All set for documentary and short film festival

The third edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, to be held here from June 11 to 15, will pay homage to C. Saratchandran, documentary film-maker and activist, who passed away in March.

The festival, organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, will have a retrospective of five of his films: Chaliyar: The Final Struggle , Kanavu , 1,000 Days and a Dream , Only an Axe Away and Yours Truly John .

Cultural Affairs Minister M.A. Baby will inaugurate the festival at Kairali Theatre. Anand Patwardhan, documentary film-maker, will be chief guest.

More than 150 films, comprising documentaries, short-fiction movies, music videos, animations and campus films, will be screened. A highlight this year is a package of films on differently abled persons. The package has Megan Mylan's Oscar-winning documentary

Smile Pinki , besides other award-winning films from across the globe.

Thirty-eight films have been selected for the competition section — four in the long documentaries category, 10 in the short documentaries category and 24 short films — besides animation and music-video categories. “This year, we have included a section for campus films from Kerala. This is a competition section and we had received many entries, out of which eight have been shortlisted for screening,” K.R. Mohanan. Chairman of the academy, said.

Jury

Deepa Dhanraj, documentary film-maker, is the chairperson of the documentary jury. The members are Alphonse Roy, photographer, Sameera Jain, film-maker, and P. Balan, film-maker.

Kundan Shah, writer and director, will chair the short-fiction jury. The members are Prakash Moorthy, film-maker, and Meenakshy Shedde, film critic and consultant.

The international section will showcase 10 films, with a package on Korean documentaries. The non-competition short-fiction section includes The Kabir Series, directed by Shabnam Virmani, exploring the ideology and inspiration of Kabir's music and poetry. Prahladji, musician, will give a concert of Kabir bhajans. Film division films, student films from the National Institute of Design and a section on ethnographic film-making are the other packages.

R.P. Amudan, documentary film-maker, will deliver a lecture on “Politics in documentary distribution” at Sree Theatre on Sunday. Open forums will held on all festival days at the Kairali Theatre complex. Apart from the awards for various categories of films, an award for the best documentary cameraman, instituted by Navroze Contractor, cinematographer, will be given away this year.

Screenings begin at 9.30 a.m. on the inaugural day. Delegate passes will be issued till then at Kalabhavan Theatre. Delegates can also register themselves online on the web site www.iffk.in