Child issues hog limelight at Auroville film fest

A new feature which the audience appreciated was the Skype video conference with director Rodrigo Reyes. -Photo: S.S. Kumar

Issues regarding children took the centre stage at the fourth Auroville Film Festival which drew to a close on Wednesday.

Questions were raised on “what children will we leave for this planet,” the consciousness and sense of responsibility of today’s children, a release from the organisers said.

Some of the films that were screened included

The Revolutionary Optimists by Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen, which showed children of Kolkata struggling together to save lives, and

Girl Rising by Richard E. Robbins which gives an overview of girls in their fight to attend school in countries that are most disadvantageous for them.

Other films screened included

Behind the Mirror by Christianne Mordelet and Stanzin Dorjal on a group of Ladakh children who go on holiday to France and comment on the way of life there which appears selfish to them, and Thoothuvarkal by Sreenivasan, director of Yatra Arts Foundation in Auroville, which shows children of a village take up the issue of toilets in their neighbourhood.

The festival also showcased 17 films made by children of Auroville and the nearby Kottakarai village under the Auroville Film Festival Education with outreach programme, which is sponsored by Sri Aurobindo International Institute for Educational Research (SAIIER) and Foundation for World Education (FWE).

The programme is unique in that it gives children “an opportunity to express their joys, their dreams through a language of images that is known to them, as well as their concerns,” a release said.

The themes of the films included the question, ‘Who am I.’ The films reflected the joy of learning the discipline required. Animation films and films laced with humour were also screened.

Through the variety of films on childhood and its facets, the festival concluded on an optimistic note. A new feature which the audience appreciated was the Skype video conference with director Rodrigo Reyes.

Questions were raised on “what children will we leave for this planet,” and the sense of responsibility of children