, nearly 350 students from two schools – BEM School, Car Street and St. Aloysius English Medium School – made their way to New Chitra Talkies, which was selected as the venue after Suchitra and Prabath theatres backed out from the film festival just days before the scheduled start.
The heavy downpour around 8 a.m. added to the woes as numerous students from BEM School were stranded outside their school. Eventually, the 500-seat capacity theatre was pockmarked with empty seats as numerous students arrived late to find the gates of the theatre closed.
With more than 600 students arriving from St. Philomena school and Little Flower Higher School, Aruna theatre in Puttur saw a more than capacity house enjoying the film.
The first day saw the screening of “Yellow Colt”, a Mongolian movie which through stark images of barren, windswept landscape of the plains, traces the journey of an orphaned boy who forms a friendship with a runaway horse.
Inaugurating the film festival, Additional Deputy Commissioner B. Sadashiva Prabhu said films had the capability to influence society and bring about social change. “The International film festival is a unique opportunity for the children here to observe high-quality films from across the world as well as learn from the values depicted in these films,” he said.
The film festival is jointly being organised by the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, Department of Information and Public Relation, Department of Women and Child Development, and the Department of Public Instruction.
