IDSFFK 2015 –Screenings started

The eighth International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala 2015 began with the screening of films under four categories; International, Competitions: Short documentaries, Long Documentaries and Short Fiction. Three short films were screened under International category. ‘Lost and Found’ by Alvaro Oliva tells the story about a man’s attempt to impress his girlfriend by browsing details from her mobile phone. ‘I’m with Bea’ by Core Ruiz is about a girl named Bea and her day with her friend. ‘Finding Gaston’ by Patricia Perez tells about the Gaston Acurio who brought the Peruvian cuisine into the world of global popularity.

At 11:30am the next section of screening of short films under the categories “Competitions: Long Documentaries” and “Short Documentaries” began.  The first film in Short Documentary category was ‘Zebra Lines’ by Rajesh James. It reels through the story of traffic warden Padmini, a dalit woman, who was attacked by a man while she was on her duty. The second film, ‘Scattered Clouds’ by Debjani Banerjee narrates the director’s personal experience of loneliness in a crowded city - Kolkata. The third film under the category, ‘Every Time You Tell a Story’, by Amit Mahanti and Ruchika Negi tells about the story of Tsungkotepsu, a shawl painting tradition of Nagaland and it’s a story where words are a song, a stone, a symbol.

The Short Fiction Documentaries in the competition category commenced at 3:00 pm by screening a Bengali short film ‘Ebby Tune’ directed by Som Chakraborty. The film is about a girl who was born in a Bangladeshi Village and was compelled to leave along with her father. The second film ‘Watermelon’ was directed by Pranav Harihar Sharma. The film plots around the central character, Joe who silently observes his neighbor – Meena, a victim of domestic violence.  Other films which we screened from the category includes ‘Paandhrya’, ‘Apabhransha’ and ‘Because of her’.

‘A Million Miles Away’ directed by Jennifer Reeder, in the ‘International Films’ section, is an American relationship drama documentary depicting the life of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  ‘Spoon’ is a film directed by Jalal Veisi, a documentary maker hailing from Iran, and the film deals with the life of children who are punished by their parents.

“Jalanan”, an Indonesian film directed by Daniel Ziv is a film that in the ‘Music Realities’ category. ‘Music Realities’ is a parallel section featuring documentaries on music – where music is the subject of thorough analysis.

Two films from the Jury film category was screened and both of them, ‘Flight Over Lithuania’ and  ‘Antigravitation’, had been directed by Audrius Stonys.

The Iranian film ‘The Dolls do not know’, in the ‘International section’ portrays the life of two girls who fall victim to child marriage. Depicting their lives in two episodes, the film penetrates the most intimate moments of their lives and urges the audience to share their bitter experiences.

‘Byline by BRP’, a Malayalam short documentary coming under the ‘Focus: Short Documentary’ section narrates the life journey of BRP Bhaskar, a veteran journalist and human right activist. The film ‘In Danger Zone’ which also comes under the same category, deals with the topic of the increasing percentage of toxic waste which are getting dumped into the sea and it’s alarming consequences.

Four films were screened from the ‘Focus: Short Fiction’ category, which includes the Marathi film ‘Songs We Wrote’ by Sandhya Sundaram, ‘The Poem Thief’ by Asmit Pathare, ‘Paper Flower’ by Suvadro Chowdhury’ and  the Malayalam film ‘Adrishyam’ directed by Anand Ekarshi.

Four Korean short films has also been screened under the ‘Country Focus: Korea’ category. Amit Dutta’s documentary film ‘Ramkhind, a Warli Village’ has been screened and he is the ‘Filmmaker in Focus’ of this IDSFFK.